Unusual Praying for Other Christians (Part 3)

Transcription

1 Dartmouth Bible Notes Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church Series: An Exposition of Colossians, lesson 5 Scripture: Colossians 1: Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. Date: October 12th, 2014 Unusual Praying for Other Christians (Part 3) Colossians 1:9 12 (NA 27 ) Διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἀφʼ ἧς ἡμέρας ἠκούσαμεν, οὐ παυόμεθα ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν προσευχόμενοι καὶ αἰτούμενοι, ἵνα πληρωθῆτε τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ συνέσει πνευματικῇ, 10 περιπατῆσαι ἀξίως τοῦ κυρίου εἰς πᾶσαν ἀρεσκείαν, ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ ἀγαθῷ καρποφοροῦντες καὶ αὐξανόμενοι τῇ ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ, 11 ἐν πάσῃ δυνάμει δυναμούμενοι κατὰ τὸ κράτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ εἰς πᾶσαν ὑπομονὴν καὶ μακροθυμίαν. Μετὰ χαρᾶς 12 εὐχαριστοῦντες τῷ πατρὶ τῷ ἱκανώσαντι ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν μερίδα τοῦ κλήρου τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ φωτί Colossians 1:9 12 (NASB) For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Ephesians 1:15 22 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church. Introduction So here s one of the big things we want in the Christian life: to stay in the game! We want to NOT get defeated, taken out of the game, disillusioned, banged up so bad that we stop being in the game. Some of us seem to be invulnerable we can t imagine abandoning the faith. We view ourselves as strong in the faith and our defenses impenetrable to anything that life, the devil or anyone or anything else might throw at us. Others of us have taken some hits. Hard things have come along. We ve had some setbacks. We ve been through some trials. We ve been injured or weakened or distracted by something that

2 happened, that we didn t ask for, which really hurt us or confused us. But we hung in there. We didn t decide that the trial would cost us our faith. We didn t turn our backs on God because even with the trial God didn t turn His back on us. So we get back into this prayer Paul talks about for the Colossian Christians. He wants them to hang in there. He wants them to not give up and to not throw in the towel. We use terms like hang in there and throwing in the towel but Paul didn t talk that way. He said that he was praying for the Colossians to become empowered with power for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience I love, (and I think we all love) stories about Christians persevering through trial. I loved Corrie ten Boom s ( ) story. I loved Richard Wurmbrand s ( ) story and that of Louie Zamperini, who just passed away on July 2 nd of this year at 97½. There is the story of the Romanian pastor Josef Tson who was visited by Jack and Carol Arnold in 1978 before the Iron Curtain fell. Carol remembers (this week): Carol Arnold I remember [Josef Tson] very well. We had hoped to meet him in Bucharest where he was reported to be hiding. Our car broke down and we had to stay in Cluj. But lo and behold he was in Cluj at home. He invited us there for a meal and we met him and his wife. He told about the 24/7 guards hiding outside and I remember him saying "I've gotten so used to be spied on that if they weren't there I'd feel lonely!" There were guards that had to attend church services where he preached and many of them came to Christ. He answered the same thing as others when we asked him the question of whether our presence there would endanger him: "the fellowship is worth it." (He and Jack typically discussed theology.) I am heartened by our own Derek Thomas and Phil Ashworth and Diane Morency who have all suffered serious physical ailments and who all hang in there in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Others of you have endured all kinds of other disappointments and setbacks and unmet hopes in family matter, business dealings, church life and professional dreams. And yet you have not thrown in the towel with your faith. Of all these among you, I am most strengthened by those who have said to me, of COURSE I would not abandon my faith or His people! I could not do so. How could I turn my back on my Savior, who died for me? So today we read Paul praying for the Colossian Christians that by being empowered by God s mighty power, that would result in their attaining of all steadfastness and patience Here is another thing to pray for, to add to your list of unusual prayer requests for your brothers and sisters in Christ. In today s bulletin there is a card with these things from Colossians 1 listed use this to pray for people, all kinds of Christian people around you. THEY NEED TO FIND STEADFASTNESS IN THEIR FAITH. 2

3 1. Those who go away to college need to remain steadfast in their faith in the Lord Jesus. 2. Those who are in sister churches if things become hard or money goes short or they lose their pastor or some other special person (Lighthouse lost their worship leader, Darryl Borrows, last year despite the slowness of Darryl s decline it was a deep loss; Pacific Union lost Erika Hall this year, with no warning, abruptly it was and is devastating; Dartmouth Baptist Church, Emmaus Christian Church and soon Living Hope Christian Church, and on the Catholic side St. John the Baptist in New Bedford, have all gone out of business in the last 24 months.) Those people had a tough time when these things have happened. They need STRENGTH to continue on in their faith in the Lord Jesus. 3. We know people that have struggled to find a good and meaningful job. They prayed, they interviewed, they waited for a call or a letter or an offering them a good job. Didn t come. They wondered if God forgot about them? They need STRENGTH. 4. There s those who have jobs but whose work environment is oppressive and they feel trapped. Anybody working in New Bedford public schools this past couple of years, especially in the middle and high schools, has had a tough time. They need strength of faith that God will sustain them. They need STRENGTH. 5. There s those who are ill, and they are in pain or in despondency. They feel like giving up. They need STRENGTH. 6. There s those in hard marriages or with children with hard illnesses or disabilities, and things don t ever seem to get better. They wrestle with their faith. They need STRENGTH. 7. There s those who live in situations with great temptations. They feel exposed frequently. They feel like they may succumb at any moment and they feel alone and unsupported because to admit temptation is difficult in our church culture. We can admit defeat, and speak theoretically about temptation but we rarely feel free to admit ongoing, current temptation. They need STRENGTH! 8. And there s those in much harder circumstances that ALL of these things, with not enough to eat, no transportation, a poor health care system and no prospects of anything getting better they, more than all of the above, need steadfastness. They need STRENGTH. 9. I don t mean to bum you out with negative and depressing scenarios but the simple fact is that when things are going great and easy and there are no trials happening it s easy to be strong and joyful. It s when there s some serious challenges that believers in Jesus Christ need somehow, to find strength new strength and not just some worn-out clichés about how we should always have faith and keep on keeping on. 10. And I m not sure this is always about just surviving. Sometimes we need steadfastness and patience for staying the course. Sometimes we re challenged with a big project and we need to just stay true to what we re 3

4 planning and see the thing through. It requires steadfastness and patience to see the thing through to the end. In 1990 we were approached about merging with another church. We decided to go with it and we did. It took about four years but by then it was done. Then in 1996 we were enabled to begin a building program. That took about four more years and by God s grace, and Him keeping us on course, we saw it done. Sometimes to be steadfast means to stick by your guns for what you think God wants you to do. It isn t always just about surviving sometimes it s about attempting something a little bigger than routine maintenance, and when you re convinced God is in a thing, you trust Him for patience and steadfastness. Steadfastness (hupomeno, ὑπομένω) means being immovable, solidly grounded in belief, well-rooted. It is the the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty 1. Also used in James 5:10f. (consider the prophets!); 2 Cor. 6:4, 6 (consider the apostles themselves); 2 Tim. 3:10 (Timothy watched Paul himself model steadfastness and patience). Hupomēno is remaining under difficulties without succumbing, while the other quality is patience, μακροθυμια [makrothumia] is the long endurance that does not retaliate [or seek payback] (Trench). 2 This is something out of the ordinary to pray for, to build as a habit into your prayer life for each other. If no one else, at least pray for this often and for the rest of your life for your family members, for your closest friends and for the leaders of your church. I don t know why, but the first scenario in our culture I can see us needing much makrothumia (patience) is in our marriages. If you have had a wonderful, loving, happy and growing marriage I am glad for you. But others among us have had a trying, difficult experience with being married. Those of us in this category have NEEDED patience, or we ran out of it OR it was run-out-of at us and we became divorced. Most marriages aren t all one way or another. Most have seasons where patience is needed. And we need to pray for each other in this regard. Our Men s Ministries, at least insofar as they minister to married men ought to pray for makrothumia every week for each other. Our Women s Ministries, at least insofar as they minister to married women ought to ask God frequently for makrothumia for those poor wives who have to do and put up with so much! See again that Paul said he prayed for the Colossian believers to attain ALL steadfastness and patience. He was not satisfied for just a little, or just for a while. He wanted them to somehow achieve PERMANENT steadfastness and patience. This is humanly impossible. That s why he prayed for it. He prayed that they would be strengthened according to His glorious might. God never runs out of strength or commitment. His energy and focus never diminish. So Paul tries in prayer to tap into God s limitless reserves, into His matchless and majestic grace for these believers most of which HAD to be new believers to 1 William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Col 1:11. 4

5 find steadfastness and patience. They have no New Testaments remember, no Christian radio, no cool, get-pumped-up conferences. They have Epaphras and the Old Testament. That s about it. So Paul and Timothy prayed frequently, as often as they could remember to for them to find strength by which to attain steadfastness and patience. What would it take to knock you off your horse of faith? What trial or challenge or temptation would be so fine-tuned to YOU and your weaknesses that you would say, that s it. No more following Jesus Christ for me? Or, in less dramatic terms, how much adversity does it take to discourage you? We can expect adversity from time to time especially since we have an enemy out there who is like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 st Peter 5:8). Here s a thing to work into your intercessory prayer life, even as we are faithful to pray for each other s healings, travel mercies, job interviews and incidents of depression and anxiety. We pray for steadfastness and patience. We ask God to grant strength out of His infinite might, to specific brothers and sisters and congregations of brothers and sisters, as we learn about their needs. We do this faithfully, frequently and with expectation that God WILL answer this kind of prayer. Let s close with a worship song sung to the Appalachia tune: When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. 5