Sermon Tone Analysis

Colossians 1:3-14; 4:2-6,12

 

! Introduction

            Have you ever seen a nest of newly hatched birds?

A picture that is associated with this is the little birds with their mouths wide open waiting for food from the parent bird.

What does such a picture suggest to us?

Is a picture that makes us think negatively or positively?

Now if I sat at the dinner table like that, it would be considered crude, demanding and inappropriate but we don’t think that we of a baby bird.

Is it not rather necessary, the right thing and a beautiful picture of dependence?

That little bird needs to be fed by its mother.

It is completely dependent on the mother.

If it does not open its mouth and receive food from the mother bird, it will die.

Why is it then that we are reluctant to open our lives to God in the same way as a baby bird?

Somehow we think that it is wrong to be like a baby bird before God.

We don’t think it is right to pray openly and boldly to God recognizing that unless he blesses us, supplies our needs, saves us and gives us life, we will die.

Today we will have the last message of a series that we have been looking at recently on Colossians.

In the midst of a wonderful book that talks about our salvation and what it means to walk in the Lord, there are numerous verses which talk about prayer.

Colossians 1:3-14; 4:2-6 and 12 all have prayer as their theme.

In these verses there are some wonderful lessons about prayer.

Let us read a few of these verses and see what we can learn about prayer.

Read 1:3,4, 9-12; 4:2-4; 4:12.

!

I. Let Us Pray For Each Other

!! A. The Work Of Prayer

            Colossians calls us to the work of prayer.

Colossians 4:2 is a command - “devote yourselves to prayer.”

I read about a man who met an intelligent Sikh from the Punjab.

He “asked him about his religion and the Sikh replied, ’I believe in one God, and I repeat my prayers every morning and evening.

These prayers occupy six pages of print, but I can get through them in little more than ten minutes.

’”

Being devoted to prayer is more than just a habit.

If we see prayer as a duty which must be carried out, it is easy even for us as Christians to “do” our prayers, seeing how fast we can rattle them off.

The wonderful thing about prayer is that it is a relationship with the creator of the world in which we have been invited to have a conversation with him.

When we understand that this is what prayer is and when we realize the power that is available in prayer, it helps us to avoid the formality and habit of prayer and invites us to be devoted to it as the text says.

In spite of the fact that we have the privilege of talking to the creator of the universe and have the assurance that He is listening, that does not mean that prayer is always easy.

In Colossians 4:12, we read about the prayer of Epaphras.

It is interesting to read that he was “always wrestling in prayer” for the Colossians.

When Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, we read in Luke 22:44, “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

This was certainly no picnic, it was prayer that was work.

In a similar way, we read about the early church in Acts 12:5 that “Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”

In all these passages, we notice that prayer is work.

It is work because we are easily distracted.

It is work because Satan doesn’t want us praying.

It is work because of all that needs to be done in prayer.

Are we willing to devote ourselves to the work of prayer?

In Colossians 1:9 Paul says, “we have not stopped praying for you…” In spite of the fact that prayer is work, Paul engages in it diligently and regularly because it is so important.

One writer said, “Paul regards prayer as more than just a pious ancillary activity to preaching and teaching: it is part of the work itself.”

!! B. Praying For Each Other

            Colossians is a wonderful example of people engaged in this essential work of prayer.

It is interesting to note that there is a reciprocity in prayer.

It is not just the work of leaders, missionaries and pastors, but must be the work of everyone in the church.

We have already noted that Paul prayed for the Colossians.

In the opening of his letter to them, he encourages them by saying that he is praying for them.

In fact, he mentions it twice - in verse 3 and verse 9.

            We have also already noticed that Epaphras prays for them.

Epaphras was the church planter in Colossae.

Now he is ministering elsewhere, but he has not forgotten the Colossians.

He remembers them and recognizes that when he is away from them, the best thing that he can do for them is to pray for them.

So we read in 4:12 that he does just that.

But, as I have said, there is a reciprocity in prayer.

Not only do Paul and Epaphras pray for the Colossians, Paul also asks that the Colossians should pray for him.

He asks that they will pray for his ministry in 4:3,4.

Are you engaged in the essential work of prayer?

Do you pray for other believers?

Are you praying for the leaders of the church?

Are you praying for missionaries.

Because there is no doubt that God’s word tells us that this is important work, I want to encourage you to devote yourselves to prayer.

!

II.

How Should We Pray For Each Other?

Because this is not written as a teaching on prayer, rather, it is prayer in life, it gives us a great example of prayer and we can learn from prayer as it is being done.

The other thing we learn about prayer here is the content of prayer.

As we look at the specific things Paul and Epaphras prayed for the Colossians and what Paul asked them to for, we get some great lessons on how we should pray for each other.

!! A. Thanksgiving For What God Has Done

            The first thing we notice about the content of their prayer is that it is God directed.

He prays with thanksgiving for what God has done  in 1:3.

I think that there is a lesson here about how we ought to pray.

We find it easy to thank God for other people.

We thank other people and praise them for what they have done.

These are good things to do, but they must never take our focus away from where it ought to be.

Paul is aware of the faith, love and hope of the Colossian people and thanks God for it.

When he says, “we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints…” he is not praising them for their faith and love.

Rather, you will notice that he says “because we have heard…” Their faith and love is an occasion to give thanks to God because God is the one who has put faith into them and God is the one who has changed their hearts so that they are able to love.

This summer I met a friend whom I hadn’t seen for a while.

I remember meeting him about 5 years ago when he brought his daughter to girls club.

Over the years, we talked to them and they slowly began to be involved in church and in a home study group.

When I met him this summer, one of the first things he told me was that he had been baptized.

What a change had taken place in his life.

I felt like commending him for his faith, but I realized that God had done an amazing thing in him and his family and I had to praise God for what had happened.

Do we pray like that for other people?

What a tremendous prayer that is.

It is a prayer that recognizes that God is at work.

This prayer of Paul’s encourages me to look at the lives of other people and praise God for what He has done for them.

I am sometimes concerned about the selfish and earth directed nature of our prayers.

When we pray like this, the focus of prayer remains solidly where it should and that is on God.

!! B. Prayer For Christian Living

            The second lesson about how we can pray for each other arises out of the prayers of both Paul and Epaphras.

As we read these prayers, we notice the underlying concern of both of these spiritual leaders.

It is a concern that is different than the ultimate concern we often have as we pray for others.

What is it we are concerned about regarding the people we pray for?

In the Star Trek shows, a common line was “live long and prosper.”

That line represents what we are often concerned about most for each other.

It is the desire of all parents that their children will “live long and prosper.”

It is the desire of all of us for each other in the church that we will “live long and prosper.”