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Colossians - New LifeSeries: Colossians - New Life · Talk No. 2

Lived for God

Sunday, 10 February 2008

Donny Kwan

Colossians 1:9-14 ESV or NIV

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Introduction

Living the high life…

Have you noticed in our world today that motivational speakers are popular? Have you heard of Tony Robbins? If you happen to be up in the middle of the night watching TV you will see his ads. He’s on infomercials and more. This is what Tony Robbins says is the key to an extraordinary life

“What’s your definition of an extraordinary life? There are as many answers as there are people. For some it may be to make $5 million. For some it may be to make $5 million and give it away to charity. For others, it may be to be a loving husband or a great mother.
Whatever your definition is, you deserve to be fulfilled in whatever direction you take your life. The challenge is that in today’s complex world, it’s so easy to get caught in the process of achieving so much, that it’s sometimes easy to lose focus of what you really want.
We believe to attain an extraordinary life—a life on your terms, one filled with unbridled joy, ultimate success and lasting fulfilment—it’s imperative you make progress in the areas of life that are most important to you.”

Tony Robbins, like many motivational speakers says the key to an extraordinary life is YOU. It is all up to you. You alone are in control of the life you want. Our passage tonight is about a new and extraordinary life. But not a life of self fulfilment, not a life on our own terms or in own strength, but a life given by God, a life to be lived for God.

The first thing to notice about our new life in God is our God is…

1. The God who fills us… (9)

9 ¶ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 

  • Paul and Timothy repeat their assurance to the Colossians of their constant prayers for them.
  • Paul and Timothy are interceding for the Colossians, meaning they are praying on their behalf.
  • Why do Paul and Timothy pray? Look in verse 4, because they have heard from Epaphrus about their faith in Christ and their love in the Spirit for the saints. This is why they constantly pray for the Colossians.
  • They wanted to see the Colossians grow in spiritual Christian maturity.
  • What have Paul and Timothy been constantly praying for? They have been praying and asking God that they will be filled with the knowledge of his will.
  • They wanted the Colossians to understand what God’s will is. To know what is spiritually important in God’s sight.
  • Why is being filled with knowledge important? A right understanding and knowledge leads to right behaviour. Through history God’s people have been destroyed by a lack of knowledge of God’s will. In Judges we see God’s people constantly do what is right in their own eyes and fail miserably every time. In our own lives we need to avoid doing what is right in our own eyes and be filled with God’s knowledge. It is this knowledge that will lead to right and godly behaviour. 
  • Illustration: It’s like going on a first aid course. When you attend a course we are filled with all sorts of information about how to care and keep someone alive when they are hurt, injured or unconscious. The reason we are filled with all that information is so we will have an understanding to know what to do when we come across a situation. Likewise we need to be filled with the knowledge of God so that we will act in a godly and right way in circumstances of life.
  • How will the Colossians be filled with the knowledge of God’s will? Through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
  • Spiritual wisdom and understanding is in contrast to the wisdom and understanding of the world around us. The world’s wisdom is self determined. Determined by man alone. It comes from man’s life experiences and reasoning. Whilst we can gain some insights from it we must be careful as, the world’s wisdom can also be contradictory and flawed. This is because it is made up of different individual’s experience of right and wrong and all mankind is affected by sin.
  • Spiritual wisdom and understanding is different. It is God given. Proverbs 1:7 says true spiritual wisdom and understanding begins with the fear of the Lord. Only God can fill us with His understanding of how he wants us to live our lives for him. It is spiritual because it is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that we can come to a full knowledge of God’s will.
  • The result of living a life that is filled with this knowledge of his will is that we live a new and extraordinary life. As God fills us with a right understanding and knowledge it leads to right behaviour.

Illustration:

One fine day four people were flying in a small, four-passenger plane: a pilot, a minister, and two teenagers, one of whom had just won an award for being the “Smartest Teenager in the World.”

As they were flying along, the pilot turned to the three passengers and said, “I’ve got some bad news, and I’ve got some worse news. The bad news is, we’re out of gas. The plane’s going down and we’re gonna crash. The worse news is, I only have three parachutes on board.

This meant, of course, that someone would have to go down with the plane.

The pilot continued. “I have a wife and three children at home. I have many responsibilities. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to take one of the parachutes.” With that, he grabbed one of the chutes and jumped out of the plane.

The Smartest Teenager in the World was next to speak. “I’m the Smartest Teenager in the World,” he said. “I might be the one who comes up with a cure for cancer or AIDS or solves the world’s economic problems. Everyone is counting on me!” The Smartest Teenager in the World grabbed the second parachute and jumped.

The minister then spoke up and said, “Son, you take the last parachute. I’ve made my peace with God, and I’m willing to go down with the plane. Now take the last parachute and go.”

“Relax, reverend,” said the other teenager. “The Smartest Teenager in the World just jumped out of the plane with my backpack.”

A lot of people think they’re pretty smart. In reality, they’re a lot like The Smartest Teenager in the World. They jump out into the world without parachutes. They think they know it all and have all they need to live happy and fulfilled lives, to keep them from crashing and burning. What they actually have is a backpack. A lack of true knowledge of God’s can result in disaster just like the Smartest Teenager who thought he knew it all.

The second thing to notice about our new life in God is our God is…

2. The God who calls us … (10-12)

10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,  11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully  12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 

  • Why does Paul pray in verse 9 for the filling of the knowledge of his will? He prays this in order that the Colossians may live a life worthy of the Lord and to please him in every way.
  • When we are filled with the knowledge of God’s will we are to put that knowledge into practice by living lives that are worthy of God. We are not to live lives to please others rather in verse 10 it says, we are to live lives that please the Lord, lives that please him in every way.
  • We are to stop delighting in ourselves and start delighting in Jesus.
  • The life that God gives us is to delight in him. To please him in every way.
  • It’s similar to an elite sprint athlete competing in front of 1000s of people. When the athlete walks into the stadium there are many competing distractions around them. There’s the other athletes in the race to be intimidated by, there’s the team mates competing in field events around the oval, there’s the crowd cheering them or maybe cheering other competitors on. To run their personal best they must tune out the distractions & focus on their task.
  • We too are to tune out the distractions. We are to live our lives as if God was the only person sitting in the grandstand of Telstra Stadium watching. We are to live our lives for an audience of one. We are not to live lives to please other people, our parents, our friends, our husband or wife, our minister or ourselves. This does not mean we don’t have responsibilities towards these people but we are not to live solely to please them.
  • Are we living to please God alone? We are to live a life that is worthy of him.
  • What does pleasing God involve? In verse 10 and 11 it tells us.
  • Pleasing God involves bearing fruit in very good work
  • Paul wants the fruit of good works to appear in greater abundance in their lives. It means being fruitful in what they do and not just doing what ever please themselves.
  • This also means that as they have understood the gospel it should produce a greater desire to be godly in their actions.
  • B) Pleasing God involves growing in the knowledge of God.
  • It means that they will receive more knowledge about God as they live obediently to God
  • Things like wanting to spend more time reading God’s word, meditating on it, and memorizing it.
  • C) Pleasing God involves being strengthened with all (his) power
  • This explains how living a life worthy of the Lord is to be achieved.
  • This means it is only by God’s power that the Colossians can walk in his ways. It is when we turn to God and depend on his strength that enables us to walk him his ways
  • D) Finally pleasing God involves thanking God.
  • This means we should have an attitude of gratitude. As we live life we thank God for what he is doing in our lives even in the midst of long pain and suffering. For God has given us what we need to stand when we place our hope in him.
  • Paul and Timothy reminded them of the reality. God has called them to be share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For God is the one who has already saved them and already brought them into the Kingdom of light. They have new life in God because he has called them.

Illustration:

On September 2, 1945 the documents of surrender officially ending World War II were signed by the Japanese and designated representatives of allied nations. General Douglas MacArthur officiated the ceremony aboard the USS Missouri and was the last to sign on behalf of the United States.

MacArthur, flanked by his military colleagues, took his Parker fountain pen and simply signed his first name "Douglas." He then passed the pen to General Wainwright, who signed "Mac." MacArthur then handed the pen to General Percival, who signed "Arthur."

This unusual procedure was MacArthur's way of honoring the two United States generals who had suffered severe persecution as prisoners of war. They had persevered, and now they were allowed to share in the glory of victory.

In Romans 8:17 Paul describes the future of those who persevere in the spiritual battles we fight this side of heaven. He calls them joint-heirs. Those who share in the sufferings of Christ will also share in his glory.

The third thing to notice about our new life in God is our God is…

3. The God who has rescued us … (13-14)

13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

  • God has rescued us. How does Paul and Timothy encourage the Colossians? What reason is given to encourage and sustain them as they live in the kingdom of light?
  • In verses 13 and 14. God has rescued us. It is only because we are saved that we can live for God.
  • We can’t live a life worthy for him until we have been rescued.
  • What has God rescued us from? From the dominion of darkness.
  • John’s gospel describes this world as full of darkness. It is full of darkness and the people in this world are living in darkness.
  • This darkness is evil and falsehood. It holds us in bondage and slavery and at the same time under the judgement of God.
  • We are lost people who need to be rescued from the power of darkness.
  • It is like being rescued from a collapsed mine. The two miners who had been trapped almost one kilometre beneath the surface in Beaconsfield, Tasmania in a collapsed gold mine for 14 days. The men, Brant Webb and Todd Russell couldn’t get themselves out. There was no way. They did not have the machinery, tools or space. They had to purely rely on someone else to get them out. Imagine what it would have been like for them as they spent 14 days in darkness and then to see the light of day.
  • That is what it is like for us. It is from this dominion of darkness that God has rescued us and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In verse 13, “we have been brought into the kingdom of the Son he (God) loves”.
  • As God rescues us from the power of darkness God has now put those whom he has rescued under the rule of his Son. We can now belong to his kingdom of light.
  • God’s rescue from darkness was achieved through forgiveness. Forgiveness of sins. 
  • This forgiveness of sins was only achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
  • Jesus was God’s rescue plan and paid the price on the cross. Through him we are brought into the kingdom of God’s son.
  • It is all a work of God who rescues us. We can’t rescue ourselves from darkness. Like the miners stuck in that mine, someone else has to pull us out and the only one who can do that is Jesus.
  • God forgives our sin against him by sending Jesus to take the punishment for us on the cross.
  • This rescue frees us from the power of sin and forgiveness releases us from the strangle hold of guilt.
  • While we were in our helpless state God rescues us and gives us new life so we can life for him.

Illustration: The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed earnestly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung with grief and anger. “God, how could you do this to me!” he cried.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.

“How did you know I was here?” asked the weary man to his rescuers. “We saw your smoke signal,” they replied.

Application:

The shipwrecked man thought his chances of being rescued was gone when his boat went up in smoke. He did not realise that what had happened resulted a series of events that lead to his rescue. Sometimes we can be like that if we don’t know what we have been rescued from and rescued to. The process is very important. We are reminded of how much God has done for us in saving us. Have we remembered what Jesus has done to save us? As we have been reminded have we responded in a right way by living for God?

Conclusion

Have we been filled with the knowledge of God’s will and live for him in his power? When we were brought into the kingdom of his Son we were forgiven. Do we live a life worthy of the calling God has given us? Have we understood that God has rescued us? Do we know the forgiveness of sins that God has to offer? Have we accepted this forgiveness that he offers at the cost of his one and only son?

God is at work in our lives. As Christians God has enabled us to be part of his kingdom we are reminded of how he did that for us. He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his Son.