Video Transcript: Great Expectations

We're going to be reflecting this morning on three verses from Colossians 11 verses nine through 11 of chapter one. That's actually the beginning of a sentence that runs the way Paul sometimes can, for a while. Verses nine through 23, are one sentence in this particular letter. And the words we're going to reflect on are verses nine through 11. And so from the day we heard, they heard of their faith and hope and love of the Lord Jesus Christ and that they were the real deal and how God was working in them, and what God was doing in them. And so he says from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. Giving thanks to the Father who is qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption and forgiveness of sins. And then he goes on with that sentence a while longer yet about the greatness of Jesus Christ and how he is preeminent in all things. The whole sentence is a tremendous one and this morning, we want to focus on this prayer that Paul has and what he wants to see happen in the lives of the believers. 

He begins by saying from the day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you. Paul was a great missionary and a great intercessor. Someone who prayed for others and wanted things for them. He was a man who called others to pray without quitting, to pray without ceasing and to have prayer be very vital in their lives. He didn't cease to pray for these people in Colossae. Now, the fact that he didn't quit does raise the question, why is it that many of us are tempted to quit praying or if not to quit entirely to at least skip a lot of prayer times and the ones that we do have to get kind of impatient after about two and a half minutes and to say, you know, I just can't pray for very long and I'm not sure I actually want to pray all that often. Why is it so hard to keep praying? 

Well, there might be a variety of reasons. You might mention things like scheduling or this or that or the other thing. I think the main reason why so many of us find it so hard to pray frequently and for prolonged periods of time is because that we do not expect much to happen when we pray. We don't expect much. Any argument with that? If you expected a lot, you would be doing it a lot and you just be itching for those times when you can get back to be with the Lord again and spend a lot of extra time with him. I think the single biggest reason why we find it hard to pray is that we don't expect much. We don't expect our time of prayer to really make contact with God and sense that he is touching us and is in contact with us. We expect when we talk we're hoping that we're giving it a shot, at least and that he will hear what we say, but we certainly don't expect him to talk back. We don't expect him to communicate with us in any real and discernible way. And let's face it, one way conversations get a little old after a while. And so we don't expect him to talk back and it's hard to just keep talking to him without getting any sense of response. 

Many of us have gotten used to a certain way of life. And we really don't expect that to be radically changed. Our prayers in the past don't seem to have made a huge difference. So why expect prayer to make some sort of huge difference in the future. We're going to be about the same person four years from now or nine years from now if we're still alive then as we are now and we aren't really expecting tremendous changes to be happening as a result of spending time with the Lord in prayer. And, frankly, we don't expect that many answers or that big answers to our prayer. We don't expect God to take all of the infinite power of the universe and point it in our direction and make it start happening in us and through us. If we expected those things we would pray as much as Paul did. 

If we were making contact with God, we'd have the reverse problem. We'd be trying to make time for the other people in our life because we know we have a duty to kind of spend a little time with them and to do the tasks we were called to do. But what we'd really love is to be with God and then come up after that time with God to bring the touch of God to the world. If we really did hear from God in our prayer time, we'd be more eager to be there. If our life was really being transformed by the time we spend with God, then again, we would say I can't do without. I’ve got to be with him because he's made such a difference so far, and who knows what else he's gonna make of me in the future. And of course, if you believe that Jesus said that, whenever you ask him my name I'll do or what Paul speaks of here that that God's might will be directed at us and through us. And he's expecting that to happen through answers to prayer, if we expected those things and if we were experiencing those things, we'd just be praying more and more and more. 

And so I think that it's helpful to be honest as we enter into these verses, to face a fact about maybe I won't project on all of you. But I know that some of you have struggles with prayer and it's not enough just to put a little thing up in front to remind us that we want to read the Bible and pray. You know, those those things are good and we can hold each other accountable and help each other in that. But the thing that makes it hardest for us to pray is the low expectation and the low expectation maybe based largely on low experience. We just haven't experienced some of these things the Bible talks about and we think, Well, maybe in the original Greek it means something different than it sounds. Like or, you know, that's just not something that I should count on. But I want to point out what is being expected in these verses. If you have to boil it down into a couple of phrases I'd say to be fully in tune with God's heart and to be fully empowered by God's might. That's what Paul is praying for these people for these saints in Christ at Colossae. Remember, they're just, at Colossae, kind of a medium to small town. It's not all that big a deal. And many of them are people who are not that big of a deal. Slaves, housewives, businesspeople, merchants, you name it, they just kind of a hodgepodge are getting this letter. And Paul is praying that they will be fully in tune with God's heart and that they will be fully empowered by God's might. The thing that makes these verses of Paul and the other verses of Paul kind of hard for us to understand is not just the Paul was this giant intellect and a mighty theologian, though he was, but that we maybe haven't tasted what he's talking about. And so it's hard to get the gist of what he's saying. 

It's a little bit like, in the world of scholarship, I remember CS Lewis writing about paradise lost, and he understood quite a bit about that great poem of John Milton. He would write about it and others would disagree very sharply with some of the things he said about it. And of course, he wasn't always right on everything that he thought. He said, no matter how deficient my scholarship or you know how superior others may be in their research, and in their knowledge, I have one advantage. I am a Christian, like Milton. And it is very hard to grasp and appreciate the spirit of that great epic poem of John Milton if you're not a Christian. I mean, you can try to calculate and figure out and this is how you just plain don't believe what the man is talking about and you haven't tasted anything of what he's referring to. So you start out at a really big disadvantage trying to be some super duper scholar figuring out John Milton when you don't believe a word he says. 

Now, this Milton, is of course, was not scripture. But here when we want to enter into the mind and heart of the great apostle and understand what God's saying through him, we have to understand that, that perhaps part of our difficulty is just that we haven't experienced fully what he has experienced. And so rather than try to explain it away, or say, Oh, the words must be too big, or there must be original Greek meanings that don't mean what it sounds like, we've got to tell ourselves, it does mean what it sounds like. He's praying for a bunch of ordinary people in kind of an ordinary place that they will be fully in tune with God's heart. That they will be fully empowered by God's might. 

Let's just read the Scripture words that are there together. You read with me I already said it. Asking that you may be filled with a knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. Let's dig into some of these great expectations and let's start by just figuring out a little more about setting our expectations. 

Expectations are kind of a tough area to get into. It's something that I've honestly wrestled with again this week, in what I preach about in this passage. Because when I preach if I give you false expectations, or if I raise your expectations too high or misdirect them, then at the end of the message, you just get this defeated sense of what's wrong with me. When in fact there might be nothing wrong with you. I just gave you about that you expectations and God never intended to give you that and so you're gonna be disappointed because you got a message that misled you. Now in this whole area of setting expectations and dealing with these huge expectations of being fully in tune with God's heart and fully empowered by God's might, there are false religions who can really take advantage of the disappointment or the unfulfilled yearnings that even Christian people can have. That's what was happening in Colossae. 

There were some people coming there and trying to appeal to them by promising them a greater fullness than they have experienced. And if you don't realize how tremendous are the treasures that we have in Christ, you're going to be more vulnerable to those kinds of appeals. To the cults and to other spiritualities that come along and say, Hey, we can fill in the gaps that you have in your life and in your experience, and you're much more vulnerable to that if there are huge gaps in your walk with God and in your experience of God. There's no two ways about that. 

Now, cautious Christians are quite aware that cults have their appeal. That phony baloney teachers promising the moon can come along and drag some people along with them. And so sometimes cautious Christians will say we should we better not over advertised but we're going to work very hard to teach our people not to over expect. We are going to teach them not to get into all this stuff where they think they're going to make contact with God or wacky notions like they're going to hear from God or this idea that they're going to be able to do tremendous things in the power of God. We've got to just take the dial and dial it way back and say folks, get real, get realistic. And don't expect too much. Get used to what reality is and here's reality. You can get your sins forgiven. So trust in Jesus and ask for forgiveness. You should believe proper teaching. Here is sound doctrine, study it carefully and absorb it. Decent behavior matters. We'll give you some good guidelines. Follow them, please. Church is there. It's important. Be involved in its activities. They're good for you. They may sometimes be like castor oil or something else but just believe they're good for you whether it tastes good or not. And there is heaven waiting for you after death. 

Now, these are all good things. In fact forgiveness of sins is a tremendous thing. Doctrinal accuracy is a very important. Behaving is very important. Church involvement is important and eternity after death tremendously important. Well, my point here is if this is presented as the sum total of what Christian life is like now in this life, in the world, in Colossae or in our area, if this is the sum total, this is what cautious Christians will present to you and say now just get used to living at that level and work hard on all those things and you will be a good Christian. That's not good enough. That's not the expectation that the Bible itself reveals. 

This past week we read in the Bible reading plan for the book of Exodus. In the book of Exodus, the Israelites have been rescued from Egypt and then they worship that stupid golden calf. And after that incident, God tends to wipe them all out and Moses intercedes and God says, Okay, I won't wipe them out. And Moses says, Good, now we can keep going and after that promised land. Actually, he doesn't say that. Because God said, Okay, I won't wipe him out. I'll send an Angel along with and make sure they get to that promised land, but I'm not going. That's basically what God says. And Moses, Lord, if you're not gonna go with us, it's not worth going. 

Now you hear what he just said. He's been forgiven there. Israel is off the hook for the golden calf thing. They're gonna make it to their heaven. Their promised land. But God's not going to be there on the journey. Now for a good many Christians, I fear that they're about willing to take that deal. If they can get off the hook and make it to heaven, who cares whether God is along for the ride. You know, as long as He'll get us off the hook now and bring us to heaven when we die and make things not too terribly unpleasant. He sent an angel now on them to keep the worst away. That's about what you could expect from life. Those expectations are too low. Moses said, Lord, if you don't go with us, I don't want to go an inch. And God says, Okay, I'll go with you. And Moses says, yeah, that's I'm so happy that you've forgiven us. I'm so glad you're going with us. Now, show me your glory. 

You see, Moses won't quit. Moses is somebody who, whenever God gives him he always wants more. And finally, God says, Well, you you can't handle my full glory or would wipe you out. Nobody can see my face and live, but I'll show you as much of my glory as you can handle. That friends is where we should set our expectations. To set our expectations for as much glory as we can handle and pray to God that we can handle more and more of it as we go through life. The living God whom we've heard from through these words of the Apostle Paul, the living God doesn't want us to follow false religion and seek fullness elsewhere. But he also doesn't want us to settle for less that is presented as the kind of cautious Christianity that plays it safe. He wants us to be in tune with his heart, and He wants us to be empowered by his might. And as I say, for me, it's in a sense, scary to talk about these things because my own experience has very, very far to go to reach these expectations. And for some of you listening, it may be very, very far to go for even to be in the ballpark of feeling like you're fully in tune with God or like you're fully empowered by his might. But don't stop or stifle these expectations. And don't let these expectations weigh you down. Don't sit there say oh, yeah, I guess he's probably right. It's right there in the Bible. So I guess I got to swallow hard and say, Yeah, it's true. But I you know, I'm miles from there. Woe is me. 

Now, Paul when he's writing to the Colossians, I thank God for you. You're the real deal. I can see evidence of it. It's fantastic. So he's encouraging them. And then he lays these expectations that he has in his prayers for them, not to just weigh them down with guilt, but to kind of light a fire in them and have something spring alive in them and say, that's possible. That's possible for me from God in this life. I'm not there yet. But there's a lot more waiting for me even before heaven than I dared to dream. And so rather than feeling defeated by how far away from the expectations you are, don't let that weigh you down, let them lift you up. They may be, you know, they may be like some big kite that's way up there and it's catching a lot of wind, it's a lot higher than you are. There's a very powerful tug. And with God's help with His grace and even downright good hang glider and catch a breeze from the Holy Spirit. 

Well, in setting expectations, let's listen to the words that our Lord Jesus spoke himself on this earth. He said, If anyone loves Me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make Our home with him. If you remain in me and my words remain in you ask whatever you wish and it’ll be given to you. No longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. A servant says, show me the job description. Give me the duties for the day. But, you know, I don't need to see the big picture. You're the boss. I'm not. Jesus says you’re friends. But we work together in this. I want you to understand more and more of my mind and heart not just to follow my orders. I and my father want to come and make our home with you. And we'll do that through the counsellor, the Spirit of truth, who I'm sending to live within you. So those are expectations that Jesus himself set before He ascended to heaven and there continued in the rest of the New Testament. Those are the expectations to be fully in tune with God's heart, fully empowered by God's might. And those are the words that we want to unpack a little bit more now. 

First of all, Paul prays that they will be filled with the knowledge of God's will. Now you can think of that at a few different levels. I've identified three levels here that I think are all very important and that we ought to be expecting and seeking in our prayer life and in our walk with God and in our relationships to each other, encouraging each other with what we're discovering. One is God's cosmic will for humanity and the universe and God's cosmic well as we'll read further in Colossians, as well as the rest of the testament is to show that Jesus Christ is supreme over everything. The fact is, he's already been exalted to God’s right hand to reign over all things. 

But now, he wants that to be known, so that everything Christ might be preeminent, and God has a plan to reconcile all things on earth and in heaven under one head, even Jesus Christ and a big part of just coming to know God's will is to be overwhelmed and astounded with the amazing reality of who Jesus is and what He has done and what he is doing. Paul highlights in Colossians, as well as in Ephesians, that Christ breaks down barriers and there's neither Jew nor Greek nor slaves nor free, but Christ is all and is in all. This is all part of that cosmic plan that God was in Christ, defeating the powers of darkness, overcoming the sins of the world, breaking down the barriers that keep people away from other people groups, and doing these tremendous things at a worldwide level and announcing his gospel all around the world. 

And without understanding God's will at this level, you really can't understand anything at any other level. If you don't know that Jesus Christ is supreme, that the cross is where God defeated the powers of evil and cancelled out the written code that stood against us with its record of death that stood against us and, and transferred us out of darkness to light. If you don't understand what Jesus Christ did at the world saving level, there's nothing else to discover. You need to know who he is and what He has done at that level before anything can happen really on a personal level. That's why doctrine is very important. Doctrine that's really alive sounds how great Jesus is and magnifies Jesus and makes him central in everything. 

And Paul's praying that they will know this greatness of Jesus and he's gonna help him out a little with that, as he goes on to his long sentence later on in the letter. So, to be filled with the knowledge of God's cosmic will. It was a mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to the saints. To them God chose to make known, says, Paul, how great among Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So he has this tremendous mystery that was hidden for a long time. He p's revealed his cosmic will and then it comes down to you Christ in you. So to be filled with the knowledge of His will is to get the big world picture and then to know God's will toward you. We sing a song that's true, but in another sense, it's not quite as true as it could be. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. Actually, the Bible never says Jesus loves David Feddes. There is no sentence that says that in the Bible. Now you can make the inference to say, Well, God loved the world. God loves all who believe in Him. I believe in him. So Jesus loves me so yeah, it's true. Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so and I'll say it again with my kids tonight. It's not a bad song. 

But there is something else. Jesus loves me this I know because the Holy Spirit tells me so. It really, I don't know what Jesus is saying or what the Bible is saying to me personally, unless the Holy Spirit opens my mind and opens my heart to believe it. I don't know that Jesus forgives me in particular without the Holy Spirit, communicating that forgiveness to my heart because there are people in this world who are not going to be forgiven. The Bible says so. There are people who aren't going to be adopted. The fact that I am forgiven by God and adopted by God is something that God has impressed and imprinted on my heart, through the personal work of His Holy Spirit and by giving me faith in Him. It is the Holy Spirit who is working on me personally to make me more and more like Jesus throughout my life. The Bible speaks of this and Paul in particular, about how the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are God's children. How the Holy Spirit is the seal on our hearts, that we belong to Christ. 

And so to know God's loving will toward you personally, to know His saving will toward you, as well as that his plan is to bring you the glory and make you like Jesus and bring you to heaven. The Holy Spirit does his work in you, that takes what you know to be God's cosmic will and says, Here's your part in it as a saved person. And that's a part of God's will that is so desperately important to know. It's important be saved in the first place, and to have that assurance that you're saved. Because there are people who are saved who don't have a full and rich and lively assurance of it yet. And so to pray that you'll know God's will toward you, that his will toward you is for your good, that he loves you, that he delights in you, that He calls you His child, if you don't have that knowledge of God's will, of his goodwill toward you already seek it and pray for know be satisfied with something less and say oh, I can just muddle along and I guess you know any meenie miney moe I hope I'm okay. Ask that you'd know that will. 

And then God's guiding will for your path each day. That's a different thing. Again, there are three areas that can be mentioned and I don't have time to get into all of them in this morning's message. One is, you know God's will by listening to his word, by hearing the Scripture and then God's Holy Spirit helps you to apply that scripture to the particular circumstances you're in that day. Once again, you can be misled by taking Bible verses and just kind of applying them. Trying to figure out how they apply it. Because the Holy Spirit who wrote those verses is the one who also helps you to sense which verses apply in a particular situation. Sometimes the inner voice, the impression that God makes on you maybe sometimes a thought will come to you with such power and clarity that you don't think it. You think there's more of that thought than your thinker. 

And then you need to test the thought. You don't just dismiss and say God doesn't talk to people anymore. He does. And you need to be alert for that voice and learn to discern. Because when I talk about these things, one temptation might be to say, Well, God never talks to anybody. He doesn't talk to me. Maybe he has and you're not quite well versed on how to detect that still small voice. You're maybe like little Samuel, hears a voice a few times and says, that you Eli? You know, and he doesn't know the voice that’s speaking to him. So learning to recognize God's voice and expecting God to guide you, to speak within on your day to day life and to seek that and then also in the circumstances of your life. 

He uses your vision of those circumstances and his plan in them and impresses that on you and he may close some doors open others for you and that's how he's communicating elements of his will to you. It's not all simple and easy. But we need to, I believe, expect him, seek God's guiding will for our day to day life as well and to seek that God will guide us also in our spirit. There's a lot of decisions we need to make that the Bible does not spell out. When you're making a decision regarding marriage. God may or may not choose to reveal to your inner spirit. This is the one. The Bible says she may marry anyone who she chooses as long as you belong to the Lord. You know, he sometimes just leaves the field open and lets you choose. But other times he may really impress something on you. In terms of given career he may impress on you that one direction is the way to go and not another. You won't get that information no matter how hard you study Isaiah or Hebrews. You should study Isaiah and Hebrews. But you will not get the precise information on a lot of the decisions you need to make. 

The apostle Paul did not know just based on his general knowledge of Jesus Christ and God's Will from the missionary whether he should continue to stay in the city of Corinth when he was running into a lot of flack. But God said stay, I have a lot of people in this city and I want you to stay here. The apostle made decisions to try to go to another place and it was his usual process okay, I'm gonna go to this town, I'm gonna go to that one. He didn't know. He just waited for God to say here's the next one on the map. But he tried to go here. He tried to go there and try to go another place at one point in his journeys, and God prevented him. The Holy Spirit prevented him, says the Bible. And then he received the vision Macedonia, come to Macedonia and help us and then he knew where he ought to go. 

Now again, knowing God's cosmic will or God's saving and loving will towards you personally doesn't tell you to go to Macedonia, rather than the next city in the province of Asia. God tells you that. And still today, there may be times when God has something on his mind that is not on your mind, and will not be on your mind unless you are expecting and listening carefully and asking God what's on your mind, what do you want next from me. And sometimes he will give you a clear impression and sense of guidance. Other times he may leave it up to your choice and your decision and you'll be well within his will in doing that. My point is do expect and seek his guiding will. I know in some of the biggest matters of my life, I would be a Microsoft millionaire today without, you know, without God's guidance. I was a computer science major doing fabulously in mathematics, and not so well in speech. But I had a very strong sense and I believed that it was the inner voice of God calling me and that's why I do what I do today. Because I believe in God's guiding will. And there I don't get the wrong impression on that. I have very very far to go in all of these areas of discerning God's will. My point is expect it and seek  it and seek more. 

Jesus said the sheep hear the shepherds voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own He goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know His voice and of course, Psalm 23 that beloved Psalm, The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. We should expect our good shepherd to be guiding us and we want to be able to discern His voice and know Him and the imprint of his voice. 

He guides us in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Now, spiritual is one of those words that's kind of vague and gassy nowadays. As Paul's using here and in a lot of other places spiritual means of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit given wisdom and understanding. In a similar passage in Ephesians, Paul prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. That's tremendous phrase. Having the eyes of your heart enlightened. There is no knowledge of God and His will, until the eyes of your heart are enlightened and receive that spirit of wisdom and of understanding from God. 

Let's read this next one together. You have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. So that's a statement from John and he goes on to say you really I'm teaching you here, but you really don't need anyone to teach you, because you have an anointing from God. Now, they didn't stop him from doing that good teaching anyway, and it is very valuable. But understand that you have someone in you, if you're a Christian, you have someone in you the Holy Spirit was given to teach you and to give you knowledge. Jesus as Messiah was promised in Isaiah 11 and it says the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom of understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So Jesus had this spirit of wisdom and of might. 

That's basically we're talking about being fully in tune with God's heart, being fully empowered by his might. Jesus, of course, as God and as Son of God was fully in tune with his father and fully empowered by his might. But here's the next step. Paul says nobody knows what a guy or a person is thinking, except the spirit of that person. And nobody knows what God is thinking, except the Spirit of God. And so you're never going to know what God is thinking, unless God chooses by His Holy Spirit to convey what he's thinking. And God's Holy Spirit has conveyed so much in inspiring the Bible and he has conveyed so much in stamping the reality of Jesus and His salvation on your heart. And he teaches so much in our day to day walk as individuals. No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. And then Paul ends that great passage by saying, we have the mind of Christ. 

In Colossians, he speaks of Christ in you the hope of glory. As that applies to your mind and to wisdom. When you have the Holy Spirit you have the mind of Christ in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And that involves the person of Christ through His Holy Spirit living in you, and personally communicating with you. One of the challenges in Christian living is to be able to really take God's public proclamations of the gospel and take them to heart in all their glory, but then to realize that they're not spam. How many of you like spam. Now, spam of course has two meanings nowadays. It's that kind of kooky meat that a few rare souls like on sandwiches. That's one meaning of spam. But the other meaning of spam is all those gazillions stupid computer messages that pour in, that are addressed to nobody in particular. People just take a whole pile of addresses and and blast out some message to a whole bunch of people that they either don't want to bother communicating with personally, or don't have the time or inclination to communicate with personally. 

Now, some times I'm afraid that God's communication with us, feels to us like spam. God throws his message out there, throws in a pile of email addresses and leaves it to us to decide whether we like that message or not. But it's not a personal communication from the person of God to you, as an individual person. It's too much like spam. And when we know and come to know God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding it is God in person, person of his Holy Spirit, coming into your person and communicating the thoughts of God to you. And a major way he does that is taking the Bible and taking its truth and showing its reality to you personally as the anointing from God teaches you, and also teaching you things that you need to know for your own life, to serve God that are not part of his public revelation of the world. You're not adding to the Bible, but you do need his guidance in certain decisions that you make. So in all spiritual wisdom, understanding comes through the Spirit.

And then to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Now, that's a phrase we gotta be careful with, because you can misunderstand it. If you say well to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, does that mean I gotta make myself worthy, and become a worthy person so that I deserve to be accepted by God? That would be a disastrous misunderstanding of this phrase, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. We're not trying to make ourselves worthy of God's acceptance and love. But we're in tune with God's heart and so we want our actions to show that Jesus is worthy of a life well lived. He is worthy to be imitated, he's worthy to be obeyed. He's worthy to be adored. And so when it says, to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, it's to be living up to what a great lord we have, not trying to earn our way into his favor. 

And one thing as we think about walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, that's one of the purposes of that spiritual wisdom and understanding. That knowledge of God's will, knowing God's will without it, having a transforming impact on your life would be a disaster. To hear the word and not do it, or to have the spirit convey something to you, and then not implement it, that would be totally inappropriate. So we want to receive this knowledge of God and His will so that we can walk in a manner that's fitting for the Lord. Don't settle for a walk where God is displeased and where you're defeated. 

Speaking of being pleased, the next phrase is walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to Him. You think about that, to be fully pleasing to God. When Jesus was transfigured and lit up and all kinds of light and glory shone from him in the presence of three of his disciples then God's voice, the voice of God, the Father came from heaven and said, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him. God the Father is well pleased with Jesus and He is well pleased with those who are in Christ. Remember that phrase in Christ, you are in Christ. Christ is in you, and therefore whatever glitches you got and things that need cleaning up, God is well pleased with you at one level, simply because you're in Christ and Christ is in you. But he's also delighted when more and more your inner attitude and your outer actions are showing the reality of Christ in you. To be fully pleasing to Christ is to have more and more of Christ kind of coming out of you, oozing out of your pores or shining out of your face or whatever picture you want to have for it. To be fully pleasing to Him is actually to have the life of God living in you and oozing out of you. 

And this last phrase, I put it along, not because it doesn't bear reflection, but because in a sense, we've already reflected on most of what this phrase says. It's Paul's summation and he's returning again to what he's been saying. You want a life that’s bearing fruit and increasing in the knowledge of God. He's been talking about knowing God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding and walking in a worthy way and now bearing fruit in every good work is just the same as walking worthily and being fully pleasing to Him and increasing in the knowledge of God is going back to that sense of knowing God's will, knowing what's on his mind knowing what's on his heart. 

One thing that has to be said is if there is absolutely no fruit, it's just evidence that there is no life giving connection and no saving knowledge of Jesus. Jesus says if a branch doesn't bear fruit gets lopped off. It doesn't have a living connection. But that's a warning if we don't know Christ at all. But for all who do know Christ, the encouraging thing is that good works and the knowledge of God go together and keep building each other and reinforcing each other. If you're in tune with God's heart, if the Holy Spirit has got you in tune with God's heart, then you bear the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. The more you're in tune with God's heart, the more your attitudes and your actions are going to reflect that. 

But it works the other way too. The more your attitudes get in tune with Christ, the more love and joy and peace there is on the inside, and the more your actions are reflecting and displaying the glory of Christ on the outside, the better your spiritual brain works. It's a fact that to do evil, and to be entangled in evil starts shutting down your spiritual brain. Jesus said, men loved darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil, and they found it impossible to accept him, because their deeds were evil. They were wrapped up in wickedness and it shut down the circuits. The opposite, thank God, also happens as Christ changes you, as you live for him, as you do His will, you're in a position to receive more and more of his will. And your spiritual brain starts working better and better, you'll become more and more mature. 

And so it's impossible to say, you know, I really want to work at being a good person and then some day, I'll try to get to know God better in a more personal way. You can't. You can't improve the kind of person you are and the actions you do without knowing God a whole lot better. But it's almost although not quite as bad a mistake to say, You know what I want to really focus on. I am going to focus on spiritual disciplines time, with the Lord, getting to know him, and I'm just going to try to get to know him better and you know, as for changing my actual behaviors and attitudes, you know, I'll deal with that once I've got this knowing God thing down, Pat. That doesn't work so well either. Because the point is, when you're bearing fruit in every good work, then you're going to be able to increase more and more in the knowledge of God. You can't have your relationship with God improve too far ahead of how your life lived for God is going. 

Because it's all one thing. It is the life of Christ in you. And it is Jesus teaching you more of the father. At the same time transforming you to be more and more like himself and the one can't run very far ahead of the other. But when one gets going, the other gets going. And then that gets going and that gets going and more and more and more you are knowing God better and you are living for Him more and more fully. So bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Those things go together.

Now for the power. Let's read this verse from Ephesians aloud together. That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms. We will read the another one in a minute, those words of Jesus. Let's think about that Ephesians one passage when Paul prays in Colossians, that you will be strengthened with all power. What power is he talking about? In Ephesians, he explains a little bit more. It's the power of God. It is the power of God's glory. It says, according to his glorious might, the literal translation is simply according to the might of His glory. God loves to display his glory, and he has the might to do it. He wanted to show himself glorious and victorious over death. So he raised Jesus Christ from the dead. He displayed his glory, and you have the power to do that. And what Paul is saying that he wants us to expect and that he prays for us and that we should be praying for as well is that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, the same power that created the worlds, the same power that directs everything from the smallest atom to the biggest galaxy, this power of God, the power of the might of His glory, is going to be strengthening you with all power.

Now, in one sense that one would cause us misunderstand if we think we could have all of God's power in ourselves. That's kind of like saying, I would like to plug my computer directly into the big transformer over at the power station. You know that that would really fry everything boom and it’s gone. In one sense if all of God's power were unleashed on any one of us, you know that that would just make us disappear. But what he's saying is that you that all this power of the universe is directed toward you and it will be fitted toward you and there is no shortage of it and He will supply all and more that you need to accomplish what he has in mind for you. And that's a lot more than many of us believe possible. 

I have to confess in this message, all I'm trying to do is raise your expectations. I'm not trying to explain each one of them. There are a host of very difficult to apply passages that I've been presenting to you. What I want to do is say there is more. You should seek a heart fully in tune with God and a life that is fully empowered by God's might and whatever that works out to, be my suspicion is it's a lot more than you've been expecting or experiencing. So don't dial back the expectations to match lack of experience. Instead, dial up expectations and pray that God will bring experience to match. 

Verses from Jesus in John 14 Let's read those together. Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. Here again, the knowledge of God, God coming to us and living with us, the behavior and living for God goes together with divine power. You'll do greater things than Jesus. Now in one sense, you could explain that by saying Well yeah, the whole church put together with the power of the Holy Spirit has brought the Gospel to millions and made huge changes in the world that far outstrip anything Jesus did during his brief ministry on earth. And there's certainly much truth in that. But we also need to say there there are things going on here that we don't understand. And maybe we don't understand them because we don't fully know and obey God to ask for anything in my name. I believe without getting into too deeply, that there is a point at which a person comes to know the mind of God and the will of God and the desire of God so that when you pray, you're just asking God for what you already know God wants. When you pray in Jesus name, you know, you're gonna get it because you know what Jesus wants. If you don't know what Jesus wants, you can still ask and we should, but there's always a possibility, of course, that God in His wisdom would decline. 

But what Jesus is talking about to a great degree, here is the degree of faith when you come to know God well, and your mind is getting to be so in tune with him that your petitions are very close to what you already know he wants for you. And once you know what he wants, you don't try praying too hard to turn anything in a different direction either. Paul prayed three times for his thorn to be removed. He didn't yet know God's will in that particular circumstance. But the moment he understood God's will, God's will in that case was not to heal him. But instead, he said, My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. Paul said, Good, that's what I want. I want the power. And I want God's touch. And if it's not as will to heal me, at least I've got his power and his touch. So I've got what I really wanted anyway. In other cases, of course, it may be power to heal. Power to make a tremendous change that you can never do without God's power. 

And then, as I already alluded to, to have all this vast power the universe, this part of the expectation almost comes out sounding a little anticlimactic. Because when you heard all power, you thought, well, maybe then I'm going to preach to 150,000 people and maybe perform 75 Miracles an hour, and maybe God will unleash his power in that respect. But what Paul is praying for these ordinary people is that they will have all this power for all endurance and patience with joy. Maybe that's not all God has in mind for us, but it'd be mighty good start. Endurance and patience with joy. 

Endurance, the word used for that is hupomone, to be able to bear up under difficult circumstances or to live through difficult times. And God's power is what helps us to stand strong and stand firm in the tough times that come at us in the battles we face from Satan's attacks, but endurance through difficult times. Patience has a little different meaning. It means being able to handle difficult people in your life. You need the power of God to deal with the tough times and you don't get to just get to do a detour around them all the time. You can't just do a detour around the people you don't get along with. Some of you are married. You know and others were born from your body and you don't get to avoid them. So you need to have patience with difficult people. Some of them are part of the congregation that God has called you to be a part of. And so you'll learn to be patient with difficult people and one thing you need to understand and when I speak about great expectations, it also requires great vision to say some of the things we thought were ordinary aren't. To believe in God at all is a miracle of the Spirit of God. To be able to put up with a difficult person is a work of God's Spirit. To be able to bear up under hardship is a work of God. And then with joy, not just muddling along, but enjoying God's companionship through it all and rejoicing that you get some challenges to deal with with God at your side, that you get some difficult people to show what you're made of and what God is made of, and to deal with them through God's power and to do it joyfully. 

What if you just took this raise, which doesn't sound like that much at first, if you had millions of people living this way, it would change the world. If you have people who can stick with it and walk strong through thick and thin, if you have people of great patience who can put up with a lot from other people and keep on loving them and walking with them. And if they did it all with a smile and a song and with the joy of the Lord in the heart, what a change that would be. The world would never be the same. And these are not just kind of high hopes that that you wish for in Utopia. These are things that God has done, can do, will do, in your life. So friends once again, get your expectations high. Continue to think about and pray about these things. I'm happy to talk with you more about them or or talk with each other about them. But summarize it. Ask God that He may make you fully in tune with his heart, fully empowered by His might and whenever you don't understand about those things, say God, I want them to happen. I want to understand them better not just understand them better. But I want these things to really become facts, reality for me. 

Let's pray together. Lord, we do pray that we may be filled with the knowledge of your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to you Lord Jesus, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. Lord, may You strengthen us with all power according to your glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. And we thank You Father, because you've delivered us from the domain of darkness, transferred us to the kingdom of Your Beloved Son, you've forgiven our sins, sent your son to live in our heart and put us in Christ so that all these things may become more and more a reality. Lord, help us not to be discouraged by the tremendous expectations and hopes that are raised in your word, but instead to seek you with all our heart and find you in Jesus name. Amen.