Paul’s Prayer for Students

This is Paul’s prayer for the Colossian believers. And what I love about this is when I think of the students and Student Ministries, why do we do what we do? Why do we work hard to have fun, to be here every week? Why do all these leaders commit to be here every week with you, pour their lives into you? What are we praying for?

Ultimately, it’s the same thing that Paul was praying for these Colossian believers. We have been learning about prayer, and one of the things I hope that you have learned about prayer is that we do not merely pray for the things we think we need in the moment, like, “God, give me my food.” We should pray that God gives us food. Or, “God, get me out of this trouble.” But we should pray a prayer that aligns with what God thinks is most important. And that is what Paul prays here.

So let’s look at what Paul prays, and know that this is my prayer for you, and this is what you guys should be aiming at with your life. We are in Colossians 1, starting in verse 9. Colossians is in the New Testament, after Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians.

Colossians 1:9-14

Colossians 1:9 says:

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s 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; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you 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, the forgiveness of sins.

There is a lot going on here, but what I want you to see is this: when you see a big sentence with lots of words, look for the main idea. Do that on your own when you’re reading. What did Paul pray for? He said, “We have not ceased to pray for you.” Look at the passage and see what Paul prayed. What do you see in verse 9? Read it and see. I’m going to tell you the answer in just a second, but I want you to see it.

When you see these long sentences that Paul does a lot, sometimes you have to look for the main ideas. Paul did not cease to pray, and he asked that the believers would have knowledge of God’s will and they would have wisdom.

Filled With the Knowledge of God’s Will

Paul prayed that the Colossian believers would be filled, or that they would have knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. The first thing he prayed is that they would have knowledge and that they would be filled with knowledge. And so that is why every week when we come to Student Ministries, when we come to the church, what do you hear? You hear God’s Word taught.

That is not just so that you can sit here and listen and go away unchanged, but so that you would have knowledge, that you would be filled with knowledge. And not just any knowledge, but knowledge of God’s will.

This is not like God’s will so that you know where you should go to school, or what friends you should have, or what classes you should take in school, but what God really wants. Where do you find God’s will revealed? You do not find it by closing your eyes, praying, and just saying, “God, tell me what you want me to know.” You pray and say, “God, use your Word to help me see, to make me see what you want me to know.”

That is why every time I preach, every time I teach, I do not just say, “This is the world according to how Jacob sees it.” We open up God’s Word and I say, “This is God’s Word.” You know God’s will from his Word.

Spiritual Wisdom From the Holy Spirit

But Paul does not merely say that you would be filled with knowledge of his will. He says, “in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” That word spiritual in school and in our culture might make you think of Sedona and nice rocks and really spiritual people. I do not even know how to describe it, but when you hear the word spiritual, you think of things like energy or somebody who is really in touch with spiritual things.

That is not at all what the Bible means when you hear spiritual wisdom. This is wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. We need God to illuminate our minds, open up our minds and our hearts so that we can know what is true and then believe it.

What is the prayer, you guys? We have some sixth graders here who do not know about LUBAT, right? We have a prayer that we pray and we talk about this often in Student Ministries, that whenever we open up the Bible, we pray that God would help us listen and understand. We need to be engaged so that we can be filled with knowledge. But to have this kind of knowledge, it is with spiritual wisdom and understanding, the kind that comes from the Holy Spirit, that makes you truly wise, that makes you understand.

This only comes with God’s help, which is why we pray, “God, make me not merely understand this with my brain, but make me believe this so that I can obey and trust your Word.”

That is what Paul prays. And he does not pray that merely so that their heads would be full of knowledge in the right kind of way.

Knowledge That Leads to Pleasing the Lord

Do you see the “so that”? He prays that they would have knowledge of God’s will so that what? Look at your passage. So that what? “So as to…” Yes, so that they would bear fruit, but before that, so that they could walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. They could bear fruit, but so that they could walk in a manner worthy, or live in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. So the blank is that they could please God. They could please the Lord.

I want you guys to have that in your mind every time you listen to a sermon, every time you open the Bible. Say, “God, make me know this so that I can please you.” Do you see that point here? Paul says, “God, fill them with knowledge so that they could please the Lord.”

What are four ways that you can please the Lord? I want you to look down at your text. I am not making this up. Paul gives four, and these verbs are all in the same form, four participles. Basically, we can say Paul has in his mind four ways that the believer can please the Lord.

Bearing Fruit in Every Good Work

These four are bearing fruit in every good work. Do you see that? Your Bible might have a colon: “fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work.”

When God saves somebody, and that is my prayer, none of this is true if you are not saved. If you do not have faith in Jesus, you cannot bear fruit. Remember, Chris talked about that: a vine that produces fruit is connected. A believer who produces fruit is connected to the vine. Fruit comes from a branch that is connected to the vine.

You cannot look at a dead branch and say, “Hey, make fruit.” You cannot look at a dark rock and say, “Be light.” You cannot look at a corpse and say, “Live.”

Every part of this prayer assumes that God has already brought this person from death to life. So the way that you please the Lord is to bear fruit in every good work. God saves you not because of your good works. You cannot say, “God, I want to do enough good works. Maybe if I bear enough fruit, God will love me.” No, you bear fruit because you have been saved. You trust in God, and then you bear fruit. And when God saves somebody, he saves them to bear fruit.

That is what Jesus said: “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.”

Another way that your life will please the Lord, and that Paul prays, and this is my prayer for you, is first that you would bear fruit, and then second, that you would increase in the knowledge of God.

Increasing in the Knowledge of God

Isn’t this weird? Paul prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of God so that they could please the Lord by increasing in the knowledge of God. This is a lot of knowledge going on, right? And we can think, why do we preach so much? Why do we teach so much? Why do we say, “Read your Bible every day”?

Because it is not like, “Okay, I got enough knowledge now. I’m good. Now I can just please the Lord.” You cannot please the Lord without knowledge of what pleases him. And part of it is that you get the knowledge of what pleases him, and that drives you to go increase in knowledge all the more. Do you see this? This is a cycle that is the believer’s life. And this is what my prayer is for you: that you would have knowledge of his will so that you could please him, and so you get an even deeper knowledge of him; so that you could be filled with knowledge so that you could please him. This just goes on and on and on, and this will be your life.

This is why we pray. Again, my prayer for you is that you would fill your minds with God’s Word, not so that you know a lot of Bible trivia, so that you know a lot and I’m impressed, but so that you could live a life that pleases him and then increase in a deeper knowledge of him, and so on and so forth. And that will be our lot in life for eternity. That is so sweet, such a gift from him.

Strengthened for Endurance, Patience, and Joy

And from that bearing fruit and increasing in knowledge, now with that knowledge, when you face trials, if you know God and you know the kind of God who he is, you can be strengthened through that knowledge of him by the Holy Spirit for endurance and patience with joy. So point three is strengthened with all power for endurance and patience.

Do you see how it does not say, “Hey, make yourself strong”? Paul is praying that, this is a passive verb, God would strengthen believers. And that is my prayer for you. Every single person in here is going to face a trial, right? Life is not going to be all fun. Even at camp, you are going to face trials. It is not going to all be fun like camp. It is not going to be all fun like it is here. You are going to go out into the world and you are going to face trials. Some of you might be facing trials now. And my prayer is that through knowledge of him, you would be strengthened to endure those trials with patience and joy.

Giving Thanks to the Father

Giving thanks to the Father. Giving thanks to the Father. You cannot fake gratitude for long, and you cannot know who this God is without being thankful to him.

So my prayer for you in Student Ministries, and this is the reason why we are doing all of this, all the fun, all the games, all these lessons, the reason why these leaders are coming week after week after week, is we pray that God would do this in you.

God does not bear fruit in you, increase you in knowledge, strengthen you with power, or make you thankful to God apart from saving you. And so that is our ultimate prayer. Guys, if you come to church and you hear us encouraging you to just do better, try harder, you are missing the point. We are begging you, be reconciled to God.

Qualified, Delivered, Transferred, and Redeemed

That is the last point. In verses 12-14, Paul prays that they would give thanks to the Father, and Paul gives thanks to the Father for them. The thing that he says most is that he gives thanks to the Father who has qualified them to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Guys, there is eternal life for all those who are holy. There is eternal life with God for holy ones, for the saints. And you do not qualify as a saint when you look good, when you do good. You qualify only as a saint when Jesus’s righteousness was placed on you and your sin on him. And that is why the camp verse is:

God made him who knew no sin to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Because you cannot be salt. God has called every Christian to taste different, to look different, to be salt, to be light, and to influence every relationship that you have with that saltiness, with that light. And you do not produce that saltiness or light on your own. It has to start by turning to God in repentance and faith.

And then what God does is he transfers you. He takes you from the kingdom that you were all born in. Every single one of you was born into the kingdom of darkness, which means that your king from birth was Satan. Whether you know it or not, your king was the most anti-God being there is, Satan. He is the ruler of the domain of darkness.

Look at what God did in verse 13. If you are a believer, this is what God has done:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So the thankful believer can please his Lord. The only way that you can please the Lord is because of God’s rescue. There are only two kingdoms. You are a member of one of two kingdoms. You only have one of two lords. It is either the king of the domain of darkness or God’s beloved Son. So by birth, you are under the authority of darkness. And if you have turned to God in the gospel, he has carried you out of darkness into the kingdom of his Son. And then by grace, you are under the authority of Jesus, forgiven and redeemed.

So that is our prayer. Everything at camp, everything that we do here is so that God might bring this to happen in your life, so that you might be able to please him.

Closing Prayer

We are going to pray and then we can head out and grab a snack. Please think hard about what you are going to do for camp, for swag, but even more than that, open these verses and pray them for yourself, that God would do this kind of work in you. Let’s pray.

God, I do pray. I don’t even cease to pray like Paul. God, I pray that each one of these kids and the leaders would be filled with knowledge of your will so that they could walk in a manner worthy of you, so that they would please you. God, we need you for that. That would be a miracle. That’s something that we can’t accomplish. God, accomplish that and produce the fruit that only you can produce. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.