Turn with me this morning to
Colossians chapter 4. Our lesson this morning, there
are so many lessons here as Paul goes over and over these things. And then he generally applies
these things and tells us the basics about them. And then he
goes through and in particular, he gives us examples of these
things. And now here in chapter 4, He
begins with the subject of prayer. Now, he's been throughout chapter
3 and continues now into chapter 4 to exhort all those who have
put their trust in Christ to walk accordingly. If indeed you
have trusted Him and are looking to Him, and you've set your affection
on things above, then walk. accordingly. And he tells us
then in chapter 3 also to put on, as the elect of God, vows
of mercies and kindness and humbleness of mind and meekness and long-suffering,
forbearing one another and forgiving one another. And if you have
a quarrel, he said, against any, even as Christ forgave you, so
also do you. How did Christ forgive you? How
did Christ forgive me? Freely. Freely. Not even considering the transgression,
but freely by His grace. And in the light of eternity
and the glory of God's free grace in Christ, put these petty, carnal,
insignificant arguments and divisions aside. What is there in this
life that's so important that we separate from one another
in the light of eternity? You see what I mean? It's nothing
in the world but flesh. That's what brings about division. Sin and flesh. And so he exhorts
us to put off that old man. Take that old man off. Don't
let that old man have an inch. But put ye on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and put on these vows of mercies, and put on charity,
he said. Be ready to show the love of
God which is in you, and let the peace of God. We claim we're
at peace with God. We've been reconciled to God.
We're at peace. Old Brother Scott said, well,
stack your shotguns in the corner. The war's over. We're at peace. Put on peace. Let the peace of
God rule in all that you do and let that peace become a mindset
in you. Let the peace of God rule in
all that you do and let that peace become a mindset and let
it be the governing principle in the way we treat one another
and the way we do our business. Let His Word dwell in you richly
in all wisdom so we can teach and admonish one another. And
then he tells us also here in chapter 3, whatsoever you do
in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God our Father by Him. Let these principles rule over
all our relationships, husbands and wives and parents and children
and brothers and sisters and employers and employees. And he tells us that in all these
things, we're to do them without reservation and to do them wholeheartedly. Do it from the heart. Don't be phony. Don't do these
things as men pleasers. Don't do these things, what he
calls, eye service. When somebody's got their eye
on you, then you, you know. I watch the children in here
from time to time, and when I look at them, they're like this. But
when I look over here, I can still see them, and then they're
not like this anymore. Or I look over here, and I can
see them over here, and they're not like that anymore. That's
eye service. That's the kind of obedience
that is. We're to do these things from
the heart. Do them from the heart. My boss told me one time concerning
a young man who was very zealous in his religion, he said, watch
out for any man who's not temperate in his ambition and zeal to serve
God. That's just not so. That's just
not so. And while that probably is true
in worldly religion, it's not true concerning true religion.
They do serve God with zeal. They do serve God from the heart.
And true love gives itself, and it gives all, and it does so
without restraint. I'm going to skip verse 1 here
in chapter 4 because we dealt with it in last week's message.
But here in Colossians 4, verse 2, we'll begin reading there. Continue in prayer, and watch
in the same with thanksgiving. with all praying also for us,
that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery
of Christ, for which I am also in bonds, that I may make it
manifest as I ought to speak." Now let's begin here. What is
prayer? What is prayer? He says here,
continue in prayer. What is prayer? Am I to bow my
head continually and pray to God out loud? Or am I to go somewhere
in a solitary place and just every few minutes go in there
and pray? What's he talking about here, continuing prayer? What
is prayer? How should we pray? And is prayer
important? God's sovereign. He's going to
do what He will, so why pray? Why pray? Is prayer important?
In James chapter 5 and verse 16, we are told to confess our
faults. Now listen to me. Not our sins,
but our faults one to another, and pray for one another that
ye may be healed. Now listen to this. The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Does that sound like it is not
important to you? Sounds like it is pretty important
to me. And he gives this example over there in James. He said
Elijah prayed one time that it wouldn't rain. And it didn't
rain. It didn't rain for three and
a half years it didn't rain. And then Elijah prayed again
and it rained. And he gives that as an example
of prayer. Prayer. Prayer is necessary. Prayer is effectual. And prayer
is the commandment of God. That ought to be enough reason
in itself. God commands us to do it. The people asked Samuel
to pray for them, and he said, listen to this. This is over
in 1 Samuel 12, verse 23. They asked him to pray for them
because they had done some things wrong, and now God was against
them. And they came to God's prophet,
and they asked him to pray for them. Here is what he said. He
said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing
to pray for you. Now, I have five things I want
you to consider concerning prayer. We'll just take this whole lesson
on these few verses, and we'll just talk about prayer this morning.
First of all, prayer is an attitude. You see, it's not something you
stop and do, although you can, but it's more of an attitude.
When I was growing up, I knew that my father was the head of
our house. I knew that. Everybody in there knew that.
All of us kids especially. And if I needed any money, or
if I needed protection, if I needed somebody to help me, or if I
needed advice, if I needed a go-between, I went to him. I went to him. And he was always there in my
mind and in my heart as a child. I didn't talk about it a lot,
but I knew he was there. You see what I mean? It was an
attitude. It was an attitude. I always knew that. I always
knew that. And to have an attitude of prayer
is to be conscious of our loving Father. He's there. It's to be
conscious of Christ. He's our go-between. He's our
protector. It's always on our mind. It's
an awareness of our relationship to Him and our loving union and
His presence with us. Always conscious of our sins
and weakness and vulnerability. You know, a little child might
run off and play by himself and with others. But he's always
aware of where his parents are. He goes into a strange place.
I've seen visitors come here with small children. And they'll
run out there and play with those children. But every now and then,
they'll look around and see where their mama is or their daddy.
Always aware. Prayer is the attitude of the
believer knowing that Every good and perfect gift cometh down
from the Father of lights, with whom is no bearableness, neither
shadow of turning." And then secondly, prayer is communion
with God. We have a close and personal
relationship with the Lord. He is our heavenly Father. The
Spirit of God, when the Spirit of God... Paul said this, he
said, because you are sons, he wrote to the Galatians, And he
said, because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. He is our Heavenly
Father. He loved us from everlasting. He sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. He sent us the Gospel. They shall
all be taught of God. He sent us the gospel of His
free and sovereign grace in Christ. He sent us the sovereign spirit
of regeneration and adoption. And He gave us the gifts of repentance
and faith. We have a close relationship
with God. And those we truly love, we commune
with, don't we? We commune with them. We ask
them questions. And we make requests. I'm just
going to give you a few Scriptures here. Philippians 1, verse 4. Always. Now listen to this. We're
talking about an attitude of prayer that results in communion. Prayer is an attitude. It's also
communion with God. And he says here in Philippians
1, verse 4, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests
with joy. We commune with God and we ask
Him questions and we make requests. In Philippians 4, verse 6, be
careful, that is, anxious for nothing. But in everything, by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be known unto God. James said you had not because
you asked not. Oh, I just don't have any peace.
Did you ask for it? Did you seek it? No. Might be
why you don't have it. Might be. We express our joy. It's an expression. Not only as we bring requests
and we speak to God and we ask God questions, but it's also
an expression from the heart. We express our joy and happiness,
our sorrow and pain in prayer. And we commune with God. We talked
to Him. We talked to Him. And this is
just an unbelievable privilege. Now, I want you to just think
about it. We're talking about the Creator of the universe.
We're talking about the sovereign God who is from everlasting to
everlasting. Who not only knows the end from
the beginning, but who declares the end from the beginning. And
from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand, there's no higher power in the universe. There's God and there was no
one else. Everything else that's here is
a creation of Him. No higher power. He rules over
angels and principalities and powers and things not seen. Satan
is God's devil. Don't you forget that. He's powerful,
but he's God's devil. And he can put a chain on him
anytime he wants to. And we have this privilege of
being able to go in beyond the veil, beyond the veil, and speak
to our Heavenly Father. That is an unbelievable privilege. that the God of the universe,
the sovereign of time and eternity, now listen to this, listens to
your prayer. It's an unbelievable privilege
that you're allowed to speak, but it's even a greater privilege
that God listens to your prayers. My wife and I recently went through
a tremendous amount of stress trying to get this new insurance
in place. so Kathy could go on and receive
her treatments and so on. And the biggest source of stress
is that there was nobody you could talk to. You called a number
and it just rang and rang and rang and rang and rang. And then
when they did answer, it was a recording and they put you
on hold. And you could sit there sometimes
for four hours, five hours, eight hours. Sometimes it was the next
day before you could get somebody to talk to you. But we're told in the Word of
God, now listen to this, the eyes of the Lord are over the
righteous and His ears are open to their prayers. My soul. All I have to do is speak and
He hears. He hears. That's 1 Peter 3, verse
12. Oh, my soul, what ignorance and
foolishness it is not to commune with the Lord. Paul said, we
have a high priest over the house of God who has consecrated for
us a way into the holiest of all by a new and living way.
Therefore, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith. Prayer is communion with God. And then thirdly, prayer is confession.
We don't enter into a closet and confess our sins to a man.
That's foolishness. We confess our sins to God. Now
listen to this. 1 John 1, verse 9. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then down in chapter 2, verse
1, He said, My little children, These things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Confess
your sins to Him, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And then turn with me over to
Psalm chapter 51. We confess our sins to God, and
Christ is the propitiation for our sins. And we also confess
our acknowledgment of who He is, who God is. Now listen to
this prayer of David over here, Psalm 51, verse 4. He said, Against
thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and clear
when thou judgest. David not only confesses his
sins to God, but he confesses God's justice and righteousness
both in his condemnation as a sinner and in his free justification
of his elect through the redemption of Christ. He confesses both
of those things to God. We confess salvation by the free
grace of God. We confess all His dealings with
us to be merciful and kind, and we confess His goodness His goodness,
His rule, His way, and His will in all our lives. Pray after
this sword, our Lord told His disciples. Thy will be done. You put that in there. When you
pray to the Heavenly Father, you pray that. Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. And then fourthly, prayer is
an evidence of true faith. The Lord sent old Annie Nice
down to talk to Saul. Sent him down to the street called
Straight to bring a message to Saul of Tarsus. And Ananias knew
who Saul of Tarsus was. He was dragging Christians in
there and having them put to death. He was down seeking papers
from the high priest so that he could go out and drag them
down there under the law, under Israel's law, and have them put
to death. And he told him, he said, you
go down there And you take my message down there to Saul of
Tarsus, and he knew Ananias' reservations. He knew his reservations
about going down there. So the Lord told him this. When
He gave him that command, here's what He told him. Behold, he
prayeth. He prayeth. He never said a prayer
in his life, but he's praying now. He's praying now. It's an evidence of true faith.
In Galatians 4, verse 6, it says, And because you are sons, God
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. Only those
truly indwelt by the Spirit of God can pray. To this religious
but unregenerate world, He asked through His prophet Isaiah, He
said, When you come to appear before Me, who hath required
this at your hand? Who told you to do this? Who
gave you permission to come into my courts? That's what he's telling
them. When you spread forth your hands,
he said, I'll hide my eyes from you. Yea, when you make many
prayers, he said, I won't hear you. I won't hear you. It's only sons and daughters
that come to their father to find help in time of need. And
we draw near in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience. When God saves a sinner, it's
a heart work. It's a heart work. He's translated
into God's Kingdom as a son and heir of God. Listen to this,
Romans 8, verse 14. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now listen. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption whereby you cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God."
Prayer is the evidence of true faith. And then fifthly, prayer
is an expression of trust. Peter, at our Lord's request,
stepped out on that raging sea. Oh, he stepped out there in wonder
and awe. And he saw his Lord walk on that
water. And Peter, you can say what you
want to about Peter's impulsiveness. He was the only one who actually
did walk on water other than our Lord. And he went out at
our Lord's request, but he took his eyes off of Christ. And he
began to sink. Now, let me tell you something.
There was a whole boat full of disciples. And you know every
one of them was hanging on that side rail in that storm and in
that lightning and watching that raging sea and seeing their Lord
out there. And they watched Peter to see
what was going to happen. And when Peter began to sink,
he didn't say, Oh, John saved me, did he? Huh? There was a whole boatload over
there. He didn't say, One of y'all throw me a life preserver.
He looked right at his Lord just that quick and said, Lord, save
me lest I perish. Prayer is an expression of trust. He loved those disciples. But
he knew they couldn't help him. And he trusted his Lord. And
I'll tell you this, when you trust Him, I don't care what
comes your way, immediately, you go to Him. You go to Him. times of trials and troubles
and things beyond our control, we immediately call on Him. Where
a man or woman goes who's in trouble, that's where He put
His trust. That's where it's at. May the
Lord teach us, and especially this sinner, to pray without
ceasing. Now, let me say this, and I'll
wind this up. Like faith and love and repentance,
prayer is a work done in us by God. It's done in us by God. And I'll tell you the honest
truth. I'm your pastor, and I pray for you. But half the time, I
don't know what to pray. I'm as dumb as a box of rocks
when it comes to to prayer and knowing how to pray and that
type of thing. And I'm not alone. In Romans
8, verse 26, listen to this. He said, likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. Now listen, for we know not what
we should pray for as we ought. We don't know. God leaves us
alone. We don't know We'll say a few
words and hang up. That's what we do. We quit. Don't know what. You haven't
prayed like that. Them words just go out and fall
on the ground. They don't go nowhere. You don't
know what to say. You don't know what to pray. But the Spirit
helpeth our infirmities. And He maketh intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth
the hearts knoweth. He didn't say He knew what was
on your heart. No, he said, listen to this, He that knoweth what
is the mind of the Spirit, he searcheth the hearts, and he
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. This thing of prayer
is a work of God in you. And I tell you, when he works
that work, you can pray. And when he don't, you can't.
You can't. God teaches us the value and
how to pray.