A Model Prayer

He leadeth me, O blackest of all words, with heavenly conferred fraud. What can I do, wherever I be? Still, still, still, God, stand at me, that me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand. He leadeth me. His faithful father, I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. Lord, I would class thy hand in mine, nor ever murmur, nor repime. Contest, whatever, what I see, since His my God, that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand. He leadeth me. His faithful father, I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. And when my task on earth is done, when the disgrace of victory's one, in death, cold wave, I will not flee. Since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand. He leadeth me. He saved the father, where I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. I agree that those great old hymns are hard to beat, and that is a great one. It's good to know that God leads us, and He does lead us. We're going to find this evening a passage that talks about that sum. I also enjoy sometimes just hearing music, Acapella, don't you? There's no more beautiful instrument than the human voice. And when you have a voice like that, it's nice to hear it every once in a while, just Acapella without any accompaniment. That was well done. Thank you. I want to preach to you tonight on a model prayer. When you hear those words, a model prayer, I don't know what comes to your mind. You might think of the disciples prayer, what we often call the Lord's Prayer, which is not a prayer the Lord would pray, but a model prayer that He taught His disciples. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, our father, who, Charten Heaven, how would be thy name, and so forth. That is often thought of as the Lord's Prayer, but it's really a model prayer given for the disciples to pray. The Lord's Prayer, which is another one of those model prayers in the Scriptures, is found in John 17, when Jesus actually prays His high priestly prayer. It's often called before He died on the cross, the night before He died on the cross. And that is a model for how Jesus probably prays for us, even now in heaven in His intercessory ministry. When you think of a model prayer, you might think of the apostles prayer in Acts chapter 4 after they had been interrogated by the Sanhedrin after preaching in the temple. And they were let go, and the disciples were gathered in the upper room, and they began to pray, and it is a passionate prayer of asking for the Lord's boldness to continue on in the face of persecution. And the Bible says after that prayer, the place where they were praying was shaken, and they were all filled with the Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly. That certainly is a model prayer. You might think of Paul's two prayers in Ephesians, which are often lifted up as model prayers, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, two prayers that he prays there. Those are great prayers, but I would like to add another one to the list. Tonight it's in Colossians. Colossians chapter 1. I would suggest we consider this prayer in Colossians 1 verses 9 through 14 in that category of a model prayer. I think this prayer teaches us how to pray for others. It is a prayer that Paul literally prayed for others. He prayed this prayer for the Colossian church, and so it does serve as a model for how we ought to pray, and certainly Paul's prayers in his epistles as he prays for churches and for believers are amazing. And so far beyond what we typically pray and how we typically pray, certainly it's a model for how we ought to pray for others, but I also think it's a model for how we ought to pray for ourselves. What we're going to see is this prayer literally is what God desires for us. It's what God desired for the Colossians, and so it is indeed because it is in Scripture and it's for our benefit, what God desires for us as well. And so in that regard it serves as a model prayer. This is what God wants for us, and so it's what we ought to be praying for ourselves. Now I've often said this, and I know it can be taken wrong, but I've often said that our prayers, including my own, are so shallow sometimes, we have a tendency to pray more for people's physical needs than anything else. And while that's good to do, our preponderance of concern about people's physical needs may betray a shallow thinking about what people really need. And sure, it's good to pray for our birthers in Grontoneal. That's fine. It's fine to pray for that. But I'm not concerned that's the greatest need that our birther has. When you look at Paul's prayers, you find something on a different level, a different plane of praying than what we typically do. We're going to see that tonight. Paul's prayer in Colossians basically is centered around two requests. Now there are some subcategories of requests as you'll kind of fill this prayer in, but two basic requests he makes. He's going to pray for the Colossians to experience a clear direction from God. So he's praying for a clear direction. That's in verse 9. Then he will pray for a godly life in verses 10 through 14. And that's where he adds a lot of other things that contribute to that godly life. But those are the two basic things he's going to pray for this church for. I think there are things that God desires for us to be praying for ourselves about. We ought to be praying for others about. So in addition to physical needs, maybe you ought to be praying just as much if not more for the kinds of things Paul prayed for, a clear direction from the Lord and a godly walk with the Lord. Let's see how he prays and how those things just flow out of him. What his concern really is and the kind of prayer he prays for the Colossians. It may serve as a good model prayer for us. First of all, the prayer for clear direction in verse 9. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. He has talked about praying for them back in verses 3 and 4. And now he's going to expand on that to explain exactly what does he pray when he prays for them. So it really is an insight into Paul's prayer life and the kind of praying he does. In verse 9, he says, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God, and here's the first request, to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives. Now let's unpack that a little bit. Let's set it up and just take it piece by piece and see what Paul is talking about here when he's talking about clear direction from the Lord. He asks that God will fill them with knowledge. That's a good thing to pray. There is a thirst for knowledge in our day. It's a natural thirst for knowledge. We all thirst to know more. Mankind, thirsts to know more. It's why we explore space. We want to know what's out there. What is in the far reaches of the galaxies and the universe we want to know. We want to increase our knowledge. It's the reason why we explore the atom to know what is inside us, what is inside the building blocks of everything that is here. We want to know more about that. It's the reason why more and more scientists are wanting to know more even about smaller things, the genetic structure of everything. How things are put together on a genetic level with the equipment and technology we have today is possible to gain knowledge in those very intricate details of the building blocks of life. It's why we have an insatiable desire to find cures for diseases because we want to know more about why the human body does what it does and how it gets diseases and why it seems to fight itself sometimes and what can we do to find cures. In this day and age there is a great thirst for knowledge for electronics. You know, most of us here tonight are pretty much in the same generation. We're a little baffled by that whole world, aren't we? I want you to learn how to use a cell phone and you finally get to a smartphone and I'm not even sure I'm even qualified to have a smartphone. But you begin to figure out how the thing works and I get it all messed up. You know, I get my phone all messed up and I begin to figure out a few things and then they come out with six models since then. And so nothing works anymore. You know, man's expansion in the area of knowledge in the area of technology is just incredible. I heard Jeff Bolton talking here recently about six new phones that were coming out. He's in the generation that keeps up with all that. I'm saying, please, not another phone, not another new increase in technology. I'm still six years behind. But man's thirst for knowledge. We're always pushing the envelope always seeking new discoveries. And you know what? That's the way God's made us. There's a verse in in Proverbs 25 to that I just love. I love the way it's stated. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and it is the glory of kings to search out a matter. Part of what demonstrates God's glory is all that he has hidden in creation. It's almost like a hide and seek game. God is hidden all this knowledge in creation. And that's that glorifies him. There is a tremendous amount about this creation, about the world, about all things that we don't know yet. And the fact that we learn one thing and it opens up 10,000 other things just shows the glory of God. But it also is the glory of mankind to search out those things. That's part of the way he's made us to continue to expand our knowledge and build upon previous knowledge. There is a thirst for knowledge, but I think Paul touches on the greatest knowledge of all greater than knowing more about genetic structure or electronics or the universe. That is the knowledge of his will. The knowledge of God's will. That's the greatest knowledge of all. Paul says we continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will. There's no greater knowledge that you can ever attain. I don't care how much you know, how much you discover, how much you investigate, there is no greater knowledge you can ever attain than the knowledge of God's will. You say well, how can I know God's will? And that's one of the great questions of all time. How can I know God's will? I'm always struggling to seek God's will. Well, I want you to see that Paul describes what that is in this passage. He describes what kind of knowledge of God's will he's talking about. Notice he says we continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives. I think that gives us a clue as to what kind of knowledge, even what kind of will of God he's talking about. What's meant by the knowledge of his will? I've taught this a great deal and so some of you are going to go through familiar territory for the next couple of minutes with me. I think there's a great deal of confusion about the will of God and unnecessary confusion really. Back in 1981, after I'd come through a very confusing period of our life and ministry and we had moved to Indiana to take a pastorate and to inter seminary there. And I was struggling with the whole concept of God's will because I thought I had missed it and I thought I was really confused about what God's will was. There was a book that was written in that year that came out by the name of decision making and the will of God by Gary Freason. I just laughed up that book and the reason I did is because Gary Freason had written his doctoral dissertation on this subject and had done the most thorough study of anybody up to that point that I was aware of on the will of God and what the Bible teaches about it. He went through every mention of it in the Bible and the book that he wrote was more on a popular level but it included all of his research on the will of God. It was the most thorough treatment biblically I had ever seen and heard and it came to me at a time when I really needed it and it was just like food for my soul. It helped me straighten out in my mind exactly what the Bible taught. Let me give you the nuts and bolts just very quickly. He in his research in the Bible had discovered that the term will of God is used in two ways in the scriptures. The first way is of God's sovereign will, his plan and purpose, his will, his design, his sovereign plan for life and for the world and for this universe and for us. That sovereign purpose and plan of God is something that God has decreed. That's his will that he has decreed from eternity past. That's something that we cannot know for sure until it happens. That's God's plan. We don't know the mind of God. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways and we can't always know what God has purposed for the future until God takes us to that point. We can look back over our lives and see his plan and purpose. His sovereign will was one way the Bible uses that term. The second way the Bible uses it is what he calls the moral will of God. It is God's will in the sense of what God desires for us, what God wants for us, what God commands us to do in his word. A good example of that use of the term is in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 where Paul says in verse 3, it is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality, so that each of you learn to control his own body in a way that is wholly and honorable. He says that's God's will, that's God's desire for you, that's God's moral purpose for you is to live in holiness and that term God's will is used in that way a number of times in the New Testament. Those are the only two ways the Bible uses that term, the will of God, either of God's overall plan for all things or of his desire for us as recorded in his word. This is his moral will for you, this is how he wants you to live, what he wants you to do or not do. What we often think of as the will of God is related to the decisions that we make. God, what's your will about this job, what's your will about what college I should go to, what's your will about marriage or what's your will about, and those are the big questions we often have about the will of God. And given that biblical information, he paints a beautiful picture of how we should determine the will of God. We should always, first of all, look at the scriptures to find out what God's moral will is, make sure that what we're deciding is not in contradiction to his word because that's where his will for us is found his moral will. And then we should pray and seek God's direction and guidance and make decisions based upon the information we have. God gave us a mind and he expects us to use it and to weigh out the various options and seek to do what we believe will please him the most with what he's given us to do in life. And so as we work through those kinds of issues and make decisions based upon what we believe will please God the most. Then whatever decision we make, if it's not violating his word, is the will of God. It's not like I have to find this certain dot and if I miss it, then I'm destroyed for the rest of my life. I'll be put on the shelf. I'll never be used of God again. If you are living in line with his word morally, then as you pray and seek his guidance and make the best decision you can based upon the information you have with wisdom, seeking his glory to please him, then he will make sure that you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. And there may be three or four or five good options that you can choose from all of them may be within the moral will of God. And that just hit me as being such a good balanced biblical way to see the will of God. So what will of God is he talking about here? That's where I think he makes it very clear. Notice we continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will. What are you talking about Paul? What do you mean the will of God? What car I should buy? What college I should attend? Who I should marry? No, not necessarily. He's saying the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives that is clearly God's moral will. How we should live in obedience to him. Notice he says this will is through the wisdom that the spirit gives. That's making wise decisions. Wisdom is the application of knowledge to life. So we take the knowledge that God's given us, the knowledge of his word, the knowledge of our options. And we make the very best decision we possibly can. We seek under the spirits guidance, seeking to make sure our lives are right with him. Our hearts are clear. No sin. No one yielded in this. We pray and ask for the spirits guidance. Lord help me to take the knowledge that I have and apply it to life. That's wisdom. And we make that decision the best with using the best wisdom that we can. That's the kind of will of God he's talking about. This is a knowledge of his will through the wisdom that the spirit gives and through the understanding that the spirit gives. Spiritual understanding in the Bible that term is used of the insight needed to tell truth from error. In other words, to tell what is biblical and what is not. So it is clear that the will of God here is an understanding of the principles of the word. Putting them into practice in my life. When I do that, I am living in his will. Now when decisions face me, I take the knowledge that I have, ask for the spirit to help me apply that knowledge in a wise way to the decision and make the decision. And trust that if I am living in obedience to God, I am in his will. I can remember how confusing this was when I was pastoring in North Carolina and I'd been asked to come preach at a church in Florida. And they were wanting me to come as their pastor and I was trying to figure out this was 1980. I was trying to figure out what is the will of God in this and how you are throwing out all kinds of fleeces and trying to figure these are huge decisions. And major decisions. And so I can remember saying, Lord, give me something specific from your word. I need a sign from you. And I was reading in the book of Acts in my devotions. I remember reading about the apostles going to such and such a city. And I thought, that's it. Where I was pastoring in North Carolina, it was very rural, farming community. The church in Florida was in a city, a city of about 60,000. It was a big city compared to where we were in Jugtown, North Carolina. So that's it. God just showed me. It dropped something down from heaven. Go to the city. So I go down there to preach and I'm in someone's home that place where we're going to be staying. Jeannie and I were and Amy and Ruth were with us. They were little babies. And I remember that we're sitting there. The family hadn't come home from work yet. It was a friend we'd been with in Bible college and he had allowed us to get into his home and so forth. And we're sitting there and there's a huge one of those Florida lightning storms. Okay, we're just sitting there waiting for them to get home. We didn't have the TV on or anything. But all of a sudden, lightning comes through the TV. And I watched it dart across the room, about halfway across the room. And I thought, what in the world is that God is at the devil? Is that God telling me this is the place? See, boom, I've given you a solid confirmation or is it a devil trying to, you know, is the devil trying to kill me before I can get there? Is God trying to confirm it? Is the devil trying to scare me away? You know what it's like to try to read God's will in the coincidences, in the circumstances. That will absolutely drive you crazy. What Paul is saying is I want you to have the knowledge of his will. Here's where I want you to have it. Through the wisdom that the spirit gives. Ask him to give you wisdom to be able to apply the knowledge you have with the information you have to live properly. And then with the knowledge that the spirit gives spiritual understanding, the ability to help truth from error. Ask God to show you if what you're going to do will lead you in the error or will it lead you further into truth and will be pleasing to him and then just make the decision and trust that as your father God will not let you go wrong. And you know, if you make a bad decision that you'll show that to you, you have to back up and make a better decision. That takes a lot of pressure off. And rather than trying to find this specific little dot, the center of God's will that I need to be in just live your life and ask God for wisdom and knowledge to be able to make decisions appropriately live appropriately. You know, looking back, I can see that God took us there and even though it was only for a short time, he had some lessons to teach us there. It was the thing he used to direct me towards seminary. I'd been challenged to go to seminary. I needed that level of training and I was unwilling to go from the comfort zone of North Carolina. It was a very comfortable place to be. And so God uprooted me and finally directed me to to Indiana through that means. But you can drive yourself crazy trying to figure out the will of God when all God really is wanting is that you ask for the spirit to help you live wisely and with the spiritual understanding that he gives you. That's the will of God. So clear direction and we need to be praying for ourselves and for others that we will have clear direction. The second request Paul makes is for a godly life. Notice if you will verse 10, first two words, so that this is the purpose of knowing the will of God. So that or for the purpose that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every good way. Now he will go on through verse 14 describing what this looks like. But let's start right here. The description of a godly life is found here in verse 10. What does it mean to live a godly life? It means to live worthy of the Lord. That you may live a life worthy of the Lord. Now a lot of people get this all twisted around. Some people think that to live worthy of the Lord means that I need to live in a way that is worthy of my salvation. I need to live in a way that God will be pleased with me and I'll be worthy to attain my salvation. That is the farthest thing from what Paul is saying. If Paul makes anything clear in his epistles, it's that we cannot earn God's favor in any way when it comes to salvation. None of us are worthy of heaven. None of us can make ourselves worthy through the things we do of God's grace, otherwise it wouldn't be grace. And so he's not talking about, oh, I've got to be worthy. I've got to be worthy to get into heaven. None of us are worthy. Let's go ahead and mark that one awful list. That's not what he's talking about. What he is talking about is this. It's not being worthy of salvation. The word worthy means to be of equal value. So it is to live a life that is of equal value with the Lord or one that is a copy of his. Now we're getting to the truth of what he's talking about. What Paul is praying for the Colossians is that they will live the kind of life that is appropriate, that is suitable for one who knows the Lord to live like him, to be like him, to live in a way that is worthy of the Lord or is a way that is an equal value copying him as an example. Here's his example and we're tracking right along with it. We're copying it by the spirit's power as best we can. We're not going to be able to do that perfectly, but that's the way he wants us to live like Christ. So to live worthy of the Lord is not to somehow through your own efforts, make yourself worthy of heaven. Not at all. That goes against everything the Bible teaches. It simply means that I will live a life that is tracking right along with where Jesus is. His example is my model. I want to be like him. I want to be conformed to his image. I want to be made more in his likeness all the time. So that's a life that is of equal value. It is worthy of the Lord. That's what he's talking about. So that has to do with our actions. A godly life means that our actions are in our lifestyle is being more and more conformed to the image of Christ. The pattern he has set, we're being more like him all the time. Our life is tracking along with where his is. That's our actions. And then he deals with our attitudes to live a godly life means that my actions are becoming more Christlike, but it also means that my attitudes are pleasing to the Lord. You see that in verse 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every good way. We should all be asking ourselves continually. Does my life please him? Is that my motive? Not to please myself, not to please others, but to please him. You know, all of us live some of our lives to please ourselves, right? And all of us live some of our lives to please others. And what God is saying is a godly life is a life that is lived with the attitude and motive of pleasing him. And that we do everything, say everything, think everything to please him, like the little boy who was playing his first violin concert and he was a child prodigy. The crowd was in awe of his skill and ability. And when he finished his concert, the room broke out in applause, but they noticed something strange. They noticed he was just looking up almost like he was looking up at the ceiling and then people started watching where he was looking and he was looking up to the box seat on the far left where his teacher sat. The Maestro who had taught him everything he knew. And for this young boy, it didn't matter how much they applauded or how long they applauded. And I wanted to make sure his teacher was pleased. Now that's the way we ought to live. It doesn't matter how long or how hard people applaud or whether we please ourselves, we ought to always be living for an audience of one. Do we please him? Is our lifestyle pleasing to him? That's a godly walk. A godly walk whose actions, life that whose actions are more Christal, more Christlike all the time and whose attitudes and motives are to live everything in a way that's pleasing to him. That is a godly life. That's what Paul describes as a godly life. So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord, that's our actions, and please him in every good way. Now that's the definition of a godly life. That's the description of it. What are the characteristics of it? What does it look like? Verses 10 through 14 fill that out. So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord, please him in every way, bearing fruit. Now notice what I want you to see. Here's another English lesson. Remember we had an English lesson a week or two ago. Here's another English lesson. You're going to see four participles. Now a participle typically not always, but typically is a verbal form that ends in I in G and English. And that's exactly what you find here. Bearing fruit in verse 10, growing in verse 10, being strengthened in verse 11 and verse 12, giving joyful thanks. Those four participles describe what it means to live a life that is worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him. They are fleshing out what that looks like. They support. They describe what it looks like to live a godly life. The characteristics of a godly life are these four. First of all, it is fruitful. It's fruitful so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord, please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work. A godly life will always express itself in good works. Fruit. It's in the way we live. It's in the way we treat others. It's in the way we serve. It's the fruit. It's the evidence, if you will. It's like the fruit of the spirit. Godly characteristics will follow someone whose lifestyle is becoming more and more like Christ, worthy of the Lord, and whose attitudes are pleasing to the Lord. If that's a godly life, then one of the things it's going to look like is it's going to be fruitful. It's going to bear fruit. The fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. Those nine qualities of the spirit-controlled life will be found in a person who is really living a godly life. A fruitful life. It will bear fruit. It looks like something. It looks like it expresses itself in good works in the way we live, the way we treat others, the way we serve others. If there's no evidence in our lives that our life looks like Jesus Christ, then a godly life is all just talk. It's not reality. It's just talk. It's not godly living. Godly living, bears fruit. It's like, okay, look at the apple tree. Is there any fruit on it? No. What good is the apple tree? I mean, maybe it's not the right time of year or you've already picked the fruit. But if it's the right time of year and it should have fruit on it, it has no fruit on it. There hasn't been anything on it all year, then the apple tree is no good. Unless it's, you know, in the first few years and still got to grow before it starts bearing fruit. But get the idea. If there is genuine godliness in life, there will be some fruit. There will be some evidence in the way we live that our life is like Christ. Secondly, a godly life is a growing life. It's not only a fruitful life. It's a growing life. Verse 10, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, increasing in the knowledge of God. Now there are two things that that probably means. It means growing in our knowledge of Him as far as what we know about Him. That comes through the Bible. There's no other way to get it. It comes through the Word of God. So that is knowledge of who He is, how He works, what He does, what He expects of us. It is only as we immerse ourselves in His Word that we will grow in that knowledge. And this is a continual life-long growing. We never stop learning. We never stop growing in our knowledge of the Word of God. There's always more to learn. So it obviously includes, and must include, that kind of knowledge, our increase of the knowledge of the Word of God. But it also means our increase of personal experiential knowledge of the Lord that we're drawing closer to Him in fellowship and communion so that we know His heart. Obviously that comes to us through the Word, but it also comes through spending time with Him. And as we spend time with Him and we pray and God fills our hearts with His presence and His knowledge, His wisdom, then we begin to know Him better. And as we're sensitive to His hand working in our lives day by day, we begin to see evidence of His providence, we get closer to Him and we grow. And it's plenty to learn, we're to always grow, we're to be like a tree that produces fruit, keeps growing. Grain produces fruit and dyes, tree produces fruit, and then keeps growing. Keeps growing. Next year it's bigger. Next year it's bigger. That's the kind of growth He's talking about. There's always more to learn, there's always more to become like as we know Jesus Christ better. So a godly life is fruitful, it is growing. Thirdly it is strong. Notice this in verse 11, being strengthened, being strengthened, being strong. Not weak, strong. Now notice what He says about this strength. Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. Notice the abundant supply, this is not just having enough strength to get by, have enough strength to meet the challenges of my life, but the measure of strength that is available to us is according to His power. That's the measure, that's the limit of strength that we can attain, all power according to His glorious might. Did you know that the power that has given you to live is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead? That's what Ephesians 1 says. Paul praised there that we might know the power of His resurrection. The power of God that Jesus saw in the resurrection. The limit of power that we have available to us is the glorious power of God. But what does it look like? When you have the strength of God, when you're strong spiritually, what does it look like? Paul tells us, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, and what's the need for this power? What's the purpose of this power so that you may have great endurance and patience? What kind of power is He talking about? The power to work miracles? No. The power to perform great feats and be recognized by everybody? No. What we need power for more than anything is for great endurance and patience. Now, what is He talking about there? The word endurance means to not give up and lose heart in difficulties and trials. You and I both know that's where the power of God is needed most in our lives. When we face trials, when we face life's hardest things, do we have the strength to go on? Do we have the strength to bear up under those? Do we have the strength in those situations to keep going and to learn what God has for us to learn through them? This is not power to do great miracles and to make a name for yourself. This is power to handle life. This is power to handle the hard things that life throws at you. This is the power to bear up under them and learn from them and grow from them and push on in God's grace and strength through them. That's endurance. That's great endurance. And when we have the power of God available, we can make it through any trial with strength. That's what strength looks like to make it through the trials of life. Secondly, he says, we need this power so that we might not only have great endurance, but we might have patience. Some translations use the word long suffering. And the idea is patience toward people. The endurance is the ability to bear up under circumstances that are difficult, not only to bear up under them, but to learn from them to be better because of them, to grow and move forward stronger than we were before. So that's that's circumstances. That's the things that happened to us in life. The word patience is used in regard to people. This is the other area where we need the strength of God more than anywhere else. And that is to have patience toward people, even when we are ill treated, not to become easily angered, not to retaliate, not to get even, but to learn what God wants us to learn, to grow through it, to respond graciously and kindly. That takes strength. And so when Paul talks about being strong, he's not talking about being an iron man, pumping iron, being able to be that kind of strong. He's talking about having God's power to endure the deepest of trials and to be patient with people no matter how hard they are to be patient with. That is the kind of strength that we should be growing in. A godly life looks like that. It has strength. So godly life is fruitful, it's growing, it's strong, and then finally it's thankful. And giving joyful thanks, verse 12, to the Father. A joyful life, giving thanks, joyfully giving thanks, and a good place to start in giving thanks is giving thanks for our salvation. And that's where Paul starts. Notice, he talks about giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. What he has done for us is he has given us an inheritance. Now that inheritance is a spiritual inheritance. Peter defines it as an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God until the day of salvation. Our inheritance is waiting for us on the other side. You may not have much of an inheritance here, but if you're saved, you've got a really great inheritance over there. Because everything you would possibly ever need, every need being met, obviously, is in heaven. And so we have that inheritance. That is a blessing of our salvation, both now and in the future in eternity. And notice, he has qualified us to share in that. We didn't qualify ourselves, he qualified us, he made us qualified or fit. Our standing in Christ is what gives us the right to have that inheritance. He qualified us. Thank God for the blessing of heaven and salvation in herethans that we have in Christ. That's what he's done for us. Notice how he accomplished it. In verses 13 and 14, he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Three words that describe how he has accomplished our salvation. Rescue, redemption, remission. Rescue, first of all, he's rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he lives. This is the greatest rescue ever accomplished. When you think of all the great military rescues that you've read about in your history books, daring rescues of undercover troops being sent in to liberate people or liberate soldiers or captives or whatever it may be. This is the greatest rescue that's ever been accomplished. When Jesus through his work on the cross rescued us and that shows how dangerous the situation we were in, he rescued us from the dominion of darkness, the darkness, the dominion controlled by Satan, his kingdom. And he brought us into Christ's kingdom, the kingdom of the Son he loves. So there's rescue and there's redemption in whom we have redemption. He bought us, he bought us with a price. That's what redemption means. He bought us with a price, the price of his own blood took south, slave, market a sin, set us free to serve him. That's redemption. And then remission the forgiveness of sins to remit means to wipe the debt off the record book. The remission means that our sins are forgiven forever wiped off of God's record book. Aren't you thankful that when God saved you, he wiped the record book clean and you will never have to hear your sins brought up again. He will never bring them up against you again because they've all been forgiven. They've been remitted. They've been wiped off the page. Thank God for that. That is something to be thankful for, isn't it? And so God says part of a joyful, what part of a godly life is being thankful, being thankful to God continuously for what he's done for us in Christ. If you can't have anything around you to be thankful for, at least that you think. If there's nothing in your life, but we have circumstances that would lead you to be thankful, you can always be thankful for what God has done for you in Christ. The rescue, redemption and remission that you have in him. How are you praying? Is this the way you're praying? When I look at a prayer like this, I think is this the kind of praying I'm doing for others? Is this kind of praying I'm doing for myself? Or am I just praying that I'll feel better tomorrow and sister so and so and brother so and so will get better? Is that just fine? It's fine. Good to pray for those things, but this is a much different level of praying. That's what God wants for us. That's what we should be praying for ourselves. A godly life, a life that is pleasing to the Lord and clear direction, knowledge of His will. That's what He wants us to know. Let's pray. Father, help us to pray more like Paul did. Help us to pray for the knowledge of your will. Help us to pray for a godly life, a life that is pleasing to you, a life that is worthy of you, that is measured up well against the life of Christ. Help us to pray for a godly life that evidences the characteristics that we've seen tonight of what it means to be godly. And I pray, Father, that we will always be growing, that we'll always be thankful, that we'll always exhibit these other characteristics of a godly life. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.