Letter to the Colossian Church- 14

Subtitle: Final Instructions

Colossians 4:2-6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, October 26, 2025.

As we near the end of this letter, Paul returns to general instructions that all Christians need to follow.  In our relationships, the distinctions of this world do not matter, male with female, wife with husband, parent with child, and slave with master.  However, we grow up in a world that inundates us with the idea that they are very important.  So, what does matter? 

We find this answer particularly in Galatians 5:6 and 6:15. The only thing that matters is “faith expressing itself through love,” and “being a new creation [i.e., like Christ].”  These are two ways of saying the same thing.  God is love; Christ is love.  When we take on his image by faith, His love flows through us.  This is an expression of God’s new creative work within us.  We are part of His new creation.

The devil and the world know that these differences bother people.  These differences are often the leverage they need to manipulate us for their ends, for political capital, etc.  This divide-and-conquer method is the most effective way to subjugate us. 

It is easy to think that this modern age is the apex of wisdom.  We are far too sophisticated to fall for such tactics.  However, the truth is this.  Humans have not changed over the last 2,000 years.  The United States of America is not the apex of wisdom; Jesus is!  If we do not listen to him and the apostles that he sent, we are only walking the same foolish path of others before us, no matter how great we are.

Thus, the Lord is telling us through the apostles that our rights and our experience are not the most important things in life.  We are not to focus on what our rights are, but rather on how we can use our abilities for the purposes of Christ.

As the Son of God, Jesus had rights and privileges, but he laid them down in order to serve God the Father, and in so doing, serve us.

Let’s look at our passage.

Be a person who prays (v. 2-4)

At the beginning of this letter, Paul described how he and his fellow workers had been praying for them. In Colossians 1:3, he says that they were “praying always for you…,” and in verse 9 of that chapter, he says, “we have not ceased to pray for you…”

So, here in chapter 4 verse 2, he is not instructing them to pray, as if they were not doing this, but rather, he is calling them to follow his example, which is ultimately to follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

We cannot follow Christ without prayer.  Yes, prayer for ourselves, but also prayer for one another.  This is fundamental to what it means to be a Christian.  If you haven’t been a person of prayer, then this is something that He is calling to do.  Prayer is not a mechanism for getting what we want.  It is a growing relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Paul uses the word “devote.”  This word has the idea of persevering in an endeavor, in this case prayer.  Devoting yourself to something involves time, energy, and desire.  It is not so much about desiring to do a religious work, but about desiring to talk with God about our life.

This is why we hear people in the Church talking about devotions or doing your devotions.  It generally means setting aside an amount of time each day to read the Word, pray, and worship God.  Of course, we do not want this to become a religious exercise alone.  We should want quality as much as quantity.  The best course is to make sure that you are doing some amount of time while also praying that God would help you to grow in a quality of devotion.  If you have been barely praying, don’t try to pray 2 hours a day.  This will not endure because there is no relational foundation to it.  The Bible doesn’t give us a number of minutes or hour.  Rather, it calls us to prayer.

Many people who begin reading the Word and praying will only go so long and then they quit.  Why do they quit?  Sometimes it is because it doesn’t feel like God is listening.  Of course, how would we know if God was listening or not?  Our feelings are just that, our feelings.  Sometimes people come to this conclusion because they prayed for God to do something that never happened.  Of course, we forget quickly that our earthly parents often didn’t do what we wanted them to do.

Our desire in prayer must be much deeper than trying to get something out of God.  Rather, we need to be giving Him our intimate self.  He is our source of wisdom, strength, and direction.  Without Him, we will be unfruitful in making an eternal effect upon this world. So, hear the Holy Spirit calling you to pray.  Devote yourself to it. 

Paul then speaks of being watchful in your prayers.  Keeping alert, being watchful, comes from the same word that Jesus used in the garden of Gethsemane when he asked his disciples to “watch and pray” with him.

In some respects, we are watching over our own soul when we pray.  We share with God what we are seeing in our heart and mind, while asking Him to help us to see more and better.  We pray about the things that threaten to make us stumble.  We pay attention to how the enemy is attacking us now but also praying for wisdom regarding his plans ahead.  We seek to hear from the Holy Spirit regarding those things in our life that need to be removed (sin) or added (like prayer).

In all of this, we should be watchful for what is happening to the other believers connected to us.  We are to be brothers and sisters spiritually watching one another’s back.

It is amazing how many things will come to you while you pray.  The act of praying over our life opens the door for the Holy Spirit to lead us further.  This is connected to the sense of being a vigilant watchman.  The enemy will continue to attack, but those who pray will be alerted to the threats and will alert others.

Paul then emphasizes that we should do this with an attitude of thanksgiving.  Prayer can easily wear a person down, especially when they are only focused on getting something from God.  Prayer is even more about God receiving what He deserves.  When we serve Him and enter into a real relationship with Him, it makes a fruitfulness in our life that is greater than any “bad” experiences we may have.

Don’t focus on what you are not getting or on what is not happening.  Instead, you should have an atmosphere of thanksgiving in all of your prayers.  I try to thank God every time I ask Him for something.  “God, please give me wisdom in this situation.  I thank you for all the wisdom that you have poured into my life through the Word, through mature believers, and by Your Holy Spirit.  So, I ask knowing that you know what I need to know.”  Pray in such a way that you are grateful to even be able to ask in prayer.

The person who isn’t thankful will say that it is because they don’t have anything, or much, for which to be thankful.  However, the person who stops and gives thanks for even the smallest of things will come to discover just how many ways God has blessed them.

In verse three, Paul then asks them to pray for him and his missionary associates.  Of course, Paul is currently under house arrest in Rome.  But that doesn’t have to stop the spreading of the Gospel.  This letter exemplifies God’s desire that we all be praying for one another, rather than each one for himself.  If we all pray for one another, then we go from only having one person pray for us (me) to having a bunch of people praying for us. Such prayer should flow from a heart of love, but in the end, it will increase our love for others.  This is cyclical but can be jumpstarted by simply being faithful in prayer.  Just make your first prayer about asking God for a heart of love.  “O God, help me to love as You love.”

Let’s take note of the kinds of things that Paul asks them to pray.

Pray that God will open a door for the Word.  Sometimes people and places are unwilling to give the Gospel of Jesus a hearing.  The idea of a door that God has opened is picturing those moments of opportunity that arise in life.  We saw this in the Book of Acts when Paul and his group kept hearing the Holy Spirit telling them not to go into certain areas.  It is God who should lead us.  Our work should dovetail with His prior and current work of preparing hearts.  In fact, “our” work should be infused with His Spirit and His Help.  Thus, our work is really His work too. 

Sometimes God will tell us in prayer that a door is opened or closed for sharing the Gospel.  This is an internal mechanism.  However, other times, the closed door presents itself rather forcefully, and yet, simultaneously other doors spring open to our surprise.  A praying person can trust God to lead them in both ways as He chooses.  While Paul was in prison, he could have given up, but he is praying for open doors instead of getting out of prison.  He wants to share Christ wherever God makes that possible.

We should also pray that we will be able to speak the Mystery of Christ to others.  This mystery is now only mysterious to those who haven’t had it explained to them.  The amazing person of the Messiah was not just to save Israel, but also all of the Gentiles who would respond to the offer of salvation through him.

Sometimes open doors look like going to prison.  They don’t make sense to us, but God uses them for His greater purpose.

This request for prayer is the backdrop to the description of Paul’s imprisonment in Acts 28. Paul was allowed to have visitors, even large numbers.  For two years, he was able to encourage the Christians of Rome, preach to the Jews who didn’t know Jesus and also to Gentiles who didn’t know the plan of God to save the world.  All of this was done in the city that was the seat of the devil’s beast kingdom.  I would say their prayers were being answered.

Finally, Paul asks them to pray that he would have the ability to make the Gospel clear (as he ought to do).  We should never take it for granted that we are being clear.  People come from very diverse backgrounds.  We really do need the help of the Holy Spirit to lead us in clarifying the Gospel.  Clarity isn’t the only obstacle to the Gospel, but at least if we are clear, their choice will be clear.

Be careful how you live towards unbelievers (v. 5-6)

Paul now moves from their prayers, whether personal or for others, to how they live among the believers of Colossae.  We need to take care how we are living around everyone.  However, we need to take special care around unbelievers because God wants them to come to know Him.

He uses a term that is best translated as “outsiders.”  It is a term that is used often to refer to something being outside of another thing.  Several times Paul uses it of those who are not Christians (1 Corinthians 5:12f, 1 Thessalonians 4:12).  They are not just outside of a local church.  They are outside of Christ.  They are not believers in Him.

This concept of believing in Christ and then being in him has been emphasized in this letter.  Chapter 2 verse 6 reminds them, “as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”  The phrase “in Him” is given again in verses 7, 10, and 11.  The outsiders are those who have not put their faith in Jesus and joined the community of believers.  They are outside of the grace of God.

People can be outsiders for very different reasons.  Most are outsiders because they are ignorant of the truth of God and His Messiah.  However, it can also be a willful rejection of the Gospel.  It may be a mixture of both.  The main point is that God is in the business of making outsiders to be insiders.  No one was made to be outside of His grace and love.  However, He will force no one to be in His grace and love.

We are then told to walk in wisdom towards these outsiders.  “Walk” here is a metaphor for how we live our life.  It also pictures intentionality as we walk towards them.  God wants our lives to intersect with outsiders.  If we let His wisdom lead us, we can be a good witness to them.  Part of the wisdom is simply knowing that God wants your life to speak to them of Christ.  Yet, we should pray for specific wisdom regarding specific people.

Of course, we fall short of displaying and living out the wisdom of Christ.  We must be honest when we fall short.  Jesus is saving sinners, and that includes us.

The flip side of this is for Christians to live foolishly around outsiders.  This would involve not obeying Christ, saying one thing and doing another, or trying to be like the outsiders.  Wisdom would tell us that they need saving, and yet, we can also be drawn away from Christ by them.  We must be wise in our conduct.

Paul then tells them to make the most of every opportunity.  Some versions say, “redeem the time.”  It can simply mean to make the most of every opportunity that God gives us with others.  Yet, it literally says, “redeeming the season.”  Time is contemplated here in regard to the season we are in rather than pure chronology or amount of time.  Now is the season for harvest.  It is a season of God offering grace to His enemies.  It is the season of the righteous laying their lives down so that others may hear the Gospel and be saved. 

We should also recognize that, within this great season of grace, various areas have a season, as well as individuals.

We are not just making the most of a particular opportunity, though that is important.  Until Jesus comes back, we have the great opportunity of working with the Holy Spirit in order to bring people into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love.  Eventually the night will come, and there will be no more time to shine the light of Christ to them.  Intentionality towards the things of God is what helps us make the most of the time that God has given to us.

Paul then tells us to always speak with grace.  Of course, he doesn’t say to speak with grace if they are gracious to you first.  No, our life is to be marked by the grace of Jesus.

Grace here is not so much a theological topic that we are sharing, but rather, a way in which we speak with others.  We are to speak graciously.  The idea behind grace is that of a gift that should bring joy to the receiver.  The Gospel really is good news.  We should share it with grace, or with a gracious spirit.  We see this in the life of Jesus.  Of course, there were times of sparks when his grace was thrown back into his face by those who should have known better.  But even then, Jesus did not let these offenses embitter his spirit.  He was the grace of God to them.

Paul pictures this as seasoning a meal with salt.  Sharing the Gospel is like sharing a meal.  We can do so in a bland, flavorless way.  Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 5:13. “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, how can it be made salty again?”  He then speaks of it being thrown outside and trampled under the feet of men.  It takes the help of the Holy Spirit to speak with grace.  This gives people the greatest chance possible to embrace Jesus.

Paul may also be thinking of the Old Testament sacrifices.  All sacrifices in the Old Testament were to be salted.  As we sacrifice our lives for God’s purposes, we need salt, flavor, a zest for them, which comes across when we are gracious to others.

Earlier, Paul had asked them to pray for him to be clear as he ought.  Here, he turns that to them.  If they walk wisely towards outsiders, speaking with grace towards them, then the Holy Spirit will help them to know how to speak.  Even more, He will help them to know what to speak.

We can feel impotent in reaching others for Christ.  Yet, the answer is not in shrinking back from the duty.  “I’m no good; I might as well sit down and let others do it.”  The answer lies in exercising wisdom.  Through prayer, we go back to God who has called us.  We ought to take care of how we live and what we say.  “Does it honor Christ and His purposes?”  We should also have the right attitude.  It is God’s desire to draw people to Christ through us.

We should not take things personally and react from the flesh.  God is even working through the offenses that people make towards us.  Jesus is worthy of anything we may need to suffer because He has suffered for us all, even the outsider.

When the enemy stirs someone up to be an enemy towards us, we need to remind ourselves that God saw this coming.  Perhaps, He has them right where He wants them, just as He has you right where He wants you.  Don’t let anger and a desire for justice turn off the grace of God in the lives of those who are lost.

Final Instructions

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 2

Subtitle: A Prayer of Petition

Colossians 1:9-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 20, 2025.

We are continuing in Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae.  Last week, we looked at Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving for their faith, their love, and their hope in God.

In these verses, he moves into a prayer of petition on their behalf. 

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul asks for certain things in their lives (v. 9-11)

Just as prayers of thanksgiving are a kind of prayer, so we have prayers of petition, where we ask God for things.  The idea of petition may seem strange to connect to prayer.  However, think about how we use petitions in our society.  At its root, a petition is going before some authority and asking them for something.  Yet, due to the political nature of most authorities, we get as many people as possible to “sign” our petition, basically saying that they are asking for this also.    Thankfully, our prayers to God are not generally dependent upon getting enough people to agree with us.

We should recognize that there are different categories of things in our petitions to God.  Some things like food, money for bills, or healing from a sickness, if they are answered by God, will no longer be in our prayers of petition.  They will be a part of our prayers of thanksgiving, but we will no longer be asking God to heal someone who is already healed.

The things that Paul asks for them are not the kind of things that can be answered tomorrow and be done.  They are the kind of things that are being answered throughout our life and are completed through death and resurrection.

This brings up a side issue.  It is common for people to compare their petitions to those of others.  When we are praying for someone that has stage-4 cancer, it is common for people who are battling a cold to feel like their healing is too small to bother God.  We can find ourselves in a strange place of not praying because we are convinced God is too big to be bothered with us.  The problem here is this.  We don’t realize how we are diminishing God in thinking that He is too big to be bothered.  What we are really saying is that He is not quite big enough to be able to deal with the big and small things of life.  Your petitions are important to God because they are part of the way that He is working to make you like Jesus.

Before we get into what Paul is asking for them, he mentions that he has “not ceased to pray for” them (vs. 9).  To pray without ceasing is not so much about praying every second.  It is a prayer that is always in his heart for them.  He loves them, and he desires things that can’t be answered in a moment in time.  Thus, he continually prays that God will do these things in their lives.  He said the same thing to the Thessalonians and other churches.  Paul’s prayer for one is his prayer for all.

These are not prayers of empty (vain) repetitions.  Jesus didn’t say, “When you pray, do not repeat your prayers.”  Rather, he said, “When you pray, do not use vain repetitions.”  There is a repetition that has meaning.  It is when we are praying for things that take a life-time to complete, and we are doing so out of love.  However, empty repetitions happen when we think that we can get what we want by God through some mantra or mechanism of prayer.  People can build rituals of prayers and activities as a means of acquiring whatever they prayer.  This puts us in the driver seat and makes an answer to prayer all about our ability.  Prayer at its root needs to be a child coming to their father.  There is no way we can force our Father in heaven to give us what we ask.  But, we can seek His wisdom as we ask.

In our flesh, we can grow weary of praying for the same thing over and over.  However, the Spirit of God can stir in us a love for our family (biological or spiritual) to the point that we won’t give up praying, asking, these things for them.

Paul asks God to fill them with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The word for knowledge here has a prefix that gives the added sense of a precise and correct knowledge.  How can we have a precise and correct knowledge of the God’s Will?  In fact, think of all the ways in which we are surrounded by imprecise and incorrect knowledge of God and His will.  The only way we can get this is if God reveals Himself to us, which He has been faithful to do.

Can you imagine this prayer being “answered” completely in this life?  I mean to the point where you never have to pray for it again.  This is the kind of thing that you will be asking God over and over again, not because He isn’t answering, but because the knowledge of God’s will has an incomprehensively large range.  It goes from the micro such as decisions for our individual life: jobs, marriage, kids, etc.  However, it stretches out to the macro, such as the response of our Republic and this world to the Gospel, to the point in time in which the saints will inherit the Kingdom of God.

God answers such a prayer as we live life and wrestle with it before Him in prayer.

Paul adds the modifiers of “spiritual wisdom” and “understanding.”  He calls it spiritual to highlight the source of the wisdom and understanding.  However, we know that Paul doesn’t mean just any spiritual source.  The devil is a spiritual source of false wisdom that many in the world embrace and call wisdom.  Paul clearly is pointing to a wisdom whose source is the Spirit of God.

This is what James speaks of in James 3:15.  He warns to have a wisdom from God, “from above,” versus a wisdom that is earthly, from the earth.   He uses two more words to describe a worthless wisdom.  The second is that it is sensual, that is, from our senses and flesh.  Lastly, James speaks of a wisdom that is demonic.  We can treat earthly, sensual, and demonic as three different kinds of wisdom, but they are tied together.  The devil uses our flesh and the world around us to manipulate us like he did to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of our flesh simply becomes a proxy for the wisdom of the devil because he leads us by the nose through them.

What is the difference between understanding and wisdom?  Well, understanding is an aspect.  It is the moments when we gain insight into what God wants and why He wants it.  However, wisdom flows out of understanding and answers the question, “So, what should we do?”  The source of wisdom is critical because it will direct the things we do and don’t do.

How does God fill us with the knowledge of His will?  He does so through the written Word, through mature believers, and through the help of the Holy Spirit.  This means we must be a people who are reading the Word of God (seeking His wisdom), interacting and talking with mature believers, and seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit through prayer.

Paul also asks God that they walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all respects. There is a lot of water under the bridge in this area within the Church.  There is a whole range of how people respond to a verse like this.  On one side of the range is a group that sees absolute obedience without failing as the meaning of this.  It is a legalistic perfectionism that typically has a group of elders who are the judges of how well you are doing.  On the other side of the range is a group that promotes Jesus as such a covering for our sins that we don’t even have to quit sinning.  They will even dissuade the desire to obey God because you are trying to save yourself.  This is the easy grace crowd that demands next to nothing for those who are in their group.

Let me be clear.  Jesus is worthy of absolute perfection, but Paul is not calling for this.  He is referencing the reality that we represent our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus to a world that doesn’t know them.  Part of the understanding of His will that we need is to see how God works through the way we live our lives in order to draw others to Him.  A manner “worthy of the Lord” is a focused life that seeks to please Him in everything.  Anyone who does this will find themselves failing in many things, not on purpose, but simply out of falling short of Jesus.  Yet, what do we do when we fall short?  God’s word tells us to heed the Holy Spirit, repent, and pray for His help.  We shouldn’t do this out of fear, but out of a desire to please our Lord and help his purposes.

In this area, it is important to distinguish between salvation issues and discipleship issues.  I will come back to this in a moment, but this is critical here.  This “worthy manner” phrase is not about obtaining or keeping our salvation.  It is about our discipleship in Jesus.

Paul also prays that they would bear fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God.  There is a theme that begins in Genesis 1 and flows throughout the Bible.  God made humanity to be fruitful like He is.  Yet, he connects it to “every good work.”  God is the one who defines both what is fruitful and what is a good work.  He is the source of every good thing, and it is He who puts good things in front of us to do, whatever that be.  He is the teacher of both what is good and how to do it.

Some people can be picky and choosey about what they want to do or not to do.  This calls for yielding our fleshly desires and surrendering to His heavenly desires.

When we do the work that God gives us to do well, then it bears good fruit.  This involves pruning things that are not good out of our life.  It also involves pruning things that are fine in and of themselves.  However, there is too much crowded into our life, demanding our time.  It can squelch and inhibit good fruit.  Thus, a perfectly good branch can be cut off to give more sunlight and oxygen to the other branches around it.

A person led by the Spirit of God will have the very life of God springing up within their life and flowing out into the lives of others.  This fruitfulness has the by-product of increasing our knowledge of God. 

This brings us back to the tension between salvation and discipleship.  How can we do good works?  I thought all our works were as filthy rags?  The apostle Paul was not contradicting himself.  Rather, we need to distinguish between salvation and discipleship.  None of our works and worthy walking can save us.  In and of themselves they fall short of the absolute righteousness needed to save a person.  When it comes to salvation, it is the work and walk of Jesus that can save.  He creates a place within him that we can step into by faith.  It is a faith in him.  He is the One who performed the work of saving me.  However, now that we are in that saved and cleaned place, he wants us to learn of him, become like him, discipleship.  In that saved place of trusting Jesus, we can do good works and walk worthy.  Our works are no longer filthy rags because they are done by faith in Jesus, and they are stirred up by the Spirit of God.  The works that are done in Christ and by the leading of the Holy Spirit are cleansed by Jesus, and we now do them for the right reasons, to glorify God for Jesus as opposed to trying to impress Him with us.

Paul also asks that they be strengthened with all power for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.  We can get excited about the idea of having power.  Visions of creating worlds and vanquishing the armies of Pharaoh may dance in our heads.  Yet, Paul speaks of a power that is “according to His glorious might.”  This is the power displayed by Jesus when he went to the cross.  It is in contrast to the power that the Corinthian Christians desired.  There desire was all about a power that would distinguish them above each other.  The power of Christ is distinguished by it penchant to place ourselves beneath others in order to lift them up.  It is the strength to die to what our flesh wants.  This is at the root of any good work that we may do for Christ.

Paul sees a connection between the exercise of spiritual strength and something that it produces in us.  It will make us steadfast and patient.  These two words are really about patience, but it is patience looked at from a different facet.  Steadfastness pictures patience as the ability to remain under a heavy load, rather than quitting.  It is perseverance, endurance.  The second word translated patience is the picture of not easily losing your temper and blowing your top.

Only the power of God’s Holy Spirit can help us to persevere and not lose our cool, whether this is with others or towards God.  Yet, we will need to die to the cries of our flesh to quit and get angry.  We will have to picture Jesus on the cross and choose to join Him there.

Some translations connect the phrase “with joy” to patience, i.e., having patience with joy.  Others connect it to the next verse, “joyously giving thanks…”  It is one of those strange cases where the grammar can actually allow for both interpretations.  Whether we can determine which of these Paul intended, I think the difficulty is moot in the end.  Think about it.  Is there ever a time when we shouldn’t be patient with joy?  Or is it okay for our thanksgiving to be without joy?  Regardless of which of these you think is most likely, we should do all things with joy. 

Give thanks to the Father for what He has done (v. 12-14)

We should see this as the last thing that he is praying for them.  Just as He gave thanks for them, he desires that they too become a people giving thanks to the Father, and with joy.  We should notice how all of these things tie together.  Our growing in spiritual wisdom and understanding helps us to know the Lord and be joyful for all that He does in our lives, even just for our lives.

Yet, Paul is transitioning out of what he prays for them and into a treatise about God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thus, verses 12 through 14 describe what the Father has done for us.  When we understand what He has done for us, we will joyfully give thanks to Him even in difficult times.

He points out that our Heavenly Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints of light.  This could also be translated as, “qualified us for a share [a portion, a lot] in the inheritance.”  What is this inheritance of the saints?  It is the promise throughout the Old Testament that God will give the Kingdoms of the world to His representative and the saints.  This is most clearly described in Daniel 7.  Verses 13 to 14 focus on the Son of Man (aka the Messiah) who receives full dominion over the kingdoms of the world and a Kingdom that will never end.  However, later in verse 22, it explicitly states that the saints will take possession of the Kingdom.  Thus, this singular person, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the One through whom the saints can participate in the Dominion of Messiah.

By ourselves, we were (are) not worthy to receive this kingdom.  At the tower of Babel, God casts off the nations and creates a nation for Himself out of Abraham.  The nations failed to qualify.  However, we have a similar dynamic at the cross of Jesus.  Israel is cast out of the land because it has disqualified itself as a recipient of the Kingdom.  Christ then takes a remnant of Israel and uses them to be a light to the Gentile nations.  The key to this is that Jesus was the only one, Gentile or Jew, who qualified to receive the Kingdom from the Father.  Yet, the good news is that we can participate in his qualification.

There is a present aspect to the portion that we are qualified to obtain, and there is a future aspect to it, but more on that in a moment.

Why does he use the phrase, “the saints of light?”  Saints is a reference to the fact that we are set apart for God’s purpose.  This makes us holy, holy ones, and that is what the word “saints” means.  Light here is used to refer to the God of all Light.  It is symbolic of the way that truth helps us to see the realities that exist around us.  Jesus is the light of the world.  Yet, he in turn tells us that we are the light of the world. How is that?  When we put our faith in Jesus, and his Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, the light of Jesus shines through us like a clay lamp.  In and of ourselves, we are just a clay lamp.  However, with the oil and flame of God within us, we can be used of God to shine the light, the truth, of Christ to the world.

Part of what qualifies us is that the Father has rescued us from the domain of darkness.  This is external imagery that takes on a military feel.  His people have been stuck in a kingdom of darkness and need to be rescued, like Israel in Egypt.  However, this is not a rescue from a geographical place or a particular government. 

A child born into this world starts out innocent of any evil.  Yet, the darkness of this world presses in upon them.  It seeks entrance by any means.  By the time we become adults, the darkness of this world has made us a part of its dominion.  In the end, each of our hearts is where the domain of darkness reigns.

It is the Father who sent the Son to take on the nature of a man in order to rescue us from the grip of the devil.  These people in Colossae were under the dominion of the Beast Kingdom of Rome, but now they have been rescued and are no longer at the mercy of that darkness.

Finally, the Father has transferred us to the Kingdom of the Son of His love.  God hasn’t just rescued us.  He has put us in the Kingdom of Jesus.  Of course, they are still in Colossae and must deal with the Roman governance.  This is due to the “now but not yet fully” nature of the Kingdom of Jesus. 

This kingdom will never end, but it will go through phases.  We are in the phase where he is offering terms of peace to his enemies.  “Join me!  Why will you die?  Take my hand!”

He is called the Beloved Son, or Son of His Love, because it is tying into the prophecies about the ultimate son of David.  God promised a forever kingdom ruled by one who would be a son to God and God would be a Father to him.  These prophecies of an Anointed King are fulfilled in Jesus.  He is the One who has a perfect relationship of love with the Father.  It is God’s love for Jesus that is the bedrock of our hope.  If I was alone, then I could fear that He would deny me.  However, when I am with Jesus, God will not deny Himself!

Paul ends by stating that in Jesus we have redemption and forgiveness of sins.  These are also things that the Father has done, through the work of Jesus.  These are the foundation of our qualifying to inherit the Kingdom of God. 

Those who are in Christ have forgiveness of their sins.  However, this is not so that we can go out and sin more, but so that we not lose heart and give up when we fail.  Jesus cleanses us from our sins.  Yet, our cleansed state is only as we stand in Jesus.  Yes, I can be cleansed, but I am also standing within a cleansed place, the Lord Jesus.

How can we be sure that we have been redeemed and forgiven?  It is not because you have never failed, that is for sure.  We can be sure because we are obeying what the word says: put your faith in Jesus, turn from your sin, and follow him by the help of the Holy Spirit.

I pray that you have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and are firmly in the Kingdom of the Beloved Son, Jesus.  Yes, your geography hasn’t changed, but your soul has changed!

Prayer of Thanks audio

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 1

Subtitle: A Prayer of Thanks

Colossians 1:1-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 13, 2025.

Today, we begin looking at the letter to the Colossian Church.  We will get into the background here in a second, but first let me sum up the letter as a whole.

The letter covers a wide range of things, but it essentially boils down to this.  Paul is encouraging them to remain faithful to Jesus the Christ and let the work of the Holy Spirit transform all of their relationships.

The doctrine, or teaching, of Jesus is meant to lead to a transformation of our relationships here on earth.  As we gain understanding to what God wants to do in our life, we need to surrender to His purpose.  We are called to yield to that purpose and work with the Holy Spirit in order to arrive at the end He has for us.

Let’s get into the letter.

Introduction (v. 1-2)

Letters in the New Testament typically follow the form of introducing the author first, then the recipients of the letter.  So here, we have Paul identifying himself as the author, but also as an apostle of Jesus the Christ, or Messiah.  This is not just a personal letter.  He is fulfilling his post as an apostle and has the purpose of Jesus in mind for them.

As an apostle of Jesus, he has been sent by God’s Anointed Man, not only to them, but to all the Gentiles. (See Romans 11:13 and 2 Timothy 1:11).  This calling is also “by the will of God.”  It seems unlikely that Paul would have called himself to represent Jesus to anyone.  He had persecuted the Church, and then, he turned back from this inquisition in order to join the Christians.  He had failed miserably in following God.  Yet, there is God’s grace calling him.  He knows that he is the chief of sinners, and yet, Jesus is the Chief of the redeemed!  So, he has humbled himself and publicly preached Jesus to Jews and Gentiles.

How many people in ministry want to be somebody big, whether pastors, worship leaders, prophets etc…  Whatever you do, don’t push your way into something that God hasn’t called you to do.  In fact, if many of them realized what God does to make someone a prophet, they wouldn’t want to become one.  Men and women of God are created through pain and suffering.  In the midst of the trial, their faith in God allows His message to rise up within them.  It is difficult, but it is the path our Lord walked before us, and he walks it with us even now.

Paul also mentions that Timothy is with him.  Timothy is most likely penning the letter as Paul dictates.  He is called a brother in Christ.  We will pick up some other details as we go through the letter.

Colossians is one of four letters that Paul wrote from Prison.  They are often called the Prison Epistles.  Three are next to each other in the New Testament: Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.  The fourth letter is the book of Philemon, and it has a strong connection to this letter to the Colossians.  There is good evidence that Philemon was a part of the Colossian Church, but more on that in a later sermon.

Paul’s time in prison was in the early 60s AD.  We know from Acts 28:30 that this lasted at least 2 years.  There was a great fire in the city of Rome in 64 AD.  Caesar Nero blamed this fire on the Christians and launched a persecution against them.  (Note: There was no evidence for this, and many conjectured that Nero had it done by others so that he could build a new palace.  However, that is also speculation.) 

Church tradition tells us that the apostles Paul and Peter were both killed in this time.  Whether Paul was still in prison and easy to grab, or had been released and therefore arrested at some point again, his death could salve the populous of Rome.  We are told that Paul was beheaded in Rome, which was the quick death given to citizens.  This would probably have Paul writing this letter under house arrest in Rome some time around 63 AD.

He is writing to the Christians of Co-LOS’-sae, which was a town in the province of Asia.  Here is a link to a map. 

Paul addresses them as saints.  They are holy because they have been set apart for the purpose of God in Jesus.  Saints are called to the holy duty of sharing the truth of Jesus to those who are still the “aints.”  Thus, these saints are also faithful brethren because they have responded to that purpose and are holding fast to the truth of the Gospel, which they had received.

Paul gives the salutation of Grace and Peace.  Peace (Shalom in Hebrew) was a common greeting among Jewish people, but this is even more a peace from “God our Father.”  It is radical for him to include these Gentiles in with the Jews in this phrase “our Father.”  Grace is a reference to God’s favor that is made available to all in Jesus and the Christians that he sends.  Paul desires that the peace of God and the grace of God would be theirs.

Paul gives thanks for them (v. 3-8)

In verse three, Paul relates that he prays always for them.  However, a big part of his prayers is giving God thanks for them. 

It is good for our prayers to God and our attitude towards one another to start with a foundation of thankfulness and thanksgiving. The prayers of a person who is ungrateful will be tainted with anger, frustration, and complaining.  It infects our relationship with God and the people around us.  This is true for parents to children, spouses for one another, and any other relationship you can imagine.  A good illustration of this is Israel coming out of Egypt.  After God’s amazing and powerful deliverance, they spend most of the time complaining and blaming Moses, even God for their difficult situation in the desert.  Of course, there were some among them who were thankful.  Complainers don’t see or simply dismiss the good in their life and choose to focus on the difficult.  When you are looking for something to complain about, you are going to find it.

How can a parent be thankful for an imperfect kid and a spouse for an imperfect spouse?  Our thankfulness for the other person is not based upon their perfection.  Rather, it is based upon the perfection of the God who gives us to one another.  Have you ever thought that another imperfect person is the perfect thing for us, since we are imperfect, too? 

Let’s get into the particulars of what Paul is thankful for regarding the Colossian believers.

He is thankful that they had put their faith in Jesus as the Anointed One of God and continued in that faith.  They believed that Jesus is the rightful ruler over all humanity and that he would lead them (us) into God’s inheritance for the saints.

It is one thing for Jews to embrace Jesus as Messiah.  They already believe that a Messiah is coming.  They only have to believe that Jesus is the him.  Yet, it is quite another thing for a Gentile to embrace a Jew (Jesus) as the Anointed One of God whom God has sent to be Lord over all peoples.  Paul is not taking this for granted.

We need to remember that faith is not just an intellectual belief.   It also involves the actions that flow from that belief.  These Colossian believers had joined the community of believers, and their lives were being transformed by their response to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.

He is also thankful for their love for all the saints.  Our love for one another is the proof of our love for Jesus.  We are not to have a fake worldly love, but the same love that Jesus had when he went to the cross for us.  It is the same love that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.  In each of us, there are many things that are unlovely, but in Jesus, we can live out the love of God for one another.

At verse 5, Paul goes into a digression.  Digressions are not always bad, and we should recognize that this is a digression that has been led by the Holy Spirit.  Paul simply follows a chain of thoughts that are either foundational or simply an important connection to each link in this logical chain.  In this digression, we see how the work of God in one person can lead to a community of people exercising faith in Jesus and love for each other.

These Colossian believers had put their faith in Jesus and were loving one another because of the hope that was laid up for them in heaven.  Here, we see Paul’s famous trilogy of faith, Hope and love.  The hope laid up for us in heaven is not just the idea that we will go there when we die.  The Lord Jesus is at the most secure place in the universe (next to the Father), and he is waiting until it is time to return and take up the kingdoms of the earth.  God has promised that the saints of every age will participate in this kingdom because Jesus will resurrect them to do so.

Thus, their love (our love) is not to be based on the hope that we are going to get something from each other.  Of course, love is much better when we love each other back.  However, Jesus also told us to love our enemies.  The last time I checked, enemies do not reciprocate the love that a Christian gives to them.

This hope had been explained to them when they had originally received the Good News (Gospel) about Jesus the Christ.  This hope is an essential part of the Gospel.  All believers have this hope reserved for them in heaven where nothing (no rust, no moth, no devil) can steal or corrupt it.  All believers will participate in the Kingdom of Jesus when he comes to earth again.  How?  We will be given immortal bodies, resurrected, in order to reign with him!

Paul notes that the Gospel not only came to them, but it was going into all the world.  It then began bearing fruit and increasing (verse 6), both in the world and in them.  This has been going on “ever since” they had heard and understood the truth about Jesus.

This leads Paul to mention Epaphras.  In chapter 4 verse 12 we will be told that Epaphras is from Colossae.  Apparently, he had received the Gospel on a trip (perhaps to Ephesus).  He had then taken the Gospel back to his home town.  Paul calls Epaphras a beloved “fellow bond-servant” and a “faithful minister” of Christ.  A bond-servant was a slave who only did the will of their master.  Whereas, the word minister was more of a position or job.  It refers to a person doing a service on behalf of someone who is greater than them.  These twin ideas of being a slave and being a servant recognize the dual aspect we have in Christ.  On one hand, he has purchased us back from slavery to sin.  We owe him everything, our very lives.  Yet, in his love for us, Jesus does not treat us as slaves.  Rather, we become volunteers serving his purposes.

All of these things that Paul is mentioning were related to him by Epaphras who had apparently visited Paul in his imprisonment.  Thus, in verse 8, Paul writes that Epaphras had informed him about their love in the Spirit.  In a way, this just comes back full circle to the love of the saints that he had mentioned earlier.  However, loving in the Spirit emphasizes the leading of the Holy Spirit in their expressions of love.  Loving in the Spirit is similar to the way that Paul talks about walking in the Spirit in Romans 8.  Walking in the Spirit is equated to being led by the Spirit.  In this case, they are being led by the Spirit in how to love one another.

It is easy to say that we love people, as long as we are in charge of what that love will look like.  But, the Spirit of God challenges believers to love one another in very specific ways.  Our love for one another needs to look like the love of Jesus.  It needs to be sacrificial, in obedience to God and in honor of Him.

The world is good at creating an outward show that it can point to in order to declare that it is loving.  Of course, these are the kind of people who hire image consultants to help them look better.  God save us from image consultants.  What we need is the Holy Spirit teaching us how to love.  What we need is to die to ourselves and say yes to the Spirit by doing the hard things that He inspires.  We need a Holy Spirit transformation!

Can we give thanks to God even when things are going “in the wrong direction?”  This is where our faith in the hope that God has reserved for us can help us to be thankful.  Even if things are really headed in the wrong direction- and I am skeptical of our ability to judge that well- the God who loves us enough to send Jesus to die for us on a cross can work it around to our good.  Can I trust that?  Our flesh can’t, but our spirit can!  We can have hope because God’s faithfulness is not based upon our perfection.  We can say that even now God is being faithful to us, so we have nothing to fear!

Colossians 1 audio

The Battle of the Mind- 2

Subtitle: The Help of the Holy Spirit

John 14:16-18, 25-27.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 8, 2025.

We have been talking about the mental battle that Christians face.  This battle would be too much for us alone.  However, God gives us help through the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, God has helped us all along the way.  He has assisted humanity by acting within time to reveal His plan.  He sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins and lead us into an inheritance that none of us deserve.  He also restrains the full extent of what the devil would do if he could.

Today on Pentecost Sunday, we are going to focus on the help that we receive through the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.  Let’s look at the many different ways that the Holy Spirit helps us.

The Holy Spirit is given to help us (v. 16-18)

At its core, the message of Jesus here is that he is going to send the Holy Spirit after he leaves.  This happened 50 days after his death on the Feast of Pentecost (also called the Feast of Weeks).

The Holy Spirit is not taking the place of Jesus in an absolute sense.  He only does so in the sense of expanding the ability of the man Jesus to teach and lead every believing heart at once.

When Jesus told his disciples that he would not leave them nor forsake them, we can in a snarky manner that he did leave them.  Yes, Jesus physically left, but through the Spirit of God, he is spiritually with every believer in a very real way.  He works through the Holy Spirit.

In verse 16, a word is used of the Holy Spirit that is translated in various ways.  The NASB translate it as “Helper.”  Other versions choose “Comforter,” “Advocate,” and “Counselor.”  All of these can be good translations depending on the context.  In this context, I think that some of them are too narrow.

The Greek Word is technically called the Paraclete in English, and has the idea of One who is called alongside of another for assistance.  There are a multitude of contexts from dire to anxious that would color just what assistance is needed.  In this passage, the emphasis is on the Holy Spirit helping us in the ways that Jesus had been doing.  I think that Helper is the best translation here because it leaves room for all the many ways we can need help.  Whatever we need, the Holy Spirit comes alongside of believers to be God’s help for us, whether comforter, counselor, advocate, even teacher, rebuker, conviction, and the one who disciplines us.  Of course, God can use people in our lives, and He does.  However, there are some things that only God can help us with.

Let me focus on the idea that the Holy Spirit will be a helper like Jesus (i.e., another helper).  Imagine how these disciples would feel.  Israel had waited 15 centuries and before that the patriarchs too.  God was not sending Messiah to do a 3 ½ year work and then just leave.  Yes, Jesus is trying to explain that he is going away.  Yet, at the same time, he wants them to know that the Holy Spirit will be given to them.  The assistance that Jesus had given in those days would continue through the help of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit would cut through the religious deception and the nationalistic patriotism, to the core of a right relationship with God.

Jesus would continue to work on the heart of his disciples through the Holy Spirit, which is called the Spirit of Christ in Romans 8:9.  In fact, it has actually increased his ability to speak and work in the lives of his disciples world-wide, all at once.

The wisdom of God is in this reality.  It allows for a time of teaching and training mortal believers.  It is good for us to learn to wrestle with our flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We become more like Jesus in this.  It also gives opportunity for people to turn from rebellion against God and switch allegiance to Jesus before he comes to reign on this earth.  This is the mercy of God.  Lastly, as I’ve already pointed out, Jesus is enabled to work beyond an earthly body at one point on the earth.  He can do much more in preparing this earth for the kingdom of God.

Now, God has always been a helper to those who trust Him.  Psalm 46:1-3 says,

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.”

When we look at this passage, we can envision God being a great help in the time of natural disasters, and of course, He is that!  However, these things are also metaphors.  Mountains are often used to picture the great powers that rule on the earth.  The bigger the mountain the bigger the kingdom.  The sea and waters is often used as a picture of the peoples of the earth.  It is also a place where the chaos dragon (satan) swims and lurks. 

Of course, Noah had both the literal and the metaphorical all at once!  Yet, God was His help.  Such things cause us to fear, but we can trust in God, His power over all things, especially death, and refuse to let the fear control us.

Verse 17 of John 14 refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth.  The Holy Spirit was the one who moved upon men to write down the truth that God was revealing to them.  He is a truthful Spirit, but He also comes to reveal the Truth, point to the Truth.  Jesus is the ultimate Truth!

Notice that it says, “whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him.”  This is talking about the world system that has conformed to the spirit of the devil, antichrist, error, non-Truth.  That unholy spirit that works in this world is not at all like the Holy Spirit.

Of course, the world can conform to things of Christ in the same way that Judas did.  It can do things in an attempt to look like a follower of Jesus, but in the end, it will never truly embrace the transformational power of Jesus that comes through the Holy Spirit.

This world and worldly Christians are tuned into a different spirit.  They receive and chase after a false-help that only harms those who rely upon it.

Though the world does not know the Spirit of Truth, the disciples of Jesus will know Him because He will be with them and in them.  In relation to the world, we are pressured to conform to a system and an image that is antichrist and anti-Holy-Spirit.  However, when we turn from the world and put our faith in Jesus, we can receive the Holy Spirit, the help of God.

Back in verse 1 of this chapter, Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled.  You believe in God; believe also in Me!”  All of this is done in order to encourage his disciples, us, that we are not being left alone in this world as he goes away.  He is shoring up their minds for the things ahead so that they do not collapse under the weight of the enemy’s attacks.  Their minds are set on reigning with Jesus any day now.  But, that was not to be.  Yet, the Holy Spirit would help them to navigate the reality that they would instead be persecuted and abused.

How the Holy Spirit helps us (v. 26-27)

We are going to look at some particular ways that the Holy Spirit helps us in these two verses.  Then, we will look at some other ways from various passages in a rapid-fire fashion.

Jesus had spent a lot of time with these men and had taught them many things in the last three years.  Yet, their heads were full of notions of ruling Israel and kicking out the Romans.  In other words, they weren’t paying attention at the level they should have.  Who can blame them?  Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit would help these men to remember all that he had taught them.  This is one reason we know that we have an accurate record of what Jesus taught.  He promised that the Holy Spirit would help to make this happen.

You and I have not had the same experience as these men.  We need to read the Gospels and the letters of the Apostles in order to know what Jesus taught.  However, the Holy Spirit will then help us to remember the words of Christ, that we have read or heard, when we need them.  At the due season, the Holy Spirit brings things strategically to our remembrance.

Jesus also told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things.  It is clearly understood that it would be all the things that God would want them to know and that would be helpful to them.  This is not a guarantee that the apostles would become omniscient and know everything.  We can become fascinated with figuring out things that are only a diversion at best.  This promise is not about that.

In John 16:12-13, Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth."  Just as Jesus had counseled them in the moment, so the Holy Spirit would help the early Church to establish a clear record of what Christ taught, and led them to believe through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is still leading the Church of Jesus, but we need to exercise caution in this area.  We must walk in humility.  All saints wrestle with the Truth of God’s word and their own shortcomings.  The Holy Spirit is here to help us, but we need to listen humbly.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees laid claim to this, but they had abandoned the Word of God for the sake of their own traditions.  They had become antichrist all while claiming to be waiting for the Christ.  Yes, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all Truth, but sometimes that will be despite the contrary efforts of authority figures in the Church.

The Holy Spirit would also help them with peace.  Verse 27 focuses on the peace that Christ would leave with them.  Contextually, the peace is both what he is telling them, and specifically, the peace-giving effect of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Here are a couple of verses that emphasize the peace that we are given by God.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3, also

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”  Romans 8:5-6.

When the Holy Spirit resides with in us, there will be liberty, joy and peace.

Looking at some other passages, we can add other aspects of the help of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy spirit makes us fruitful in the virtues of God.  Virtues are those moral qualities that are quite selfish without the Holy spirit.  Many of them are listed in Galatians 5:22-23.  Using a fruit metaphor, Paul describes what happens in the life of a person who truly has the Holy Spirit within them.  They will evidence these things (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control).  However, they will be as God defines and not as the culture around us defines them.

The Holy Spirit will work within you to teach you how to love, have joy and peace, how to be patient and kind, how to be good to others, how to be faithful to God first and also to the people around us, how to be gentle and control ourselves.

All fruit trees require pruning.  Some branches are cut off because they are dead and have no life in them.  These represent the works of the flesh that are contrary to the fruit listed above.  However, other branches are cut off to make room for fruit in our lives.  This can be things that are perfectly good, but get in the way of what God is doing in our life.  In fact, when it comes to pruning, there are some things in our life that God will prune Himself, without asking us.  Yet, other things He will not prune for us.  Instead, the Holy Spirit points them out to us and shows us how to cut them off.  Of course, we need to be humble and trust the Spirit of God.  How fruitful do you want to be? 

We can even recognize that some things change rather quickly, whereas, other things only change over long periods of time.  Jesus doesn’t say that you will never fail.  But he does promise that the Holy Spirit will be there to help you.  You may fail, but He will not fail to keep teaching you the better way to live and follow Jesus.

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us that we are the children of God.  This is one of the areas that people struggle with when they first put their faith in Jesus.  Am I really a child of God?  Did I really receive the Holy Spirit?  These are valid questions.  Paul emphasizes the help of the Holy Spirit in this area in Romans 8:15-16.

This inner testimony of the Holy Spirit may be subjective from the perspective of other people, but for you, it is very real.  When people ask me the questions above, I remind them of that first time they knew they needed to turn away from their old life and embrace Jesus.  No one just does that on their own.  I mean no one does that in a real way.  Sure, there are many pretenders, but pretenders always know that they are only posers.  Just as the Holy Spirit first touched your heart and mind in a way that you knew what to do, so He continues that same work.  Yes, there is a mystery to it, but you know it when it happens.  It is He who testifies to you (from time to time) that you really are a child of God.

God did not make us to be slaves to our flesh and useful idiots for the devil.  This world system and the devil do not want you to follow the Holy Spirit.  But, the Holy Spirit testifies to us that we can turn our back on the world and the devil and learn to image our Father in heaven by becoming like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit also helps us pray.  Again, in Romans 8:26-27, Paul speaks to this.  You see, the Holy Spirit not only helps us know what to pray about, but He also fills in the gap when we don’t know what to say.  Perhaps grief has hit you or your heart is overwhelmed by something else.  You may be perplexed and cry out to God in tears.  Like Israel in Egypt, their cries were heard by the Lord.  I don’t think all of them were praying prayers, though some surely were.  Yet, the Spirit interprets the anguish of our heart before the Father.

The picture of verse 27 is that God’s Holy Spirit plumbs the depths of our hearts and relays what is discovered there back to God.  Yet, all of this is done according to the will of God, that is, for our good, to build us up and not to tear us down.

Lastly, the Holy Spirit fills us with power for life and service for Jesus.  God intends for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  We see this in Acts 1:7-8.  Jesus wants his people to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that they can have power for living the Christian life, which involves a battle against our flesh, the world, and the devil.  He also gives us power for serving our fellow believers through giftings that are not from a natural source or talent.  It is a gifting directly from the Holy Spirit.  He also empowers us to share the Gospel with those who do not know Jesus.  In fact, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would empower them so much that they would take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and people from every nation, tribe, and tongue would become followers of Jesus.  This is exactly what we have seen over the last 20 centuries.  Are you taking your place among this people of power who are enabled to share the Gospel with the lost?

In all of these things, we are being helped by the Spirit of God.  The best way that we can thank Jesus for this gift of his Spirit is by embracing the help of the Holy Spirit in your life today!

Holy Spirit Helps audio