This is a manuscript I (Jeremy Barahona) preached from on 04/27/2025. This is not a word-for-word record of the sermon, but my reference as I spoke. I was encouraged by a few of our members, so much so that one of them encouraged me to “pass on the notes”.
Introduction
Today, I am going to ask you to turn in your Bibles to Colossians 1:9-14. Last week, we emphasized and celebrated Easter- the resurrection of Jesus. For the Christian, we ought to celebrate the resurrection every day and learn its implications for life. Today, I want us to look at a passage that teaches us what life should look like after we have decided to follow Christ. Read and pray.
For the next few minutes, I’d like to speak on the subject: Knowing the Will of God. To be human entails making decisions; decisions like who I should marry, how I should spend my money and time, and where I should work. I’ve found that humans either know what they want to do and just want validation, or they don’t know what decision to make. So, humans embark on a journey to look for signs and confirmations.
As it pertains to Christianity, it is a lifestyle, and like any lifestyle, decisions must be made with consideration for how it will affect that lifestyle and vice versa; how that lifestyle will inform the decision you have to make.
In the passage we just read, it speaks about the will of God for our lives. God has a will for your life, and He wants you to know it. Equally as important, God has a particular direction for this church in this neighborhood.
For the journey of discovering God’s Will, this passage tells us how we can know the Will of God, its purpose, and what it looks like to do it. As we get into this, I want us to see that the Bible wants to teach us to discern God’s Will for our lives individually and as a community, and practically speaking, they should work together, not against one another.
Spiritual Insight
The first thing we can see in this passage is how we discover the Will of God. The Will of God is discerned through prayer for spiritual insight. This is what Paul and his mission team are doing for the Colossian church. The text says they were asking ‘God to fill them with knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives (NIV)’. Some translations say that they may be ‘filled with knowledge of the Will of God in all spiritual wisdom and understanding’.
By implication, spiritual insight comes from the Spirit of God that lives in every Christian. The way you tap into the Spirit’s wisdom and understanding is through prayer. But notice that this is not just you praying individually; prayer includes other Christians praying for your life, too.
We live in a culture that over-celebrates our individuality. However, the Bible reminds us that the Christian life has a communal dimension we cannot miss! Hence, if you want to know God’s will, pray about what you are seeking to know from God. And don’t just pray, invite the community of God to pray with you. According to this text, communal prayer is the vehicle through which you glean the Spirit’s wisdom and understanding of God’s Will.
Spiritual Formation
The Apostle then tells us the purpose of knowing and doing God’s Will. The purpose of God’s Will is your spiritual formation. Verse 10 tells us to pray for God’s will, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way…’ To ‘walk worthy’ is a metaphor that means to live as if you were qualified to be in a relationship with Jesus. It’s the kind of life that pleases Jesus.
This phrase is an oxymoron in my mind. The Gospel message implies that in and of ourselves, we are not qualified to be in a relationship with Jesus. We are sinners who deserve the wrath of Jesus because we naturally and intentionally live according to our own will (this is the bad news!). But the Good News is that, in the Gospel message, the death of Jesus qualifies us to be in a relationship with God and therefore positions us to do God’s Will. I’ll explain this more in a few minutes. But, considering our position in Christ, we ought to know that God’s Will positions us to be Christlike, not the contrary.
Spiritual Growth
This brings up the question: How do we know we are walking worthy/pleasing God in our decisions? We know we are doing God’s Will when we are making a decision that enables spiritual growth.
Spiritual growth is measured by growth in 4 areas: 1) Fruitfulness, 2) Theology, 3) Faithfulness, and 4) Gratitude. Let’s break each down briefly. The first is that of fruitfulness. Paul prayed that they would bear fruit in every good work in verse 10. In light of verse 6, bearing fruit refers to non-Christians hearing and understanding the Gospel from you (Although we didn’t read verse 6, we must read and understand the literary context!). The second growth mark is that of theology. Theology is a word that refers to your study/understanding of who God is from the Bible and what living as a Christian means. This is what Paul means when he prays that they would grow in the knowledge of God at the end of verse 10. The third growth mark is that of faithfulness in verse 11. He prays that they would grow in the strength found in God’s strength. This is the kind of strength that endures and is patient for His coming. The last mark of spiritual growth is that of gratitude for your salvation. Paul prayed that they would, according to Colossians 1:12, “
joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light (NIV).”
The reason for our gratitude is explained. Here Paul says what I mentioned before: God qualified us for the inheritance of eternal life. How? Verse 13 tells us that it was through the rescue and redemption of Christ. Redemption here means to be bought with the price of Jesus’ broken body and blood.
These are the four signs of spiritual growth connected to God’s Will. To summarize, God’s Will results in Gospel fruitfulness, theological development, faithfulness, and gratitude for the Gospel.
Conclusion
Now this biblical picture confronts the way we often perceive God’s Will or the way we make decisions. Sometimes we ask God to give us a sign of His will. And we try to perceive God’s will according to the opportunities that come up or the doors that slam shut in our face.
This approach is not necessarily wrong, but it’s also not necessarily right. Sometimes good opportunities or certain desires are not always founded on the guidance of God’s Spirit in prayer; sometimes they don’t serve the purpose of our spiritual formation- to be formed into the image of Christ; sometimes they don’t grow us spiritually. On the contrary, sometimes it’s the good opportunities and the desires that we have that keep us away from doing God’s Will.
Yet, the good news is that this text is both clarifying and freeing. It clarifies how we should discern God’s Will for our lives and gives us the freedom to make decisions. For this reason, I want to give you 3 questions to ask yourself when trying to know the Will of God:
- Have I prayed about this decision with other Christians? Notice this entails telling others what is actually going on.
- How will this form me spiritually? Will this decision allow me to grow in Christlikeness or move me further from Him?
- Will this grow me in the ways outlined in Colossians 1:10-13?
If you can answer these questions positively, my encouragement is that you have the freedom to make decisions. And if you can’t, my encouragement would be that you slow down and invite others to pray with you and to speak into your situation. Let’s pray.