SERMON SPOTLIGHT * 2/23/25
Today’s text is a call to Mission-Minded Prayer. Praying with God’s redemptive purposes in mind. In a sentence: Being on gospel mission includes praying for our gospel mission. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.
SERIES: Colossians: Alive in Christ
TEXT: Colossians 4:2-4
TITLE: A Mission-Minded Prayer Life
PREACHER: Derek Overstreet
BIG IDEA: Being on gospel mission includes praying for our gospel mission.
POINTS:
I. The Priority of Prayer
II. A Priority in Prayer
SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes, and text emphasis, are taken directly from the pastor’s notes.
”It’s not that we can’t pray for anything else but our gospel mission, rather, because everything is connected to and finds its ultimate purpose in our gospel mission: Being on gospel mission includes praying for our gospel mission.”
“Prayer is critical to the Christian life and Paul’s words remind us of that. We are too busy, too weak, too foolish, and too blessed not to pray. Like the characteristics we have already seen in Ch 3—an aggressive hatred for sin, a passionate pursuit of righteousness, and humility and grace in the home and workplace, prayer should mark the Christian life.”
“This is Paul’s point when he says—Continue steadfastly in prayer or pray without ceasing. The point is not that we are to pray every waking moment but that our lives should be devoted to prayer.”
“Prayer should be the Christian’s first impulse. We pray often, repeatedly, and without giving up. Prayer is not a hit-and-miss discipline reserved for difficult seasons of life. It’s a lifestyle born out of our dependence on God that permeates all we do. So more than a spiritual discipline box to be checked off, God desires that we live with an attitude of prayer—Continue steadfastly in prayer.”
“This is a divine command to be obeyed. But it’s also a heavenly invitation. God loves it when His people pray.”
“God desires that we ask Him for things - Philippians 4:6. God delights in the prayers of His people - Proverbs 15:8. God secured the privilege of prayer with the blood of His Son - Hebrews 4:14-16.”
“God invites us to speak to Him, to come to Him with our praises and requests. In Jesus, the name we bear before the throne above, the God who speaks and holds the stars into place, who creates life in the womb, who numbers the grains of sand on the earth and the hairs on our heads, He says, speak to me, pray—My ear is open to you!”
“Is prayer a priority in your life? The question is not meant to condemn your conscience; it’s meant to drive you to Jesus, you’re only defense before God, the one who qualifies you to pray. If you lack the desire to pray, the God of sanctifying grace has His ear open to you—Pray and ask Him to help you.”
“To be watchful is to be alert or awake. We don’t sleepwalk through our prayers. We don’t pray on autopilot. The idea of watchfulness in prayer is that our prayers reflect that we grasp the spiritual realities of the moment we live in, what we are called to, and what is at stake.”
“Paul isn’t exhorting us to wordiness or turning our prayers into theological dissertations. When it comes to prayer, God cares about our faith. Watchfulness in prayer is praying with a gospel-informed consciousness. It’s a mission-minded watchfulness shaped by God’s redemptive purposes.”
“In the context of Colossians:
Their prayers should reveal that they are alert and awake to the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ (1:15-21) and who they are in Christ (3:1-4).
Their prayers should be informed by the sovereign purposes of God through His church to save sinners (1:28).
Their prayers should reflect an awareness of the temptations of mixing the world’s ways with God’s (2:8).
As they pray, they should be conscious of God’s desire that they live a life pleasing to Him (1:10) and do all things for his glory (3:17).
Their prayers should reveal the hope they have in the triumphant return of Christ (3:4).”
“Jesus demonstrated this mission-minded watchfulness as he went off to pray on the eve of his death in the Garden of Gethsemane—Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation—he told the disciples. In other words, be alert to the moment. Be spiritually awake to what is at stake. Know what is happening here. Don’t be spiritually lazy, pray for me in my time of need and guard your own hearts—The mission is moving forward.”
“Paul’s prayer is a mission-minded prayer. Here’s the question for us: Whatever our circumstances, whatever our needs, whatever our station in life, do we see it all through our gospel mission to live for and tell others about Christ? If we do, our prayers will reflect it in some way.”
“A mission-minded prayer life. It really isn’t complicated. You don’t need a seminary degree, you just need to know Jesus.”
“Being watchful in prayer is not about living anxious and scared. It’s not about connecting the dots between every global event and Christ’s return. Fear doesn’t motivate and energize a mission-minded prayer life. Thanksgiving for Jesus, all we are and have in him, the certainty of all that God is doing, and the unfading hope we have that Jesus will return in glory—that energizes our prayers and saturates our prayer life with thanksgiving.”
QUOTES:
Charles Spurgeon- “Prayer can never be in excess.”
John Woodhouse - “Praying like Paul comes not from a sense of guilt at not praying enough, or even a mere duty that Christians should pray, but from watchfulness and thankfulness. Watchfulness and thankfulness come, not from just being told to be watchful and thankful, but from the extraordinary thing that God has done and is doing. It is a marvelous circle. If you are filled with the knowledge of God’s will you cannot but be joyfully thanking him. If you are really thanking him, how can you not be praying that his marvelous work will have its full effect in you, your friends, in the whole world?”
APPLICATION:
How often do I find myself justifying prayerlessness with busyness? (even good busyness)
When my typical prayer time gets bumped, do I desperately find some way to still pray?
What characterizes you most when someone shares a need with you: I‘ll pray for you, or, Let me pray for you right now? (Pause and Pray)
In your efforts to be productive, do you functionally view prayer as unproductive? (Spurgeon—A little prayer between me and everything I do)
SONGS FROM THIS SUNDAY:
It Is Finished
We Have Been Healed
The Greatest Of All
Jesus Thank You
Father You Are All We Need
NEXT WEEK’S PASSAGE:
Colossians 4:5-6
THE BOOK OF THE QUARTER:
