Title: Get Gripped by the Will of God (Colossians 1:9-14).

Class Outline:

Sunday July 19^th 2026

 

Main idea: Being filled with the knowledge of God’s will is the result of your putting your faith in the wisdom of God revealed by the Spirit in the Scripture and then having faith the Spirit will give you understanding in applying wisdom to all of life.

 

Text:

 

COL 1:9-14

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

 

13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 

Link from thanksgiving to intercession.

 

Stimulated prayer:

Paul’s prayer is following his thanksgiving. He is impelled (“For this reason”) to because he is thankful.

 

Thankfulness is not a means of cooling off in prayer, but for Paul is moved to prayer in petition.

 

The parallels between both halves of the prayer emphasizes to the Colossians (and to us) that we must continue the course we have begun. We must run the race.

 

Sustained prayer:

“We have not ceased…” He does not forget to continue to pray.

 

How often have we begun to pray for someone and then forgotten?

 

Specific prayer:

Paul’s petition is specific, direct, and straight forward.

 

Why? In Colossae, false teachers were spreading the lies that said there was a secret way to the knowledge of God that Epaphras and Paul did not know. What is Paul saying? The knowledge of God’s will is in Christ and if you know Him you have it completely.

 

COL 2:2-3

Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

 

What is God’s will?

 

Hebrew does not have a word for “will.” The words used in the OT are “delight” or “pleasure,” “favor,” “to be pleased with,” “heart” or “word.”

 

The will of God is the delight and pleasure of God, from His heart and in His word. All His creatures expected to obey it.

 

Be filled with the knowledge of His will.

 

Be filled (pleroo, aorist passive): God is the agent of filling.

 

Knowledge: epignosis - full knowledge, further emphasized by “all” wisdom and “all” understanding.

 

The motif of “fullness’ recurs frequently in this epistle (COL 1:19, COL 1:24-25: COL 2:2-3, COL 2:9-10; COL 4:12, COL 4:17).

 

Be filled = let the knowledge of God’s will (delight, pleasure) grip you.

Get Gripped!

 

JOH 15:11

“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”

 

ROM 15:14

I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge

 

You have to obey His will in order to know it.

 

PRO 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And do not lean on your own understanding.

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will make your paths straight.

 

ROM 12:1-2

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

 

JAM 1:22

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

 

Filled with the knowledge of His will means to be gripped by seeing, agreeing, accepting, and integrating into your life the will of God.

 

All wisdom by the Spirit and all understanding by the Spirit.

 

Wisdom (sophia):  faith in the first principles of Scripture.

 

A settled condition of the mind that is controlled and enlightened by the Spirit of truth.

 

First principles are axiomatic or self-evident. They are bedrock.

 

They are what God says is, is not, is true, false, right, wrong about everything.

 

Notice how you get wisdom? Faith. Wisdom is by the Spirit.

 

Spiritual - (pneumatikos); the adjective in the emphatic position modifies both wisdom and understanding and is the source - given by the Spirit.

 

Again, faith is in view. You set yourself before the Word of God and by faith you read and heard its authority and accepted it.

 

What is the beginning of wisdom according to the book of Proverbs? The fear of the Lord. Many a modern Christian have no idea what the phrase means.

 

We want solutions and blessings without committing completely to the wisdom of Christ.

 

And so, we are not gripped by the knowledge of His will.

 

Understanding (sunesis): ability to apply the first principles of Scripture to all of life’s situations.

 

These are in a proper order. You cannot have sunesis without wisdom. We are going to face unique situations that demands unique understanding.

 

It is faith knowing that the Holy Spirit is going to give understanding. It is supernatural, just as much as being confident in God’s wisdom. By the Spirit of God. And we submit to and do God’s will in everything.

 

All (pas) - applies to both wisdom and understanding. Nothing is overlooked. Nothing is independent from God’s will (delight and pleasure).

 

Conclusion:

 

The example of Christ:

 

HEB 10:5-7

"Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired,

But a body Thou hast prepared for Me;

6 In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure.

7 "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come

 (In the roll of the book it is written of Me)

To do Thy will, O God.'"

 

No animal blood atoned for one sin. The Son of God said, “I am coming into the world as a man to atone for all sin, for I am full of the knowledge of My Father’s will.”

 

In the roll of the book: the wisdom and understanding by the Spirit which He would rely upon.

 

LUK 2:40

The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing [having been filled; pleroo: passive] in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

 

Believer, you have been given this privilege in the same manner as the Lord of glory.

 

The false teachers are all around you. They’re telling you that faith is not enough. That Christ is not enough - all lies.

 

So simple and yet so marvelous. Get wisdom by the Spirit by faith. Get understanding by the Spirit by faith. Then allow God to fill you will the deep knowledge of His will in all things.

 

And why do that? Read on…