COLOSSIANS 1:9-14 YOU ME AND GOD IN MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY2026 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Colossians 1:9-14 You Me And God In My Spiritual Journey

You are listening to Fervent Word, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry B. Simmons in 2026.

As we look at Colossians chapter 1 this morning, I've titled the message, "You, Me, and God in My Spiritual Journey." "You, Me, and God in My Spiritual Journey." And I want to encourage you to think about that personally. The "My Spiritual Journey," don't in your notes write "Jerry's Spiritual Journey." You could put your own name there.

It's your spiritual journey and the different players in that journey and the different roles that there are for that journey. "You, Me, and God in My Spiritual Journey." Sometimes we get mixed up about our roles in this life of faith. And sometimes we get mixed up, and it really messes things up.

It really causes some damage to ourselves and those around us when we confuse whose responsibility it is for the different aspects of our spiritual journey. Just as if those players taking the field today mixed up their roles, and the kicker thought he was the quarterback and was trying to fulfill that role,

and, you know, things would be awful. The team would not go well. The game would not go well because, well, everybody has their role, and it's designed on purpose to all work together and fit together to accomplish the end result and the victory. In a similar way, our spiritual journey,

the life that God has set before us, there are things that are definitely our role. Personally, individually, we have responsibility in that. But there's also many things that are not our responsibility. And sometimes we try to take on those responsibilities, and it's damaging to us and those around us.

And so we're going to look at five words today and the different roles related to them. If you're going to write these down, you can put them down as, number one, salvation; number two, qualification; number three, strength; number four, fruitfulness; and number five, master plan.

Now, we'll go through those again, so if you didn't get them all the time or this time, that's okay, but I'll just repeat them one more time: salvation, qualification, strength, fruitfulness, and master plan. As we look at these things, again, looking at each one with the roles that are involved in each to help us understand our place,

God's place, and the place of people around us as well torightly fulfill the life that God has set before us and the spiritual journey that God has called us to. Now, the book of Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul, and it was a letter that was written to this church that Paul had never been to, but he knew of them.

He was praying for them, and the church had been really challenged recently by some false teaching that had been worked into the mix. And there was some false teachers and proponents of this false doctrine that was involving a mixture of supposedly secret knowledge,

mysticism, as well as legalism that they kind of brought in from Judaism. And so it was a mixture of legalism, mysticism, and the secret knowledge that you could only have if you learned it from these special people.

And Paul here wants the Colossians to know he wants you and I to know this morning: you have everything that you need found in Jesus Christ. There is no secrets. It is more of Jesus that you need, and that really is the key to our successful and fruitful Christian life.

Today, it is common for believers in the Lord to forget all of that, though, and to be chasing after the next thing and to be hoping for some, you know, quick fix, some alternate solution, some delve into legalism still today. Some are on a search for higher and deeper knowledge,

trying to fulfill themselves in some way apart from the Lord and what He has provided through His Word. Many are seeking a quick and easy fix for knowledge or for holiness or for wisdom when it really comes from diving into and being consistent in our relationship with God.

And so here, the Apostle Paul, as he's writing to the Colossians with these things in mind, he puts together this prayer in verses 9 through 14. And it's just a little glimpse of what the whole book entails, and it's a powerful combination of truths for us to reflect on. Now, as we work our way through the passage this morning, we're going to go through it backwards.

And you say, "Jerry, why are you going to go through it backwards?

It's kind of weird." And I say, "Well, I didn't plan that.

I'm a guest speaker, so I can be weird if I want to, and you just don't have to invite me back, okay?" So we're going to start in verse 13 and 14 to talk about salvation. I'm going to read verse 13 and 14 again as we go through this. Can you spot the roles?

Think about the role of you, me, and God in the spiritual journey found in verses 13 and 14. It says, "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood,

the forgiveness of sins." I start here in verse 13 and 14 because here Paul is talking about salvation, the gospel. He's talking about the work of God in our lives, transforming us from death into life, being born again by faith in Jesus Christ.

And as you look at these verses, I think it's kind of hard not to notice our utter helplessness in these verses. As we deal with salvation, as we talk about this, notice that we are not hugely present in these verses. We are recipients in these verses,

but we are not the ones doing the action. In fact, it starts in verse 13, "He has." This is about what God has done. And so here we find God's role is to provide salvation for us. Notice it says, "He has delivered us." Still talking about Him,

it's He who has conveyed us into the kingdom. And it's in Him that we have redemption. How? Through His blood, which is the forgiveness of sins. God's role in this is to provide for us, to offer to us, to do the work of salvation.

Now, it was meditating on these verses that prompted me to study this passage to share with you this morning because it conveyed in my mind it brought up in my mind this image. And I don't know if you are going to be familiar with this, but a lot of you are older than I am,

so you're probably going to be familiar with it. Who has not seen that clip of Lucy and Ethel working in the chocolate factory? Everybody knows this scene,right? Everybody knows this. If you don't know it, maybe it's on TikTok. If you can't find it on TikTok, somebody put it on there.

It needs to be on TikTok, okay? Lucy and Ethel are charged with wrapping chocolates as they come down the conveyor belt. They're working at the chocolate factory. They're not doing so good. This is their last chance. And so here they are. They're sitting there. The conveyor belt is going by. It starts to move, and chocolates slowly start to come down the conveyor belt.

And they begin to think, "Wow, this is nice and easy. It's pretty comfortable pace." And so they're taking the chocolate off, wrapping it, putting it back on. If they allow one chocolate to get by them that is unwrapped, they're going to be fired. Well, it begins to turn into trouble when the conveyor belt speeds up a little bit, and there's now more chocolates coming.

It starts at an easy pace, but as it speeds up, they can't keep up. And so they start taking chocolates and shoving them in their mouth. They start shoving them in their pockets and in their hats and eventually, of course, predictable, they can't keep up, and they are let go because they can't wrap the chocolates fast enough.

That's a perfect picture of each one of us apart from God's plan of salvation. No, no, we're not Lucy. We're not Ethel. We're the chocolates. We're chocolates on a conveyor belt headed towards destruction.

As chocolates on the conveyor belt, the reason why somebody had to wrap them is because chocolates are completely unable to wrap themselves. Chocolates are completely unable to get themselves off the belt. They're just sitting there. And the reason why there's a conveyor belt is because the chocolates can't move themselves from station to station,right?

They're just there. All they can do is just rest on the conveyor belts, be wrapped if somebody chooses to wrap them. They have no power in and of themselves. And that is the picture that Paul is painting for us here in Colossians chapter 1, verse 13 and 14. We are those chocolates on the conveyor belt,

and He has delivered us. We were on the belt headed towards destruction with no power to get off, with no power to change ourselves, to wrap ourselves in clothes of righteousness, no ability to do anything on our own. But He has delivered us.

That word delivered, it means to drag out of danger, to rescue. He has rescued us from the path of destruction. We were trapped on the path. We couldn't get off. It was certain destruction unless someone stepped in and brought deliverance.

And it's God who has done that. He delivered us, notice, from the power of darkness. As a result of our sin condition, we were trapped in bondage to the power of darkness, trapped in our sin, destined for destruction.

But God has provided salvation. He delivered us from the power of darkness. But not only that, He didn't just pull us off the conveyor belt, but He put us on a new conveyor belt. It says in verse 13, "He conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." That word convey,

where we get conveyor belt from, it means to cause a change of position, to transport. So not only has He rescued us off of the conveyor belt of destruction, but He has placed us on the conveyor belt that ends in the kingdom of God, in the kingdom of the Son of His love.

We get brought into the kingdom of God because of what God has done. Like chocolates on a conveyor belt, we had no power to change our position, to move ourselves into the kingdom of God. We can't do that. We have no ability, no capability. There's no way.

But He has conveyed us.

Since it is Super Bowl Sunday, I took the liberty of looking up this fact. Did you know waterboys receive Super Bowl rings if their team wins? I mean, you know, they do have a part,right? They get to provide water and catering and such.

But effectively, we could also agree saying they didn't do anything to get the team to the victory,right? But they get the ring in a similar way. We get the ring because He has conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

It's all about Him. God has provided this salvation. In Him, we have redemption, and it's through His blood. The idea of redemption is a purchasing back or the release on the payment of a ransom.

The payment that Christ paid with His blood was to take care of the debt that we owed to God, the debt as a result of our sin, as a result of our failures. The justice of God requires payment. Sin must be accounted for.

But we have no means of

resolving that debt. Our righteousness, Isaiah tells us, is like filthy rags. And so the best that we can do is not even close to the beginning of the start of being good enough to account for our sin condition. And so He,

with His blood, paid that price on our behalf so that the end result is, in verse 14, the forgiveness of sins, that we have the opportunity to be completely washed, to be completely cleansed, that our sins are forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ.

And so as we look at these verses and talk about salvation, we can see very clearly God's role is the provider of salvation. What's my role? My role is only to receive the gift that God offers. All I can do is receive.

It's a gift. It's offered to me. I can't get myself off the conveyor belt. I can't put myself into the kingdom. I can't deal with my sin issue. I can't pay the price that is needed to be paid for my sinfulness.

All I can do is receive the great and incredible gift, the offer of life, the grace and the mercy that God offers to me. H.A.

Eyernside, the great commentator, said, "The strongest faith in self-effort or in the church or in religious observances would leave the soul forever lost.

But the feeblest faith in the Christ who died and rose again saves eternally." Very important to get thisright.

The strongest faith in our efforts and our religious practices could leave the soul forever lost, even though we have great faith in our rituals and our faithfulness. But the feeblest faith in Christ,

our Savior, Christ who died and rose again, the feeblest faith in Jesus Christ saves my soul, saves your soul for all eternity. Receive salvation. That's my role, to receive this gift that God offers to me.

If you watch the game later, you'll probably see somewhere John 3:16 on somebody's eyes, on somebody's helmet, in somebody's sign in the stands. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is that faith,

that calling out to Jesus and believing that His sacrifice is the payment for my sinfulness

that brings about this everlasting life, the new birth that is found in Jesus Christ. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 10, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." This is our role,

to confess, to pronounce Jesus as Lord, believe in His death and resurrection on our behalf, and we will be saved. And so God's role is to provide salvation. My role is to receive that salvation. Your role? Well, we're going to save that to the end because I'm a guest speaker.

I can do what I want, and you just don't have to invite me back if you don't want to. You, me, and God in my spiritual journey, first of all, talking about salvation, it's God who provides it. It's me who receives it. But you see here, it's so important to understand the roles because sometimes people try to fulfill God's role in salvation, and we try to deliver ourselves from the power of darkness.

We try to convey ourselves into the kingdom. We try to earn forgiveness, and none of those things will work. We cannot fulfill God's role in the subject of salvation. What we can do, what we must do, our only option is to receive the salvation that God offers to us.

Well, moving on to the second subject, that's qualification. We're going to look at verse 12. And again, I would ask you, can you spot the roles? Let's look at verse 12. Here's what it says.

"Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." Giving thanks to the Father. What's God's role?

God's role here, it says, "The Father has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." And here Paul continues to talk about salvation and eternity, and he's saying that it's the Father who has qualified us.

We're conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of His love. We're conveyed into the kingdom of God. And it's God who qualifies us to be in that position. The word qualified, it means to make sufficient, to render as worthy.

None of us are worthy to be included in the inheritance of the saints in the light. In fact, it's a common thing for us. We would not typically go around and speak of ourselves as saints. But if your doctrine is correct, you would understand, actually, we can.

We are called saints in the scripture, not because we are perfect or sinless or flawless, but we are called saints in the scripture because of the previous point, the salvation that God has worked for us, the forgiveness that has been provided for us,

the clothing in righteousness that we have in Jesus Christ. We, according to God, are saints. We are set apart unto the Lord, but we're not worthy of that. We can't earn that role, that position.

There's an inheritance that is for the saints, the inheritance of eternity, the inheritance of the presence of God, the inheritance of all that God has in store for us. We cannot earn that. It is God who qualifies us. It says,

"Allright, you are now declared worthy of this inheritance. You are now in a position where you can receive all that I offer to you." It's similar to what Paul is addressing in Romans chapter 4 when he's pointing out that Abraham believed God,

and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

And accounted, it's that accounting term. It's a term of imputing that he's saying the righteousness of God is being applied to you so that you are going to be dealt with as if you were perfectly righteous.

And Paul contrasts that in Romans chapter 4, verse 4. He says, "Look, when you work, what you receive for that is called wages. It's not a matter of grace. When you work and you receive a paycheck, that is not a matter of grace. That is a matter of debt.

After two weeks, you've been working, your employer owes you. Your employer is indebted to you and must legally pay you because it is something you have earned, and they are required to pay. Work produces a debt that must be paid." And the point Paul is making is,

well, that's not at all how we get our standing before the Lord. If it was by works and us doing good works and doing good things, then it would be a debt that God would owe us, this inheritance of the saints. But inheritance is not wages. Inheritance is a gift.

It's grace. And so Paul says in Romans chapter 4, verse 5, "To him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness." Just as Abraham's faith was accounted for righteousness, you and me, our faith, when we believe God at His word,

when we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord, our faith in God, our belief in His word is credited to our account as righteousness. And now we're qualified. We've been made sufficient. We've been declared worthy.

God's part is to qualify me

so that I might be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in the light. It's a gift. It's an inheritance. It's not wages.

I'm one of the saints, and I get all of the benefits and receive all of the blessings and the grace that are due to the saints of God because He has qualified me. What's my role? God's role is to qualify me. My role is found in the beginning of verse 12 there.

Do you see it? Giving thanks to the Father. What's my role in this? God qualifies me, and now I'm in this position of blessing, a recipient of grace and eternity full of amazing things that God has in store. What do I need to do? Not earn it, not deserve it.

The only thing I can do is to say thank you, giving thanks to the Father.

My role is not to earn eternity or to discipline myself in a way that I deserve eternity, to try to drum up enough effort, enough good things to

have these promises of blessings ahead. The inheritance is a gift to the children of God. It's given to us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And our only response, our only role is to say thank you.

When it comes to our spiritual journey, the qualification for us for eternity and for all that God has in store, it's done by God. And our job is to ongoing, perpetually keep our hearts and minds in a position of thankfulness.

Giving thanks, it's an ongoing thing. It's a perpetual thing. It's not a one-time thing. It's an attitude of gratitude for the rest of eternity, for what God has done for us. And that's important to note because, well, many times we can start that way, and for a while we're happy and gracious and grateful for what God has done for us.

We trust in the qualification of the Father, but sometimes we can fall into the trap of trying to qualify ourselves.

This can happen on the positive side or the negative side. On the positive side, we try to earn. We try to deserve. We are very proud of our rules and regulations. We're very proud of how disciplined and diligent we are.

And we can feel like we are qualifying ourselves for the work that God has in store for us. On the negative side, we can count ourselves as disqualified because, "Oh, man, I messed up.

I blew it." And we can beat ourselves up and really put ourselves under self-condemnation because

we don't measure up to the qualifications. But my role is not to qualify myself. God has qualified me. Did you notice the past tense so far?

He has delivered us. He has conveyed us. He has redeemed us. He has qualified us. These are finished works of God in our lives by faith in Jesus Christ.

So sometimes we try to fulfill God's role and qualify ourselves, but it's never going to work. And we will always find ourselves in failure and condemnation if we try to do that. We try to earn what is given as an inheritance, and that's never going to work. And so we must recognize the roles that we have.

God has the role of qualifying.

And even when I don't feel qualified, I can look to the scripture by faith and say, "Lord, you said you qualified me." And so I stand before you as one of your children, righteous, a recipient of the inheritance of the saints.

Moving on to the next word, we're going to look at the subject of strength in verse 11. And as we look at verse 11, again, can you spot the roles?

Verse 11 says, "Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patience and longsuffering with joy."

What is God's role as it comes to strength in our spiritual life, in our spiritual journey? I would put it this way. God's role is to supply the strength that is needed. He says, "Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power." Now again,

this is Paul's prayer, and we're reading it backwards, and so the verses are a little shuffled. I get it. But you could follow along. I believe in you. As Paul is praying for us, for the Colossians, and applying this to ourselves, he's saying, "Here's what I'm praying for, that you would be strengthened with all might." But notice the direction here,

that you would be strengthened, not that you would strengthen yourself, not that you would develop strength, but that you would be the recipient of strength. It's receiving the strength of God. And notice as he goes on to elaborate on that further,

he says, "According to his glorious power." So he says, "Look, I'm praying for you that you would receive strength from God. And let me remind you, his strength, it's according to his glorious power, the creator of the heavens and the earth,

the resurrector of the dead, the creator of life, the one who holds the world and all of creation in his hand. He has unlimited power. There is no end to his power.

He has glorious power that we cannot fathom or understand." And God provides that strength

so that there's never a time where the strength that we need exceeds the amount of strength that God can provide. There's never a position, there's never a time where the strength that we need is putting God in a position where he says, "Man, I'd really like to help,

but I only have this much strength, and you need that much strength. I just can't give you enough strength. I'm sorry." That's never going to happen. God is omnipotent, all-powerful. He has glorious power, and he provides it to his children because,

well, we've been delivered. We've been conveyed into his kingdom. We've been redeemed and forgiven and qualified for this inheritance. And so God provides strength to his children. That's his role. What's my role in this? Did you catch it there in verse 11?

Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for what is his strength for? The almighty power of God being bestowed upon us. What is that for? What is that that God seeks to accomplish with this strength being injected into us?

All patience and longsuffering with joy.

What's our part? Patience and longsuffering with joy. And commentator F.B. Meyer says, "As character and knowledge grow, so will our spiritual strength.

But notice that frequently such strength is needed, not so much for great exploits as for the patient bearing of the cross." Sometimes we think of strength and strength from God, and we want to be David facing Goliath,right? We want to go do some great thing.

And sometimes God will place those opportunities ahead of us. And we will be able to, in the strength of God, do something great for God.

But also many times, the way that this strength is put to use in our lives is for all patience and longsuffering with joy. What is patience and what is longsuffering? They're kind of related.

We could use them as synonyms and just kind of interchange them in conversations we're having,right? You need to have patience. And later on, we say you need to be longsuffering. And we get that those two things relate together. And yet it is interesting because these words can be a little bit more fine-tuned than that.

Patience is a word that speaks of hope. And it speaks about being able to have hope, to have endurance, and you could even say to be longsuffering in regards to circumstances. We all go through circumstances in life,

things that come up and things that are difficult and challenging. And we have pressing situations upon us, and we need strength. And God provides the strength for us to be able to endure those circumstances with joy. And so you can sit in traffic with a smile.

You can be in the hospital and be rejoicing in the Lord. I'm not saying we don't also experience other emotions, but also there is that foundation of strength from the Lord in the midst of the most hardest things that we face in life.

And so patience, it indicates the circumstances that we face. Longsuffering, you're going to not like this. I just want to warn you ahead of time.

Longsuffering speaks in regards to the people in our lives.

It's forbearance, longsuffering in regards to the people. Well, one definition puts it this way. It's the quality of a person who is able to avenge himself yet refrains from doing so. It's longsuffering towards people.

You've hurt me. You're irritating me. You're annoying me. I want to pay you back. I want to avenge myself. I want to set the record straight. I want to make you hurt the way that I hurt. I want to annoy you the way that I'm annoyed. I want to shut you out of my life forever. Longsuffering towards people.

And sometimes that could be more challenging than longsuffering in circumstances,right? But both are difficult, and both will come with a range of emotions. And Paul's point here is, "Look, I'm praying for you that you would be strengthened. God has all power and all might.

He's providing it to you so that you can be patient in those circumstances. You don't have to fly off the handle and just completely lose your mind. You don't have to. There's strength from God provided for you to be patient in circumstances.

And you don't have to completely cut those people out of your life and just completely turn on them and make them suffer. You can be longsuffering in the strength that God has provided." A chain is only as strong as its weakest link,right? And you could think,

"Well, yeah, I've got those weak links," and then boom, it just comes undone, and I'm unleashed in those circumstances in regards to those people. But we have to rewrite that. My strength is only as strong as his glorious power.

And so when we can say my circumstances require more strength than God has, well,

then maybe we're justified in our going off on the wild side. If our longsuffering towards people requires more strength than God has, well, then maybe we're justified in treating people in that way. But that's never going to be the case. It has never been the case.

His glorious power provides to us the strength that we need. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 4 to not think it's strange when we have fiery trials. "Some strange thing were happening to you," he says.

It's not strange. You're going to go through circumstances that are challenging. You're going to be encountering people that are really challenging.

And Peter says, "But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's suffering, that when his glory is revealed, you also may be glad with exceeding joy." It's proper and appropriate for us to ask God for strength. Sometimes that strength will come immediately,

and sometimes it will be developed in time. Sometimes God just, boom, gives us strengthright in the moment, and we rejoice and praise God for that. But also understand, sometimes God provides strength by just like you would start working out. You want to start and do a 100-mile bike ride.

You probably don't want to start from scratch today and just try to ride 100 miles. You build up to that. And if you need help with that, you can talk to Jason after the service.

It's built up over time as you walk with the Lord. He provides the strength that you need. And so when it comes to strength, God's role is to supply the strength. He provides it. He has it there for you. My role is to then utilize that strength to be patient in my circumstances and longsuffering towards people.

Well, moving on to the next topic, we're going to look at fruitfulness in verse 10. And let's see, can you spot the roles here in verse 10? That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. What's God's role in this? Well, when it comes to fruitfulness, I would say it this way. It's God's role to produce fruit.

We might think of ourselves as producing fruit, but we don't actually produce fruit. We cultivate.

We can provide things that those trees, those bushes, those plants need, but none of us actually produce fruit. My wife, Kim, is all about the strawberriesright now. We've got a tower with strawberries everywhere. And we do our best to take care of it.

We put water and pluck off a strawberry and eat it every once in a while. But we're not out there cranking out the fruit, making it grow. We're not turning it red. We're not actually producing the fruit. It's God who produces the fruit.

In a similar way, in our life, the fruitfulness that he's talking about here that comes from every good work listen, there's a lot of good works that we could do and that we could engage in that produce no fruit.

But God is the one who can produce fruit. And just because we do something good doesn't mean it's fruitful. Just because we have good motivation, a good heart, just because we have good intentions and do what could only be classified as a good thing or a good work, that doesn't mean it will produce fruit.

Only God can produce fruit. And by fruit, we're talking about eternal value in the things that we do. Only God can produce eternal value.

His role is to do that, to produce fruit.

But he uses the things that we contribute, the cultivation, you might say, that we're engaged in. And so we have our separate roles. God produces fruit. My role, I would put it this way.

My role is to abide in Jesus.

And you can dissect that a few ways. He says that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being engaged in good works and increasing in the knowledge of God. That's a lot. And I'm running out of time, so I can't dive into all that. So I'm going to summarize it this way, saying abiding in Jesus. Listen, abiding in Jesus satisfies all of those things.

When I abide in Jesus, when I engage consistently and continually in a close relationship with the Lord, I walk worthy of the Lord. Walking worthy has nothing to do with being perfect, being sinless, being flawless.

In fact, I would say the only reason why we can walk worthy is because repentance is also a way to walk worthy. Grieving over our sin and failures is a way to walk worthy. It's our response to grace, receiving it.

It's putting our focus on pleasing the Lord and desiring

to put a smile on his face.

To walk worthy is to take each step in order to please God. This is something we are called to do.

Paul told the Ephesians in Ephesians 4:1, he says, "I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called." What calling? The calling to be a child of God, the calling to salvation.

And so Jesus taught us in John 15, "Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me,

you can do nothing." And so our job is to abide in Jesus. In my spiritual journey, that's my role, to abide in Jesus. And his promise is he will produce fruit as I do good works, as I do the things that he sets before me,

which really leads us into the final subject this morning, and that is master plan. We're going to look at verse 9. Can you spot the roles?

Verse 9 says, "For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." What is God's role in regards to the master plan?

Well, he's referring to the will of God here, and that's what I'm referring to as the master plan. Paul's praying for them that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will, filled with the knowledge of the will of God for their lives. God's plan is,

or God's purpose or God's role is to provide the master plan, provide his will. He has a plan, a purpose. He has the best course for your life for today and for all of eternity. He already has that. From here on out,

as of today, regardless of the history and regardless of the past, as of today, he has the best plan and purposes for you. He knows exactly how to achieve the greatest eternity and the greatest life that you could ever imagine, beyond what you could imagine.

What's my role?

My role is to discover God's plan and walk in it, that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you, he says, may be filled.

That means it's not certain. It's not guaranteed. You can be filled with the knowledge of his will, but you're not necessarily filled with the knowledge of his will. It's not that you can't be filled. It's really the question of, will you be filled?

Will you discover what God has in store for you? Will you discover what God has for you today? The idea here of being filled, it means to be completely filled or equipped and furnished. One way it was used was of a ship that is ready to depart out to sea.

It's fully equipped. It has everything it's needed to be on the journey. Will you be filled? Will you be furnished by the Lord with his will, his plans for your life? Paul is saying here, you don't automatically have the knowledge, but you are fully capable of obtaining the knowledge. I'm not at the mercy of someone else.

I can't figure out the will of God, and I'm dependent upon somebody else to tell me the will of God for my life. That's not the case. God may use other people in our lives, but he's saying you have the potential. You have the possibility. God has a plan for you. He wants to give you direction and insight, lead you step by step.

And I'm not suggesting that God's going to give you the next 30 years of your life in full detail. Usually, it's one step at a time.

But you can know. You can discover God's plan, and you have a responsibility to do so. Ephesians 5:17, Paul says, "Do not be unwise." It's a command, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Understand. This is something you need to put effort into. Understand,

seek out, discover the will of God for your life. And God will reveal that in many ways.

But sometimes it's through his word. Sometimes it's the Spirit speaking to us personally, internally. Sometimes it is revealed through others around us. And sometimes it's by trying things out. I've always appreciated the Apostle Paul in Romans 1 as he expresses there to the Romans,

"I really want to get there to Rome." And I've been trying hard for a long time, and I've been asking God for a long time. In Romans 1:10, he says, "I've been making a request if by some means, now at last, I may find a way in the will of God to come to you." And it speaks of Paul, "Lord, can I go this way to Rome?

Lord, can I get to Rome now? Lord, can I go to Rome this time? And maybe I could go this path, or maybe I could go this." He's kind of negotiating with God a little bit and finding a way in the will of God. "Lord, I'm not going to just go to Rome because I want to and just disregard whether you want me to or not. But I'm checking in with you, Lord.

Can I go this way? Do you want me to go this way? How do you want me to get there?" He's negotiating. He's discovering in this conversation with God the will of God for his life.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:10 that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. There's God's will laid out before us, these good works that God has prepared beforehand. That's his role.

He's provided the path. He's set up the good work stations on that path. Our role is to walk down that path and engage in those good works that he has set before us. God's role is to provide the master plan. My role is to discover, "Lord,

what do you want for me today?"

In Romans 12, Paul tells us to surrender our bodies to the Lord. It's our reasonable service. And he goes on to say that in doing so, we will be able to prove what is that perfect and acceptable will of God. As we give ourselves to the Lord, presenting ourselves to the Lord each day,

we will be able to discern, to prove, to find out, to test out the will of God for us. Well, we've talked about God's role throughout. We've talked about my role throughout. What's your role in my spiritual journey? Well, I'm just going to make it simple. In verse 9,

Paul says this, "For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you." Your role in my spiritual journey primarily is prayer. There's a lot of other things we could talk about, and there's dangers of us trying to take on God's role in other people's lives.

And we do that sometimes. We make those mistakes. But looking at what Paul demonstrates here in verse 9, we can understand primarily, here's my role in your life. Here's your role in my life, to pray that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will, that you would be strengthened with all might according to his glorious power,

that you would be fruitful as you engage in the good works that God has set before you,

that you'd be able to walk through that master plan to be able to experience the fullness of all that God has for you. Would you pray that for me? And I'll pray that for you. Would you pray that for your pastor, Jason? And I know he prays that for you, that this is our role,

not to judge and condemn or be the Holy Spirit in other people's lives. Our job primarily is to pray that we would be walking with God, full and abundant in his knowledge, in his understanding, and in the course that he has set before us.

You, me, and God in my spiritual journey, I'll summarize it this way. God's role is to do all the heavy lifting. My role is to walk to please God with each step. And your role in my spiritual life is to pray for me. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word and these important reminders this morning,

Lord, of how much we are dependent upon you. And Lord, we are incredibly thankful for your goodness and grace towards us in our helpless condition and situation, God, where we could provide nothing in regards to our salvation and regards to our redemption.

Lord, you've provided it all. And in gratitude, Lord, we say thank you, and we seek to live lives that please you.

I pray, Lord, that you would help us to see clearly the roles that you have established, Lord, that we would rest in what you provide, that we would be faithful and diligent to walk in the way that you've called us to walk. Lord, may we please you in our good works,

in our steps forward, in our victories, but also in our failures as we respond the way that you would call us to and rely upon you for that fresh grace, for that forgiveness, and for that promise of strength, fruitfulness,

and abundance. And God, would you remind us of how much people around us need us?

Would you remind us, Lord, of also how much we need others around us, Lord, that we might be praying for and that we might be prayed for as we have the privilege of contributing to your work in each other's lives?

I pray, God, that you would help us to experience the fullness of all that you have for us in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.