A Practical Prayer from Paul's Prison Cell

In one paragraph

This sermon worked through Paul's prison epistles, Colossians and Philemon, looking at what Paul prayed for the churches he could no longer visit in person and at the very personal plea he made to one man about one runaway slave. Pastor Ray connected that prayer and that plea to the household codes he has been walking through in recent weeks, bringing it down finally to how employers and employees...

Read together

1. Colossians 1:9-14 primary text for the practical prayer section, praying for knowledge of God's will, walking worthy, bearing fruit, and redemption
2. Ephesians 4:1-3 Paul as prisoner urging believers to walk worthy of their calling with humility, gentleness, patience and unity
3. Ephesians 2 believers as God's poiema, workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works prepared beforehand
4. James 3 two kinds of wisdom contrasted: earthly, natural and demonic versus the wisdom from above that is pure, peaceable and gentle
5. Colossians 2 warning not to be taken captive by philosophy and empty deception according to traditions of men rather than according to Christ
6. Colossians 3 referenced as the chapter on how to live out the supremacy of Christ
7. Colossians 4 practical closing instructions including masters and slaves, prayer, conduct toward outsiders, and sending of Tychicus and Onesimus
8. Philemon 1-25 Paul's personal appeal to Philemon to receive the runaway slave Onesimus back as a beloved brother in Christ

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray described his seminary professor Rick Higgins, who refused to sing 'Prone to Wander' because he believed a Christian can choose each morning to humble himself before God and walk in victory. Do you find that idea freeing or unsettling, and why?
2. The sermon looked at Paul's prayer that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of God's will, not just to know it but to walk it out. Where in your own life do you find the biggest gap between knowing what God wants and actually doing it?
3. Pastor Ray shared the little poem: 'The nearest thing that should be done that can be done by you.' Has there been a moment when you noticed something that needed doing and felt that noticing itself was a nudge from God? What did you do with it?
4. Paul went out of his way to appeal to Philemon rather than simply order him, saying he wanted Philemon's goodness to come from free will rather than compulsion. What does that tell us about how God tends to work in our relationships with one another?
5. The letter to Philemon puts a slave owner and a runaway slave on equal footing as brothers under the cross. Where in your life, at work, at home, or in the church, is it hardest to actually treat someone as an equal before God?