The sermon 'Pray, watch, give thanks' by Steve Hopkins explores Colossians 4:2, emphasizing the importance of continuous prayer, watchfulness, and thanksgiving in a Christian's life. It highlights the sufficiency of Christ and warns against the distractions and errors that can lead believers away from their faith. The sermon urges Christians to maintain a steadfast prayer life, to be vigilant against wandering thoughts and distractions, and to incorporate thanksgiving into their prayers. It cites historical examples of devout Christians who demonstrated unwavering commitment to prayer, even in challenging circumstances. The sermon encourages believers to cultivate a habit of prayer, recognize the mercies received, and offer gratitude to God as a fundamental expression of faith.

Good afternoon once again. If everyone would turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Colossians, the letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Colossi, chapter 4, and we're going to stand together and read verse 2 and verse 2 only. If you would stand together with me for the reading of the word of the Lord. Let's read together Colossians 4 and verse two. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving.

Let's pray. Our Father, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You made the heaven and the heaven of heavens with all their angelic hosts. O God, you made the earth and all things therein, the seas and all that therein is. How great thou art as the hymn says, how great thou art.

And Lord we praise and lift up your name, O God, now and forever. And we ask God that you would be glorified in this hour. And we ask that the Spirit might be given once again to teach us and to guide us and to encourage us and to approve us and to comfort us, O God, and to make us to see wonderful things in your Word. And by your grace, O God, apply them to our lives. For we ask it in the blessed name of our Lord Jesus.

Amen. Let's be seated. So Thanksgiving is four days away. The message before us from Colossians chapter four and verse two is continue in prayer. Watch in prayer.

And as you are continuing in prayer and watching in prayer, give thanks. Paul has been preaching the sufficiency of Christ from the opening chapter of the book of Colossians, that the believer is complete in him, and he's been refuting the deadly errors of the age that were creeping into the church, errors that threaten to lead them back into bondage. The life of the Christian flows from his union with the crucified and risen Christ and manifests itself in the mortification of sin and in the putting on of holiness, not in conforming to the philosophies and rules and vain deceits of the age in which one lives. The message of Colossians 4.2 follows directly on the heels of a list of instructions. If you have your Bibles open, you can look and see that.

A list of instructions for Christian households, how wives are to conduct themselves with their husbands, how husbands are to conduct themselves with their wives, how children are to conduct themselves with their fathers and mothers, how servants and masters are to conduct themselves with each other. And This list of instructions, these instructions for Christian households, which are counter-cultural, no Christian can live out apart from a life that is in Christ and that is devoted to prayer and watching and thanksgiving. Brothers and sisters, are you living or continuing steadfast in prayer? Are you continuing steadfast in prayer? Are you watchful in prayer?

When you pray, are your petitions interwoven with Thanksgiving? Most of us need to be reminded and encouraged often. I need to be reminded and encouraged often to continue steadfast in prayer, to guard against wandering thoughts, to guard against a coldness in prayer, to guard against distractions in my prayer life, and to weave thanksgiving into every prayer. Charles Spurgeon called this passage, quote, the Christian's three-word rule for a happy life. Pray, watch, thank.

And I think he's right. And I want to unpack this apostolic command under those three headings this afternoon. First, pray. Paul says, continue in prayer. But what does he mean?

To continue in something is to carry on in it and to not stop. And when it comes to prayer, that's the very thing that is the most difficult. Every one of us would have to admit it, to carry on in prayer and not be a quitter, or as the Puritans used to say, Spurgeon and Calvin and others, to not be one who just prays by fits and starts. It's a challenge. It's a challenge for us.

The flesh fights against it. The world intrudes upon our prayer life, and the devil would have us to do anything but that, anything but pray. No wonder Martin Lloyd-Jones referred to continuing in prayer as, quote, the great battle cry of the Christian life. And I think when we roll out of bed in the morning and the flesh is weak and the world is calling to us, we need to sound the battle cry. Continue in prayer.

Continue in prayer. Continue in prayer. And then drop to our knees and fight. My commander in chief says, continue in prayer, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. But of course, to continue in prayer means more than that.

It really infers constancy. Again, Lloyd-Jones says, quote, The word continue, the Greek word that Paul used for continue, is a strong, urgent word. It means to be earnestly and constantly occupied with something. You know, in my research of the various commentaries of Reformed writers down through the ages, almost every one of them, when they got to this word, they stop and they quote the Greek word, which I'm not going to quote because I'll probably quote it wrong, but they quote this Greek word and they all make the same observation that this is a word of strength and of urgency. It means to be earnestly and to be constantly occupied with something.

It is the very word of the early church in Acts 2 42. They continued steadfastly in prayer. Laurie Jones goes on, this is not occasional prayer. It's not even daily prayer. It is a life soaked in prayer.

It is a life that is lived in the atmosphere of prayer. Brothers and sisters, we need that. God knows we need it. We need a life that is saturated in prayer and a life that is lived in the atmosphere of prayer. Our lives should be saturated with prayer in prayer and lived in the atmosphere of prayer.

How many sermons have you heard on prayer in your life? How many of those sermons have had an effect upon you? How many of those sermons have put you to sleep or bored you to death? How many can say, you know, I've heard sermons on prayer and God used it, God pierced my heart, and there was a change on this date in my life. And from that day forward, I viewed prayer differently and my communication with God differently.

My prayer life changed on that day. Or how many can read about prayer and listen to sermons about prayer and nothing really change? And tomorrow is the same as yesterday, and yesterday is the same as the week before and the month before and the year before. Charles Spurgeon, prayer should be more than a morning and evening exercise, it should be the habit of our life. You know, we may have bad habits that we need to stop, but prayer should be a habit that we never stop.

And listen, a habit that we cultivate. Does everyone get that? A habit that we cultivate. We go out and we if you have a garden if you've ever had a garden and you have to dig around you have to pull the weeds out and there it takes some effort. Prayer is a habit that we need to cultivate.

Paul says in Ephesians 6, 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Again, are you continuing in prayer? Or have you stopped? Or have you never gotten started? Are you continuing in prayer?

Are your thoughts throughout the day returning to prayer and praise. You know praise is prayer. I'm trying to remember who it was who said this some of my reading but he said you know if you ever feel the urge to pray do it. Don't ignore that urge. If you ever feel the urge to pray, do it.

Everyone doesn't get that urge. It's a special thing when the Spirit of God is so working in your life that He's bringing you to a place where, I need to pray. I need to stop right now and pray. Are your thoughts continuing to prayer and pray throughout the day? You know we can pray anywhere.

We can pray anywhere and we can pray at any time. You realize that? We can pray anywhere and we can pray at any time. You realize that? We can pray anywhere and we can pray at any time.

We can and should pray throughout the day when we're at work, when we're about our household duties, when we're driving from place to place, both in our minds and with our mouths we should be praying. Jesus said in Luke 18 one that men ought always to pray. Will you heed Jesus words? Men ought always to pray and never to faint or grow weary. We can pray anywhere and everywhere.

We can pray on a soft bed or a hard bed. We could pray in a hospital bed or on a death bed. We could pray anywhere. John Bunyan prayed constantly in the damp dungeon at Bedford Castle and he did it for 12 years. William Tyndale and other martyrs prayed as they were being burned.

Oh, American Christianity. Oh, American and Western Christianity. William Tyndale and other martyrs prayed as they were being burned. Paul told Timothy, I would that men would pray everywhere, 1 Timothy 2, 8. The guards beat Richard Wormbrand every time they saw him praying in his Romanian prison cell, And every time they dragged him back to his cell after being beaten, he went back right back to praying.

We aren't being beaten for praying today. We aren't being burned alive. What if God looked down from heaven and saw a church that was a praying church where all her members were devoted to prayer steadfast in prayer? When a grandchild waves that you have to stop and wave, right? We should quote be continually devoted to it.

Matthew Henry, Martin Lloyd Jones. If you want to know how spiritual a man is, don't Look at the number of church meetings he attends, or the number of sermons he preaches. Look at his prayer life. Everything begins and ends there. Everything begins and ends there.

But what about watching in prayer? What does Paul mean when he says, continuing prayer and watching the same? What does it mean to watch in prayer? In the ancient world, there was the sentinel, many times in the watchtower, who would keep watch over the city. If he fell asleep at the post, the city would be exposed to danger.

The Puritans called watchfulness, quote, the sentinel of the soul, and quote, the sentry at the door of the heart. John Calvin says that when we pray, quote, we must be on guard like soldiers on military duty. And you know what, it doesn't matter what age of mankind we live in, whether we live five centuries ago, like Calvin and the reformers, or whether we live in the modern age, we all battle the same disease when it comes to prayer. Wondering thoughts, Drowsiness, coldness, distractions. Unless we're on our guard, unless the sentry of our heart is posted and we're vigilant when we begin to pray, our thoughts will tend to stray, or we will become sluggish, or our fervor will grow cold, or distractions will divert our thoughts from God.

Again, Martin Lloyd-Jones, we're to be wide awake spiritually when we're praying. The devil is never asleep and if we're drowsy in prayer we're already defeated. Watch against wandering thoughts. Watch against coldness. Watch against the flesh that would rather do anything than pray.

Matthew Henry, we must watch against wandering thoughts, against drowsiness, against coldness, and against the distractions of worldly business. He's not talking about worldly business as in this guy's running a massage parlor or whatever. He's talking about just our businesses or the business of our lives. There's distractions that come in in our prayer time. Our minds begin to wonder.

Has anyone found their thoughts tending to wonder while praying? Anyone? Am I the only one? Anyone? Yeah?

No sooner do we get to our knees than our thoughts begin to like scatter or to be blown around and blown about like autumn leaves in the wind or to drift away. Wandering thoughts, drowsiness and coldness, distractions of worldly business. Does anyone encounter these obstacles while praying? Paul said there's no temptation that's taken you but such as is common to man. It's common.

It's common. Spurgeon complains of basically the same things. We must guard against wandering thoughts, against coldness of heart, against the intrusion of the world. He says, let your thoughts be with God when you pray, or your prayer is no prayer. A wandering mind is a dishonor to the Most High.

He who is everywhere, God, is only honored when we are all with Him. The verse says, I've heard of a good woman who used to pray with her eyes fixed upon heaven, but her thoughts were fixed upon her kitchen. God wants the heart. If the heart is not there, the prayer is lost." He who is praying must shut the door of his mind to every wondering thought. The Lord is not in the wind nor in the earthquake of your distractions, but in the still small voice of a soul concentrated upon God.

Brothers and sisters, prayer requires vigilance. If we would keep our mind and our thoughts concentrated upon God when we're praying. One of the things that helps me when my thoughts begin to drift is to remember who I'm talking to, just to remember who it is, who am I talking to when I pray? I'm conversing with God. If I had an audience with the President of the United States, I would guard against wondering thoughts, drowsiness, and the distractions of worldly business.

How much more when I'm in conversation with the President of the universe? God of heaven, who has no beginning and no end, who spoke all things into existence from nothing. The thrice holy God who holds my life in the palm of His hand, His omnipotent hand, and who directs the course of my life in all things. God grant us to keep our thoughts concentrated upon Him when we pray. God help us.

God help us. But to watch in prayer is not only to watch against wandering thoughts and distractions and to watch lest we grow cold, but it's also to watch for answers to our prayers, to consider past mercies so that we can thank God for them. When we're praying, we should remember all the things we've prayed about in the past and recount them. Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Lord, I pray that you would do this for me last week, last month, a year ago, and you heard my prayer and I'm so grateful.

My heart is filled with thanksgiving and praise for your mercies. We were to continue in prayer, to continue steadfastly in prayer, to pray with watchfulness and to do so with thanksgiving for answers to past prayers and the many mercies that we've already received. We sang it earlier, streams of mercy never ceasing. What do they do? Call for songs of loudest praise.

Streams of mercy never ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise. The Apostle Paul, Philippians 4.6, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving that your requests be made known unto God. The giving of thanks should be woven into every petition. Thomas Watson, 1600s, God's mercies are new every morning.

Listen to this. Therefore our praises should be new every morning. His mercies are new every morning, therefore our praises should be new every morning. It's so easy to neglect gratitude. We're so prone to take God's blessings for granted and forget the many things that He's done for us.

Jesus heals ten lepers, but only one returns to give him thanks. John Flavel, if God should stop his hand, but one day and withhold his mercies, we would all perish. Yet we live from year to year upon his bounty, and scarcely ever give him the thanks that's due to his name. Thomas Matten, Puritans from the 1600s. He who forgets to thank God for past mercies deserves to be deprived of future ones.

Who was it that said, what if tomorrow you only had tomorrow what you thanked God for today? That's heavy. What if tomorrow you only had that which you thanked God for today? We should be asking ourselves continually, what can I thank God for today in prayer? The apostle calls for the giving of thanks throughout his letter to the Colossians.

In chapter 1 of verse 12 he says, give thanks to God for the saving of your soul, giving thanks unto God the Father who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. In chapter 2, verses 6 through 7, we're told to be abounding with thanksgiving for the ongoing work of God in our lives. In chapter 3 in verse 15, he says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and be thankful. In verse 17, give thanks unto God and the Father through him. No matter what, be grateful in every circumstances, in every circumstance, even when those circumstances are trying.

That's the hard one, right? I'm supposed to be grateful and thankful in every circumstance, but what about when they're really trying circumstances? William Bridge, a thankful heart is never without a song, even when the night is the darkest. Thomas Brooks, Satan hates to hear the Christian's heart singing praise to God. It is a dagger to his heart.

He wants us to be discontented. He wants us to be flustered. He wants us to be upset. He wants us to be ungrateful. He hates to hear praise and thanksgiving coming up in our prayers to God.

Lloyd Jones again, thanksgiving is the highest expression of Christian faith. Why? Because it declares, I believe God is good, and I believe that He is in control even when I cannot see it. Paul says again, and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Let every petition be joined with praise for tender mercies received.

Let your heart dance before the Lord with gratitude. That's what David is saying in the psalm when he says, you have turned my mourning into dancing. You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. To the end of my glory may sing praise to Thee and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks.

I will give thanks unto thee forever, forever. Again, thank God as we come to a close for prayers answered in the past. Thank Him for what He will do in answer to your prayers in the future, knowing that He will only do that which is best for you. Jonathan Edwards once said, the true spirit of Christian gratitude is to see every mercy as a new argument for love. Oh Lord, how you love me.

Every mercy, every mercy is such an argument for your love, for your people. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, that all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your iniquities and who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from destruction. Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Brothers and sisters, Christ has redeemed your soul from destruction.

He has forgiven you, whose trust is in Him, all your iniquities, all your sins. He has defeated every foe and won every battle in dying and rising for you who are united to Him by faith. He has crowned you with loving kindness and tender mercies day after day after day. Now you're all sufficient Christ, your Redeemer, Your Lord, Your Savior, in whom You are complete calls you to continue in prayer and to watch in the same with thanksgiving. Amen.

And let's pray. Father, We thank You and we praise You, God. We thank You, God, and we praise You, Lord, for the mercies that You've shown us, O God. As the prophet said, we're not worthy of the least of all the mercies and the truth that you've shown us. None of us is worthy of the mercy shown us in your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for our sins and rose again the third day.

Oh Lord, As Spurgeon once said, prayer, watchfulness, and thanksgiving together make us make up the perfect spirit of communion with God. Help us, O God, to have this spirit of perfect communion with you. Help us to continue in prayer and to watch in the same with thanksgiving every day of our lives for we ask it in Jesus name Amen you