Psalm 48, the last verse.
For this God is our God forever and
ever.
He will be our guide even to the
end.
This God is our God.
Now, let us read the letter of the
Colossians, verse 9 of the first chapter.
Therefore, from the day that we have heard
of you, let us not cease to pray
for you.
We ask God that through all the wisdom
and insight that the Spirit gives, you may
come to full knowledge of what His will
is.
Colossians 1, verse 9.
For this reason, since the day we heard
about you, we have not stopped praying for
you and asking God to fill you with
the knowledge of His will through all spiritual
wisdom and understanding.
We pray
that
you may live a life worthy of the
Lord and that you may please Him in
every way.
For this reason, we ask God that through
all the wisdom and insight that the Spirit
gives, you may come to full knowledge of
what His will is.
We ask God that through all the wisdom
and insight that the Spirit gives, you may
come to full knowledge of what His will
is.
We ask God that through all the wisdom
and insight that the Spirit gives, we
may come to full knowledge of what
His will is.
We ask God that through all the wisdom
and insight that the Spirit gives, you may
come to full knowledge of what His will
is.
We ask God that through all the wisdom
and insight that the Spirit gives, you may
come to full knowledge of what His will
is.
And it is written that in this letter
to the Colossians, important functions are assigned to
overcome the wrongdoings through legal, divine rules.
And I just thought it was interesting that
the theologians wrote something like this.
They say that at
that time some
had gone off the track, and they had
come in, infiltrated, and were trying to influence
the people with false doctrine and teachings.
And so Paul wrote to them and wrote
about certain important functions.
To
help
them to overcome these wrong and false teachings
and doctrines and the wrong things.
Through legal, divine rules.
In this time in which we live, hell
is free under the children of the Lord
and the believers.
Christians do anything.
They set us free.
We are not legal.
Now, in German, we are very tired.
We are talking about legality.
And we are tired of it.
Why is that?
If you don't want to be legal, then
you are lawless.
I don't see anyone else in Africa who
is lawless.
If you are not lawless, then you are
lawless.
We have heard of what God has said
to us.
The new law that will be applied here
in our country.
What kind of marriage do you want?
One man, two men, one wife, two wives.
Man with man.
We must not be under the law.
Friends, Romans 8.
Say, we are under the law of the
Spirit of God.
Of course a person can be lawless.
But I'm not talking about that God.
But there are legal, divine rules.
Which Paul wrote to the Colossians.
And said, if you do these things, you
will overcome evil.
And Paul did this by introducing to them
certain rules and laws of God.
Now, people say nowadays, we must not be
under the law.
We must not be legalistic.
But there are those rules and laws of
God.
Which Paul writes about and which the Bible
teaches about.
Which need to be applied.
And if we don't want to be under
the law of God, we become lawless.
And then we become like the people Chell
told us about.
Where they want to pass ungodly laws.
And God's word itself is God's way and
God's law for us.
Even in the time that we live.
One man, one woman.
One man, two women.
He had even more.
But in secret.
Or a woman and two men.
What is a marriage?
Well, it's leaders of nations.
A little child knows what it is.
A father, a mother and a child.
But those who are lawless, don't know what
it is.
Mitterrand of France.
In his time he said, well what is
a family?
Is it one man, one woman, one wife
or two wives?
He didn't seem to know.
Probably because he had more than one wife.
Even though it was in secret.
But it's something which even a small child
knows what a family is.
But these people don't seem to know.
God's...
God's word gives us direction.
It teaches us how we should go.
And as Janetta's...
The word that she chose says.
It is this God who says such things.
He is the one that will guide us
forever.
Now this text here
is
part of Paul's and Timothy's prayer for the
congregation.
Those two men, while they were in prison,
were praying for the Colossians.
They made use of prayer.
They were men of prayer.
And he wrote, in verse 1 we read
of Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by
the will of God and of his brother
Timothy.
In verse 1 we read of Paul, an
apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of
God and of his brother Timothy.
And they write here and they say that
since the day we heard about you and
your congregation, we've been praying for you.
And when I had read this and I
read it, I thought well this word suits
you two perfectly.
It's not just written for the Colossians at
that time, but for you today.
It fits perfectly.
But we know it's not just
for you two alone, but for the others
that are next to you, the three and
for all of us.
And this
word
also needs to play an important function or
role in your lives.
And as we've heard, if you are faithful
to that, it will go well with you
in your marriage.
And if we look at your past, Janetta
and Kobos, as we've already heard, I also
want to say that we are very grateful.
You were a good example, you Janetta for
the girls and you Kobos for the boys.
And we thank God daily for you.
Now just a few points from this text.
Now just a few points out of this
text.
The first point.
That God will show you what his will
is.
Paul and Timothy prayed and said, Oh Lord,
show them what your will is for their
lives.
That they will know and realize what it's
all about.
If there was ever a time
where
God's servant needed to pray for his children,
then it's today.
And especially that they should pray that God's
children will recognize God's will.
To recognize God's will in our lives is
important.
It's perhaps the most important thing in our
lives.
In Greek, Lord, I am your property.
It doesn't matter what they say, Lord, we
belong to you.
We are not your property that will enter
the kingdom of heaven.
But only what the will of the Father
does.
And according to this prayer, it goes a
little deeper and a little further than just
recognizing and doing the will of God.
It's not just about
trying to please God.
With just a few selected truths of God's
will.
But Paul says that you will come to
the complete, the perfect knowledge of his will.
The full knowledge of his will
and his wisdom and understanding.
Often when I'm sitting in an airplane.
And I've sat almost all over in an
airplane.
And I look around.
And I listen to what people are saying.
And what they read.
And what they do before they go to
sleep.
Some say, Lord, there is no one in
this airplane who is looking for you.
That's a fact.
We live in a godless world.
Some are reading books where when you look,
you say, but what has that got to
do with God's will?
And often I think if I'd get up
now and speak to those people.
They would probably respond by saying, but what
you're talking about, the will of God, it
just doesn't fit into our time.
But even if it is nonsense to them
and madness to them, let it not be
so to us that are here.
Now here they write of the will of
God.
That knowledge which is given through his spirit,
that we may come to the perfect knowledge
of his will for our lives.
And friends, if we have to stand before
God one day, without knowing and recognizing the
full knowledge of his will.
Will we be able to stand before him?
Maybe we think, well we can stand before
our preacher, our congregation, or whoever, but on
that day it won't be any of us
standing there, it will be God himself.
Young and old.
Also the newly married with small children.
And they were on their knees praying saying,
Lord give them the full knowledge.
Regarding your will.
And that goes against what comes out of
man himself.
There's God's will.
His ways.
And we also have our own will.
We can be pig headed.
Our own will.
A certain woman asked her husband, can you
please buy a dozen pig ears for me?
She wanted to use the flowers.
And it took so long.
And she thought, why isn't he coming back?
He comes after hours.
He said, it's the last time you send
me for pig ears.
I've been to every slaughterhouse in this city
to get a dozen pig ears.
That's why.
It's hard work.
He didn't know his wife was talking about
flowers.
Now, that's pig heads, not just pig ears.
It's not about their will, but our will.
And in German it's said, a man's will
is his heaven.
And in German there's a saying that, a
person's own will is like his own kingdom.
Now, this doesn't talk about your own will,
or Janita, your own will, but God's own
will.
His will.
And there are tens of thousands of Christians
who
do their own will, and they claim it's
God's will.
They don't know the difference between their own
will and God's will.
A person's own will is that which comes
out of his own heart, but here we
don't talk about that.
There's no room for man's own will here,
but it's God's will that is important.
And also not the will of the flesh.
And not the will of this world either.
There's also the world's way, the world's will,
the world's way.
And friends, we have to do a little
bit of self-research today.
When I talk about this, on what level
do you live?
There are different levels.
The human, the natural, the flesh, the world,
but where do you live?
And you two will also have to do
daily self-research on what level you live.
So there
is
the worldly way as well.
So we need to, and the couple will
need to, every day test themselves to see
in which will are we walking and living.
Is it our own will, the will of
the flesh, the will of this world, or
is it God's will that we are walking
in?
And for that we need the divine wisdom
and insight and the works of the Holy
Spirit to make it clear to us.
That is the will of God, not that.
It's world, it's flesh.
And that has to do with all the
different aspects of our lives.
From the head to the feet, from the
hair to the tongue.
Even what we wear, even clothes.
And for that we need the divine wisdom
and insight and the works of
the Holy Spirit to
make it clear to us.
And for that we need Godly insight, Godly
wisdom and understanding, and also the working of
the Holy Spirit.
That we can discern whether what we are
doing is in God's will or not.
And that applies to every aspect of our
lives.
From head to toe, everything, even the way
we dress, whatever we do.
And we also need parents who will also
always be on the lookout to see whether
the way they live, and their children, whether
it is going according to God's will or
not.
And we don't care about the Muslims.
Someone said to me, That
is the work of God for me.
Let's be sincere about that it is God's
will and God's way.
Let's leave the first point.
I'll try and be short from here.
The second point.
To then do what He has shown us.
It doesn't help that we pray for God
to reveal His will to us, and then
He does it, but then we don't obey
Him.
That we say, O Lord, show me what
You desire.
What Your desire is with my life.
And then You show it.
But we don't do it.
We must know what the Lord said, Matthew
7, verse 26.
He said, In Matthew 7, verse 26, the
Lord says, But
doesn't act accordingly.
You hear His word, but don't act accordingly.
His word is compared to a fool.
One preacher said, He doesn't have a good
way.
I'm not ashamed to do that.
Because the Lord also did it.
The fact that I preach about fools.
But well, the Lord did it as well.
Now, if the Lord tells you to do
something, and you don't do it, then you
are fools before Him.
But if He reveals His will to you,
speaks to you, and you do what He
says, then He compares you to one who
builds his house on a rock.
The storms will come now and then.
And the wind will blow from time to
time.
And the rains will come.
And when that happens, you will be safe.
And you won't be swept away by the
storm.
Whether it's the world's worst storm, that will
come.
You can stay there.
And then the third point.
That you will increase and grow in the
knowledge of God.
It's good that we increase spiritually.
It's good that we grow in our spiritual
lives.
And grow in the knowledge of God.
We have to grow.
If a small barbeque doesn't grow, it's a
big mistake.
If you meet with friends or with people
after some years or after some time, they
need to see the growth in your life.
It must be evident to them that you've
grown spiritually.
Otherwise, you're like a small baby that just
doesn't grow.
And then something's wrong.
Well, I just picked out a few points
that will keep you on the right path.
It's good that we increase spiritually.
In the knowledge of God.
If you meet with friends or with people
after some years or after some time, they
need to see the growth in your life.
They've grown spiritually.
You can never stand still in one place.
It's wrong.
Or go backwards.
It will not please God.
We have to grow.
If a small barbeque doesn't grow, it's a
big mistake.
If you meet with friends or with people
after some years or after some time they
need to see the growth in your life.
It must be evident to them that you've
grown spiritually.
Otherwise you're like a small baby that just
doesn't grow and then something's wrong.
Now, I've just taken out a few points.
Here we're also talking about the holy and
God willing change of life.
A life and attitudes that are well pleasing
to God.
If people visit you, whether they be blacks
or whites, whatever they are, whoever they are,
that your lives will shine brighter than the
sun.
And that even your thoughts and your attitudes
will be to God's glory.
And that it will be pleasing to Him.
Now to the last point.
Excuse me that it's taken so long.
And that God will strengthen you and give
you the power according to His glorious might
so that you may have great endurance and
patience.
Patience.
We need patience.
I've heard you're a good man and she's
a good woman.
But remember, she's a different nation.
Do you understand?
If you don't understand now, you'll understand one
day.
And Janetta, Manz is also a different nation.
She has a different mentality than the woman.
And in addition, patience is needed.
If you don't understand African, you probably don't
understand German.
Patience is needed in your lives.
Now you need to remember, a wife needs
to remember, a man is just different to
a woman and vice versa as well.
And so one needs patience.
And if you've got two bulls in a
crawl, then a fight will usually result.
But we aren't bulls, we are slaves of
Jesus Christ.
And we pray that the prayer of Paul
and Timothy will be fulfilled in your lives
and in our lives.
Patience and endurance.
Right to the end.
Endurance.
Long suffering and difficult times.
We even heard about children.
Maybe if the gentlemen see you with children.
I said to my children, eight daughters, you
live in a good time.
You get the babas so cheap.
You don't even pay much.
Now, I speak like this because there are
children there.
When they buy the children from the hospital.
It is so easy to get children today.
We, by the way, got them on the
difficult path.
But today it is so easy.
Although there are people who say, Christ will
never do it.
She must feel the full pain, the man.
But when they go to the dentist at
night, they get an injection.
I can't understand some people.
Maybe this is the mentality of a man.
With women it works differently.
You don't have to translate.
But then the children say, dad.
It's an easy thing to bring the child
into the world.
For us men, this is the big problem.
But they say to make the child big.
That's a big problem.
Now, it may be easy to bring a
child into this world.
But it's to bring up their child.
That's the difficult part.
And they say, how can I promise you
that it is a daughter?
Then she will never go through what we
men have to go through.
At least she will never need to go
through what I've just gone through.
So you need patience when you get children
and have children.
In German they say, small children are small
problems.
Big children are big problems.
So there are times of trial.
And of testing.
And we need patience.
But even though we go through such times,
with God's might, His power, His grace, He
takes us through those times.
It can also be sickness, or even death.
There can be so much trial and testing.
But His power and His grace is more
than sufficient for every circumstance.
Now, in the old translation it says something
which is a bit different to the new
one.
In all circumstances to endure with joy.
And that with joy.
We need to joyfully take up our cross.
Even in the darkest night.
May your praises be heard.
And this was written by a man who
was in prison.
This is what God is
saying to you today.
He has said much to you in the
past, but now in closing, this as well.
And Janetta, this
God that says this is my God.
If you are determined, this God, this God
that says this, He is my God forever.
And He will guide us.
And then our future will be bright in
this world and the next.
We thank you for your way of life.
We thank you for the life that you
have lived.
Amongst us, young and old.
And for the beautiful and beautiful example that
you were for the whole world.
All the different services of God.
All the different nations.
To go in peace, purity and peace.
Now bless for them that the future will
also be blessed.
We have heard a little of your God.
What you say.
What you want from us.
And what you expect from us.
Oh gentlemen, let their life be for you.
Every day that there will be fruit in
heaven.
About how the bride was.
And that their marriage will be a lesson
for us.
How our life must be towards God.
Towards Jesus.
And may your love, God the Father.
And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the community of the Holy Spirit be
with you.
For you alone.
On that path.
Which ascends to heaven.
Not descending.
Every day.
And bless for them to such an extent
that their life will be of great value
in your kingdom.
And where they are.
Will shine.
That they will see the glory and the
power of God.
And that they will always grow in your
knowledge.
And that they will recognize your holy will.
And you will know.
Amen.