This morning we conclude our series of messages
on prayer, and as we do, I want to remind you that next week’s message, while
not specifically about prayer, is an addendum to this series, as it is about
healing, which is one of the most common topics of our prayers. That message will be a summary of some
of what I have come to believe, after 35+ years in ministry, about
healing. It is a message that is
not a medical or scientific approach to healing, but one that is pastoral and
theological.
This morning, as we conclude our series of four
messages about prayer, we come to Paul’s
Prayer Advice. We solicit
advice about many things. We turn
to trusted advisors for financial advice; how we should manage our finances and
for advice about investing. We
turn to others for advice about the many facets of family – for advice on
marriage, advice about child-rearing, advice about relating to parents and
siblings. We turn to others for
vocational advice. Any others you
can think of?
But what about advice on prayer? How often do we solicit prayer
advice? Does it sound strange to
say we should seek out advice about prayer? Why not, though?
And if you seek advice on prayer, why not seek that advice from a
spiritual giant? For advice about
prayer this morning, we will turn to such a person, and that is Paul. Paul, by virtue of his circumstances,
is obviously a person of great spiritual stature and his spiritual strength is
powered by his prayer life.
At the time of writing his letter to the church at Philippi,
Paul was imprisoned in Rome. Paul
had been taken to Rome because he was appealing a conviction that had been
handed down first by local authorities and then wound through a series of
appeals, first to Felix – who was a Roman governor – and then by Festus, the
replacement for Felix, and then on to King Agrippa. Paul then exercised his right, as a Roman citizen, to take
his appeal all the way to Rome, to Caesar himself. Agrippa agreed that Paul had not done anything that deserved
either imprisonment or death, and that he would have been set free had he not
appealed to Rome (Acts 26:30-32), but Paul was determined to get to Rome, one
way or another, even if it meant going in chains as a prisoner.
Imagine those very dire circumstances in which
Paul found himself, as we read his words from Philippians 1:3-11 –
3 I thank my God every time I remember you.
4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy
5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will
carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you
in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel,
all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I
long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in
knowledge and depth of insight,
10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and
blameless for the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus
Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
In this passage, Paul offers several very
specific pieces of advice about prayer, four of which we will consider this
morning.
1. Pray with
Gratitude.
Verse 3 – I thank my God every time I remember you.
I love that verse. It is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture.
What is truly amazing in this passage is that
Paul, in spite of his circumstances, could express a sense of gratitude. At
some point after arriving in Rome it became clear to Paul that not only would
he not be set free, but that he would be executed. Considering such a plight, it would be easy to assume that
Paul’s prayers would be full of entreaties to be released from prison and for
his life to be spared. Amazingly,
that was not the case. I would be
praying for myself and would seek to have everyone I know praying for me! How is it that Paul can be grateful
when he finds himself in chains and knows his execution is looming on the
horizon?
One of the reasons why Paul is able to express
gratitude is because of the people God has placed in his life. In verse 3 Paul very specifically ties
his gratitude to people – I thank
my God every time I remember you. Paul is grateful in a general sense –
for all the gifts in his life – but at this moment he is especially thinking
about the people God has placed in his life. All throughout the book of Philippians we find Paul expressing
his gratitude for people, a few of which are 1:18-20. 2:12-18. 4:1. 4:1-11.
When it comes to the church, we can never forget that the ministry
of the church rests in large measure upon the personal, that is, the way in
which we deal with people. The
church is an institution – and a very large one at that, and the institutional
side of the church is important, because the structure of the institution makes
so much of the work of mission and ministry possible – but it is founded upon
the personal. People will come to
a church because of a program, or the music, or the preaching, but they will
stay because of the personal. People
are bonded to a church because they form relationships there, they find support
there, and they find care in that church.
Sometimes, though, people are disappointed, and that comes when the
personal side of the church stumbles or fails. It is important that we build a strong structure that will
support our ministries but we can never forget the importance of the personal
touch. We must welcome people who
come through our doors and into our building. We must introduce ourselves to them and connect them to the
fellowship of our church.
It is the people to whom we are connected that give us reason to
pray with gratitude. It was the
people God had placed in the life of Paul that made it possible for him to pray
with gratitude in the midst of such difficult circumstances. Who are the
people God has gifted into your life?
Thank God for them. Express
your gratitude for them and to them.
2. Pray With Joy.
Verse 4 – In all my prayers for all of you, I always
pray with joy.
In spite of his dire circumstances, Paul’s
attitude was one of joy. In fact,
reading through the book of Philippians one could easily assume that Paul was
writing under some of the best circumstances possible, rather than the
challenging ones in which he found himself. It would be easy to assume, because of Paul’s
positive attitude, that he was writing under a palm tree, on a beach, with his
feet in the sand, rather than as a prisoner under guard. To say, in verse 4, for
instance, that I always pray with joy,
is an amazing statement for him to make, especially when we consider his
circumstances. But Paul would not
allow his circumstances to dictate either his attitude or his response to his
circumstances. Time and again,
throughout Philippians, Paul speaks of his own joy and that we ought to be
joyful as well.
As with gratitude, there are many references to
joy throughout the book of Philippians.
There are so many references to joy
and a spirit of joy so infuses the
book that it is sometimes referred to as the
book of joy. Again, isn’t that
amazing, considering the circumstances?
4:4 is an example – rejoice in the Lord always.
I will say it again:
Rejoice! Has anyone
else sung the song from that verse?
If I sing it, you probably won’t recognize it. Rejoice in the Lord
always, and again I say rejoice!
Rejoice, rejoice, and again I say rejoice! I learned to sing that song as a young man in church and at
church camp. We would sing that
song in the mornings at camp, to get us awake and enthusiastic for the day (and
sometimes overly enthusiastic, much to the chagrin of our counselors). We still teach that song at church
camp, and sing it in the mornings to get the students awake and enthusiastic
(and sometimes too enthusiastic, still to the chagrin of the counselors).
Jim Fegenbush came by the office the other
morning and he groaned as he sat down in a chair. He said his arthritis was bothering him, but he would be
thankful for his arthritis because it meant he had a leg and a foot. Isn’t that classic Jim? Now there’s a joyful perspective!
It does not minimize anyone’s difficulty,
struggle, or other hardship to acknowledge there is joy to be found in any
circumstance. Paul says, even in
the midst of his terrible ordeal that I
have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I
know what it is to have plenty. I
have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether
well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who
gives me strength (4:11-13). To
not acknowledge joy and some good in even the most difficult of situations can
just break us down. For Paul, in
his circumstances, it was a matter of emotional, psychological, and spiritual
survival.
3. Pray for
Increased Love.
Verse 9 – And this is my prayer: that your love may abound
more and more.
One certainty of Paul’s circumstance is that he
was given a focus upon what matters most – whatever
was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a
loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whose sake I have lost all things (3:7-8).
When you confront your mortality, as did Paul,
it puts things into perspective.
Now, personally, I’ve always been skeptical of the idea of living each day as if it were our last. It’s just not practical. Technically speaking, you can’t live
every day as if it were your last, not for any length of time, because you’d
probably lose your job for starters.
Stay home from week every day this week, living each day as if it were
your last, and see what kind of reaction you get from your boss. When your boss calls, asking where
you’ve been, try using the excuse that you are living each day as your last. Yes,
boss, I am at Disney World. Nest week I’ll be in Hawaii. Work? But I’m living each day as if it were my last. What we are called to do is to remind ourselves
of the importance of adjusting our lives to those most important matters that
are often pushed aside by the sometimes tyrannical urgency of the less
important matters of life. We know
that love is the core of life, but we always need to be called back to that
truth.
4. Pray for Wisdom,
Knowledge, and Discernment.
Verses 9-10 – in
knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best
and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
Paul really possessed an amazing faith, for a
couple of reasons, I believe. He
was, first, an amazing individual.
Second, he really worked at his faith. And, third, as he writes in II Corinthians 12:9, …he said to me, "My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,"
Paul understood how much he depended upon the power of God rather than his own
power.
One of my first seminary classes was called
Spiritual Formation. I didn’t know
what that term, spiritual formation,
meant, but it’s simply a specialized way of referring to the process of gaining
spiritual growth and maturity through a concentrated effort. We should be working at our faith and
growing in faith, always. Sometimes,
people will approach me with a desire to make a public statement about a
renewed commitment to their faith.
They will say something along the lines of I know so much more now than when I made my first commitment to faith
when I was in the 5th grade. Wonderful! You
should know more now than you did at an earlier stage of life. This shows your faith formation is working
well and continuing to provide you with a growing, vibrant, and healthy
faith.
I have been very blessed to have people in my
life to whom I could and can turn for wisdom and discernment. I trust their guidance and their
opinions. I have been blessed with
teachers who gave me some level of knowledge that has helped to enrich my
faith. And I have learned that
while it is important to search the depths of theology, we must allow God to
speak to our hearts, for it is there that we find the “heart” of our faith.
When I was in seminary, one of my professors
related that idea to us one morning.
Dr. Harold Songer was a New Testament professor and brilliant
teacher. He was one of the most
interesting people I have ever heard speak. I could walk into his class utterly exhausted, barely able
to hold my eyes open, and yet could sit and listen to him for a 90-minute class
and hardly blink. His lectures
were interesting, riveting, and no matter how tired I might be, I could listen
without so much as an eyelid drooping.
One morning, Dr. Songer came into class and
began his lecture. It was apparent
that something was agitating him and after only a few minutes we found out what
it was. He stopped teaching and
said this to us – I went to church this
weekend to hear one of my students preach. I have to say that I wasn’t very pleased. It was as though he was trying to show
me how much he knows. I didn’t
need to know how much he knows; I already know it, and I probably taught him a
lot of what he knows. I didn’t
want someone to speak to my head; I wanted someone to speak to my heart. Do not try to impress your congregation
with what you know. Don’t speak to
their heads; speak to their hearts, because that is where we build faith.
Dr. Songer was right, I believe. We need some knowledge, obviously. There is a time and a place to provide
the background and context to a Biblical passage, even in a sermon. Paul, obviously, was at times deeply
theological – read through the book of Romans and you will quickly discover
that truth. But here in the book
of Philippians we find Paul speaking to the hearts of those to whom he wrote,
and that is why it is such a profound little book. We think about and mull over certain concepts and facts with
our heads – and that is necessary – but our faith is formed in our hearts. Paul is speaking to our hearts to
provide us with advice about prayer.
We can tuck away that advice in our heads but it really takes root in
our hearts, and there it will grow, and there it will enrich our lives and our
faith in immeasurable ways.
And we can take that as great advice, because
it comes from Paul, who certainly knew a thing or two about prayer, and his
advice still makes all the difference.
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