Sermons

We begin with prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, You are the one who invites us to pray and promises to hear and answer our prayers. We confess that we have not always made the best use of your gift of prayer. Through your Son, Jesus Christ, who showed us the proper way to pray, you saved us from death and hell. We thank you for giving us direct access to your throne on account of the blood of the Lamb. Please be with us as we come together today for another opportunity to hear your word, and let our prayers always be acceptable in your sight. In Jesus’ name we ask this and all things, Amen. “If you had to leave your house and could only take five things, what would they be?” This is a question people ask when trying to get to know someone and find out what’s important to them. Maybe they would take their pet, a family photo album, or a family heirloom with great sentimental value. Those things on the list would be all be something the person felt they couldn’t live without. We can ask the same question about our prayer life. If you were only allowed to pray for five things in a day, what would those things be? Perhaps a better question would be: Who would you pray for? The apostle Paul is best known for writing numerous letters to groups of Christians. But by reading his letters we also see that he had a vibrant and living prayer life. Through his words of his prayer for the Philippians Paul encourages us to Pray for Each Other, Giving Thanks to God, but also Giving Glory to God in the process. I. Giving Thanks to God Paul opens his letter to the Philippians with a prayer of thanksgiving. While he doesn’t list them here, Paul had some very specific reasons to give thanks to God for the Philippians. Even though Paul had only spent a short time there on his missionary expeditions, a relationship had grown between the shepherd and his flock. The Philippians had kept track of Paul’s ministry and looked for opportunities to help him along the way. When he was working in nearby Thessalonica, Paul says that the Philippians sent him aid “again and again” (Phil. 4:16). Along with others, they supported him financially so he could do mission work in Corinth (II Cor. 11:8-9). Even at this point in Paul’s gospel work, when he was in prison in Rome, the Philippians were concerned about him and sent a man named Epaphroditus to help him. These were the fond memories of the Philippians that Paul is speaking about in verse 3. Every time Paul thought about the Philippians, he remembered the help they gave him in spreading the gospel. This led him to pray to God on their behalf. But he didn’t pray for the Philippians just when he thought they needed something. When he prayed for them, his prayers were also joyful. If Paul was writing his list of top five things to pray for, he might put on the list: Thank God for the Philippians and all the other people who help spread God’s good news. Paul gives the reason for this strong working relationship. Even though Paul hadn’t spent a long time there and they didn’t see each other all that often, they still shared a strong bond of unity in the gospel. It was their common faith in the Savior and their common goal of sharing salvation with all people that led the Philippians to help Paul in his ministry and led Paul to give thanks to God for it. That bond of unity in the gospel has been shared by all believers of all time. Before Jesus came and won eternal salvation for us on the cross, believers looked forward to the day God’s promises would be fulfilled. They reminded each other of the sacrifice that was going to come by continually sacrificing animals as God had commanded. They taught and shared God’s Word with each other, the words that predicted the coming of John the Baptist and the coming of the Messiah, as we read in our Old Testament lesson for this morning. On their list of things to pray for might be: Thank God that he had given us fellow believers in the promises of the Messiah. And that bond of unity was shared and strengthened by believers in Jesus’ time. Even though Paul was the one in jail for proclaiming the gospel, he didn’t say to the Philippians, “You’re not in jail, so you don’t share the gospel with me.” Believers were and are partners in persecution. They are also partners in defending and sharing the gospel. The Philippians knew that by helping Paul, they were helping the gospel to spread. They might pray: Thank God for the opportunity to help this apostle spread the good news of salvation. That bond of unity in the gospel continues on even now. We who wait for the Savior’s return also share in it. We share in it as we participate in the congregational life here at Faith. With the number of believers gathered together here there is also a great pool of abilities, talents and resources that can be put to use in strengthening each other. We can give thanks to God in our prayers, thanking him for the spiritual fruit that he has brought forth in our fellow believers. The devil wants none of this. The devil would like nothing more than to completely destroy the bond of unity we share in the gospel. And he finds a willing accomplice in our sinful nature. By nature, we want nothing to do with God’s Word. Sometimes that leads us to not get around to family devotions, to not make the gospel the center of our family life. It’s no wonder why peace is sometimes lacking at home. The bond of unity in the gospel is weak. The same thing can happen in a congregational family. When the bond of unity in the gospel is weak, people don’t work together in love. Some people don’t offer their service because they don’t have the gifts of another. Others who have gifts and are motivated go off on their own because they don’t think anyone is willing to help them. In all of this, there’s no giving of prayers of thanks to God for the service of others, because the bond of unity in the gospel is weak. But God gives us strength. When Paul prays for the Philippians, he is confident of the fact that God has the power to strengthen and sustain them. He also displays that power in our lives. He made salvation possible by sending his Son Jesus, who won heaven for us on the cross. He exercised that power when he brought us to faith through the Word, and that faith takes hold of the salvation that Jesus won. And God helps us grow in that good work he began in us, our fruits of faith, until we reach heaven, the goal of our faith, whether we die before Jesus comes again or are still alive to witness it. This is what strengthens the bond of unity and leads us to pray for each other, giving thanks to God. II. Giving Glory to God We not only give thanks to God when we pray for each other, but we also give glory to God in the process. Paul continues his prayer for the Philippians in verse 9 where he prays that their love may increase more and more. This is also a prayer that we pray for each other, that as we grow in faith we would continue to grow in love for one another. By ourselves, we can’t love at all. Our sinful nature has no ability to love anything except itself. By ourselves, we have no love for God. We refuse to acknowledge him and love him because it would mean taking the focus off of ourselves. Loving God would mean cutting those sinful habits and pet sins out of our lives, things our sinful nature loves to do. Loving God would mean showing love for others and praying for them, which is another thing our sinful nature refuses to do. It would mean putting others before ourselves, to insist on serving rather than being served. We fail to give glory to God when we fail to show the love that was given to us when we prayed for it. But even then, God loves us. Paul says in Romans, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It wasn’t the nails that held Jesus to the cross. It was his love for us. It was his love for sinners that drove him to come to this earth, with John the Baptist coming before him. God shows us what love is by his saving work. The apostle John writes, “We love because he first loved us.” And when we imitate that love, God is the one who is glorified. God alone receives the glory for our salvation. We give glory to God through our love. As Paul prayed, we also pray for our love and the love of others to increase, to never stop growing. Love for us is a pretty nebulous word. But it has some specific results. God answers that prayer for an increase of love and along with it increases our spiritual knowledge and insight. There’s no magic formula, where if I pray this hard this often, my knowledge will increase this amount. But as our love for God and for others increases, we spend more time in the Word to see God’s love for us and to guide us in service to others. And that’s our focus as we seek to grow in spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge is desirable, but is not an end in itself. Paul says in Corinthians, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” As we grow we seek to build up the other members of our church family. We also seek to add more to our number, extending the bond of unity in the gospel to more and more people. As our spiritual knowledge grows, we make better spiritual choices. Paul describes it in verse 10 when he says, “so that you may be able to discern what is best.” Spiritual choices are not indifferent things. We can’t say it doesn’t make a difference. Because of the tremendous love that God lavished on us, the focus in our lives is bringing forth the fruit of righteousness, keeping ourselves pure and blameless until Jesus comes again. This means that some choices are better than others. It means taking the extra time to build up unity in the gospel through daily family devotions, taking the time to volunteer and serve at church, or if we already serve at church, looking to involve others in gospel work instead of going it alone. That’s quite a list of things that give glory to God. We have love increasing, spiritual knowledge growing, making better spiritual choices to build up the bond of unity in the gospel. Where do we start? How can we begin to do all of these things? With prayer. We pray for our love and the love of others to increase. Even this act of prayer gives glory to God because we acknowledge where love comes from. The rest of these spiritual gifts come from God as well. On the list of the top five things to pray for, number one would be thanks to God for the gift of his Son. But there are many other opportunities for prayer and service, all of them as different as the believers who send their prayers to God’s throne of grace and serve him in their lives. Through the gift of Christian fellowship, God gives us opportunities to share in the prayers and work of others. We can thank God for his grace in the lives of others and pray for their continued blessings or relief of hardship. May we always give glory to God when we Pray for Each Other. Amen.