PAUL’S PHILIPPIAN PRAYER LIST
Philippians 1:9-12
Prayer is both the easiest and hardest discipline of the Christian life. It is the easiest in that the youngest child and the newest Christian can learn to pray. But prayer is also the hardest discipline because it is the most difficult to maintain over a long period of time. In a sense it is easy to enroll in the School of Prayer but hard to get a graduate degree.
Prayer is the very sword of the saints," …. "the Christian’s secret weapon, forged in the realms of glory." Why, then, do we not use it more effectively?
"Nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of God."
Bobby Jones, champion golfer, once said, "Have you ever noticed how much golfers practice? Smart businessmen have been quick to take advantage of that, developing public driving ranges where we can practice driving the ball, & putting greens where we can practice our putting." Japanese condos with nets
"But why hasn’t someone developed public sand traps? Sand traps are an inevitable part of the game of golf, & every golfer ought to practice ahead of time how to get out of trouble." Work on the most neglected part of our game: PRAYER
Paul prayed for others. Most of the time we spend in prayer is for something rather than someone but not Paul.
The tense of the word "pray" as used by Paul emphasizes continual action.
This was not just a prayer Paul once prayed, but a prayer that he continually prayed. What did he pray for?
1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
1:10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
1:11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
1. OVERFLOWING LOVE
It was Paul’s desire that there would not be a lack of love on the part of these Philippian believers. He continually prayed that they have a heart filled with a love that overflowed. 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
Paul was bound up in prison but love can never be confined. It can always be freely given.
A. Growing Love
He wanted their love to "abound." The word means to overflow. Described it as rising higher and higher. When spelled out literary it means "wave upon wave." SLITERBON GIANT BUCKET
Described it as a well shaken bottle of pop that spews in every direction. MENTOS
Paul’s was praying for a growing love. "Lord, let my love for God and others grow and grow and grow." Love more now than ever?
We should pray for a life with an overflowing love that gets bigger and bigger.
B. Guided Love
This love is to be guided by "knowledge" and “discernment."
Described as the banks that contain a rising river. The word that is used speaks of full knowledge. Someone who gathers all the facts and looks over them carefully.
Paul is asking that they love based on all the facts. He is saying that the heart should not rule the head. The head should rule the heart.
"Judgment" has to do with application. Idea of being in sunlight (sort socks). The word means to see clearly, to confirm, to test, and make sure. It is a accumulation of all the facts, a complete knowledge, which then gives one the ability to love properly.
2. OVERRULING LAW
1:10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
June’s graveside: Grieving family over life of 84 years. Buried next to gravestone of teenager who only lived to be 14. The pain that family must have felt on that day puts life in perspective.
A. A Proper Evaluation Of Life
"Approve" means to test, to set the approval on one thing rather than the other. It speaks of the ability to sense of what is vital.
A petition that God would help us to know what is important in life and what is essential verses that which we is not important and essential.
On his 80th birthday someone asked Herbert Welch the secret of his serene spirit. He replied, "As I grow older, life become simpler because I see the essentials more clearly in the evening light."
Someone has said, "Problems are a part of life. All of us are going to have problems right up to the moment we die. And some of you are going to have problems after you die."
We are to test all things and put the important things first in our life.
The eternal is first, and the earthly second.
B. A Proper Estimation Of Life
"Excellent." indicates that we are not only to test the good and bad but also that this testing is to produce a discernment of that which is good and that which is better.
Most lives end up common because the good was chosen over the best. It is the difference between mediocrity and excellence.
Isaac D’Israeli, said in 1834,"It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us."
James Russell Lowe put it this way: Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
Paul is talking about settling for the good and not for the best. We are to evaluate our life. Don’t make good things a priority. Make the best things the priority of life.
God works much in our life is let go of things unimportant things, and even the good things, so we can enjoy the best things.
Cleve McClary is an ex-marine who fought in Vietnam where he was badly wounded. He lost one eye & all of his teeth.
He lost one arm & most of the fingers on his other hand. He lost hearing in one of his ears. Yet Cleve McClary stands proudly at attention in his marine uniform.
When you look at him he’ll look back at you with that one eye & you know you have his undivided attention. He has a magnetic personality that just draws people to him. And he’ll reach out with what’s left of his one good hand, & grip yours tightly as he exchanges greetings with you.
Cleve McClary has an optimistic spirit, even though life has been so tough for him. He has a special license plate on his car with the word "FIDO" on it - F I D O. When asked what it means he says it means this, "Forget it & drive on."
3. OVERCOMING LIFE
In his prayer list he included petitions for a life that is overcoming. He speaks of an overcoming life as involving that which is: 1:10 in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
"Sincere" speaks of the transparency of life. That which is unmixed with incompatible ingredients. It was used in reference to the purifying of precious metals. Derived from an expression "to be without wax." The honest sellers of pottery learned to put a sign over the their products with this word on it.
Paul is describing a life that is on the outside what it is on the inside. It is transparent.
"Blameless." speaks of being without anything in the life that would cause others to stumble or fall.
A life that is empty of all hypocrisy and then a life filled with the fruits of righteousness. 1:11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
He not only speaks of a life empty of wrong things but filled with right things.
But notice that this life is the product of an intimate walk with Christ: "which comes through Jesus Christ." It is Christ being Lord of the life and Him filling the life with the fruits of righteousness.
Kay Arthur well-known Christian author & speaker who has influenced tens of thousands. As a young girl she went to church. She wrote, "I would listen to the messages, & go to Sunday School, but I never really committed my life to Jesus."
She grew up & got married, & then found out that her husband suffered from a mental disorder. They had two children, but the marriage was always in trouble. Her husband was constantly causing problems, so finally, she left him. Time after time he called & pleaded with her to come back, but she refused. Finally, he threatened suicide, & she told him, "Go ahead, I need the money." And he did.
Kay Arthur says that she can remember driving from the funeral, shaking her fist in anger at God & saying, "Go to hell, God." Then she writes, "It was like someone flipped a switch. I suddenly realized that was exactly what God did. He went to hell for me, that I might go to heaven with Him."
