PRAY DAILY
(We Will Grow In 2007, IF #2)
(The Importance of Prayer)
The Scripture reading for this morning is from Philippians 1:3-11. I encourage you to follow along in your Bibles as I read.
Grace Memorial Baptist Church will grow significantly in numbers in the year 2007, but more importantly, we will grow closer in our walk with the Lord if we commit ourselves to five “IF’s.”
The five “IF’s” are listed in your workbook along with the daily reminder worksheets – one worksheet for each “IF.” Last Sunday morning we started a series of messages based on these five areas of commitment.
We spoke on the importance of studying our Bibles. It’s as simple as this - if you don’t truly study the Bible, the inspired Word of God, you won’t grow in spiritual maturity.
As you study the Bible, the Holy Spirit will guide you and help you understand more about God, His purposes and His ways.
If you don’t study God’s Holy Word, how will you know if someone is preaching the truth or if he is preaching false doctrine?
This morning’s message is entitled “Pray Daily” (The Importance of Prayer). Let’s begin reading with Philippians 1:3, “ 3I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,”
As you are talking to God, please pray for your church, for each other, and for at least one lost person. And when you talk to Him:
1.Don’t Forget To Thank Him.
I can’t think of a better way to begin a prayer than by thanking our Creator and Sustainer, God. After all, if it weren’t for the love of God and His wonderful grace, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.
Paul begins by thanking God for the memories he has of the Christians at Philippi. Wherever Paul traveled, he lovingly remembered these Christians. Even though they were far away, they were often on his mind.
When he remembered the Philippians, he thought of them with joy in his heart. He probably spoke of them a great deal, and he enjoyed hearing news about them from others who had traveled there.
It is a wonder that Paul’s thoughts of the Philippians made him happy, because, in Philippi, he was badly mistreated.
He was scourged and beaten. He was put into stocks, and while he was there he didn’t see much reward for his efforts.
Paul really suffered while he was in Philippi, but he remembered his work there with delight.
This may sound a little strange to our ears. If you went on a journey to, say, Mexico City , and while you were there you were falsely accused, arrested and thrown into jail.
In jail you were shackled and beaten. Then, by some miracle, you were able to escape and find your way back to the United States.
When you were safely back home, would you look back and remember Mexico City with joy in your hearts? Probably not.
Paul remembered his sufferings in Philippi with joy, but it wasn’t because he liked pain.
He remembered this time with joy because of the reason for his suffering.
Paul suffered for Christ, and he found spiritual comfort in his physical suffering. He was pleased at every mention of the place where he had suffered for Christ.
James wrote, “ 2My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” (James 1:2,3) He and Paul thought a lot alike, it seems.
When Paul remembered the Philippians he didn’t say, “ Oh, Philippi. What a terrible place! The Pharisees there whipped me and put me in jail. I got out of that place by the skin of my teeth!”
No. He said, “ I thank my God on every remembrance of you.”
So, in our prayers, let’s not forget to thank God for everything – for the good times as well as the bad times; for the failures as well as the successes.
Look at verse 4, “ 4always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,” This brings us to:
2. Intercessory Prayer.
I know that this is a high-sounding word, but all it means is praying on behalf of others. One of the earliest and best examples of intercessory prayer is in Genesis 18 where Abraham spoke to God on behalf of Sodom.
Abraham asked God to spare Sodom if fifty righteous people could be found, then forty-five, then forty, then thirty, and so on down to ten.
God promised He would not destroy the city if ten righteous people could be found there.
And in Exodus 15:25, Moses prayed to God on behalf of the Hebrew people. The sacrifices and prayers of the priests in the Old Testament were acts of intercession.
The greatest examples of intercessory prayers are the prayers of Christ. He is the great intercessor. In Luke 22:31-32, He prayed for Peter. He prayed, “ 31 . . .“Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail;”
In John 17, He prayed for His disciples. Then, in Luke 23:34 we find the most unselfish intercessory prayer of all. Christ prayed for those who crucified Him. He said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
But He didn’t stop interceding when He returned to heaven. In heaven, He intercedes for His church.
Hebrews 7:25 says, “ 25Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
The Holy Spirit prays on behalf of each individual Christian. Romans 8:26 says, “ 26Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
And, as Christians, you and I are to intercede for all people. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 says, “ 1Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
You and I are encouraged to give thanks for and to pray for all people. Not just our family members, and friends.
God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell. Pray for the lost, no matter who they are.
Pray that God will intervene in their lives and draw the lost to Him. We can’t be saved for someone else, but we can certainly pray for them. So, in your daily prayers, pray for the lost, but also:
3.Pray For The Church.
Look at verse 5, “ 5for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,”
How are we supposed to pray for the church? In this verse Paul prayed for their fellowship in the gospel.
Fellowship means sharing things in common with others, but Christian fellowship has a more spiritual meaning.
As Christians we share a common bond with one another. We have a relationship with God the Father through His Son Jesus.
The church is the body of Christ and we fellowship with Him when we fellowship with one another.
When we fellowship with other believers, we encourage each other and we lift up one another. And our fellowship becomes more important as the day of Christ’s return draws near.
Hebrews 10: 24-25 says, “ 24And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
In your daily prayers for the church, pray that we will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but that we will come to church and learn, and exhort one another to love and good works.
When you pray:
4.Pray With Confidence.
Paul did. Look at verse 6, “ 6being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
Paul knew that God was good for His word. He prayed for the church at Philippi, knowing that God had started something powerful there. God had called Paul and Silas to go to Philippi and preach the gospel of Christ.
Paul was on his second missionary journey, and his intentions were to go into Asia Minor toward the east, but instead, God called him to go to Macedonia. Let’s read a little about this in Acts chapter 16:
Acts 16: 6-12, “ 6Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. 7After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. 8So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, 12and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.”
So, Paul knew that his going to Philippi was no accident. It was a “God thing.” God’s wisdom is so much higher than man’s wisdom.
If Paul had not been sensitive to the will of God, he would have continued his missionary trip into Asia, and the gospel would not have been preached in Europe until much later.
God had begun a good work in Philippi, and Paul prayed that the believers there would continue it until Christ’s return.
Over twenty-five years ago, God began a good work in the Brecon area here at Grace Memorial Baptist Church.
In your daily prayers, please pray that the work here will continue until Christ’s return. Let’s be sensitive to the will of God and wait on Him to guide us in all that we do.
If we are faithful to His call, He will be faithful to complete the good work that He started.
5.Pray For One Another.
Let’s read verses 7and 8, “ 7just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.”
Paul had a special place in his heart for his fellow believers at Philippi. He wrote to them that he had them in his heart. He loved them dearly. He loved them as he loved himself.
The heart is a wonderful place to carry your Christian friends. As Christians, we are brothers and sisters.
We are joint heirs with Christ, and we are all partakers with each other of the grace of God.
When we are apart, we should long for each other with the affection of Jesus Christ. This takes us back to the word, “fellowship.” That is what fellowship is all about.
We are all wrapped up together as partners in sharing the gospel of Christ with a lost and dying world.
We don’t all have the same gifts and talents. We don’t all have the same calling from God in our individual ministries.
But we do all have the same great commission to go out into the world and make disciples. We have the common goal of winning lost souls for Christ.
Love one another. Pray for one another that each of us will commit ourselves to witnessing to the lost. If we do this, Grace Memorial Baptist Church will grow.
6.Pray For Love, and Knowledge, and Discernment.
Look at verses 9 and 10, “ 9And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,”
Paul prayed that the Philippian Christians would have abundant love for God and for one another.
He prayed that they would fulfill the first and second great commandments, to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul,” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
As you pray for one another, pray that each member of this church will strive to fulfill these great commandments.
As Jesus said in Matthew, all the law and the prophets, the entire Old Testament, rests on these two commandments.
But Paul didn’t pray only for abundant love. He prayed that their love would abound in knowledge and discernment.
How do we come by knowledge? One of the best ways is to study the Bible.
Another way is to seek godly counsel, and to fellowship with other Christians.
Newer, less mature Christians can pair up with more mature Christians and learn from them.
But, by all means, study God’s Word. Use it as a standard. Measure all counsel and advice by what it says.
If the counsel and advice you receive goes against the teachings of the Bible, then seek other advice.
We are not to judge one another. That is God’s business. But we are to be discerning. We are to judge, or discern right from wrong.
Pray for one another that you will abound in love with knowledge and all discernment.
Verses 10 and 11 tell us why we are to abound in love with knowledge and all discernment, “ 10that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
As a church, many choices will come our way. We must make many decisions about the direction we will take.
We will probably make a wrong decision or take a wrong turn now and then.
But if we will abound in love for God and for one another. If we study to show ourselves approved, workmen who need not be ashamed, we are much more likely to approve the things which are excellent.
We are more likely to be sincere and without offense, and we are more likely to be filled with the fruits of righteousness.
Please continue to pray daily for your church. Pray daily for one another, and pray for a specific lost person.
If we will study our Bibles every day, and if we pray as Paul prayed for the Philippian church, we are well on our way to Christian maturity and church growth in 2007.
Word Count – 2596
Grace Memorial Baptist Church
January 21, 2007
