Philippians 1:3-11
Today, we continue in our series of sermons about prayer. And I hope, that as we have dealt with such
subjects as: “Why Should We Pray?” “How Should We Pray?” and “What Should We
Pray?” … that you have grown in your understanding and practice of prayer and
that this is helping you to grow in your relationship with God. This is why we have offered this series
on prayer. To help you develop a confidence in your
prayer life and to develop a prayer life that helps you to cultivate a deeper
relationship with God. Prayer is
fundamental in our relationship with God.
We have examined several models for prayer. And through the Study Guides that have been
provided each week, you’ve had a chance to experience using some of those
models for prayer.
Today,
we are going to be talking about “How to
Pray for Anyone and Everyone”. When
I became a Christian, I was made aware of my responsibility to pray for the
people in my life. So, being a good
Methodist, I put together a list … starting with everyone in my
family—including aunts and uncles that I hadn't seen since preschool and
cousins so far removed that any genetic link between us was probably
untraceable.
I
also included the name of every one in my youth group and all the key people at
my church - my pastor, youth minister, Sunday school teacher, choir director, and
so on. I also included my friends at
school, teachers, coaches, neighbors who lived across the street from me, the paper
boy, the mail man, a missionary from
After looking at my list,
I realized that there was no way that I was going to be able to pray for all
those people at one time, so strategically, I divided my list into seven
sections and made a commitment to pray over one section each day. But, into the first week of this effort, I ran
into a snag. I was praying for my family
members and came to the name of my cousin Amy, whom I barely knew. I prayed, "Lord,
please bless Amy, she's my cousin. Uh, I
haven't seen her in several years, but please bless her. Also bless her mom and dad, whose names I
forgot to put on this list. Lord, I
don’t know what to pray, so ... uh ... please just bless her.”
Then I went to the next name on my list
… one of my classmates at school named Kenny.
I prayed, "Lord, please bless
Kenny. Uh, I don’t really know what to
pray for Kenny ... so ... uh ... just please bless him.”
It soon became obvious that I
desperately needed help with my prayer life.
In fact, if the word “bless” would
have been removed from my prayer vocabulary, my career as a prayer warrior
would have been over. And I don’t think
that I'm the only one who has experienced this.
So, today, we address the question, “How We Pray for Anyone and
Everyone.”
Last week, we talked about how we can pray for
others when we come to the “supplication” or “give us our daily
bread” part of our prayers. And I gave you the model of using our
fingers as a way to pray for others. But
the one category that often gets left out when we pray for others, are those we
find it difficult to pray for … our enemies … those who have wronged us … those
who rub us the wrong way … and are responsible for causing us pain and
suffering. And yet, there is no denying
that Jesus teaches us to pray for our
enemies. In Matthew 5:44 Jesus
says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Now, the reason that these people get
left out of our prayers is obvious. This
is simply something that is not easy for us to do. It’s difficult … perhaps even painful. And if we’re honest, the truth of the matter
is that this is just not something that we want to do. Yet, this is one of the marks that
distinguish a Christian from a non-Christian.
We pray for our enemies.
E.
Stanley Jones reminds us that there are three levels of life:
The
first level is returning evil for good … which is the demonic level.
The
second level is returning evil for evil … which is the legalist level.
The third level is returning good for evil … which is the divine
level.
We simply cannot read the New Testament
without seeing that those who bear the name of Christ are called to live on “the
divine level” of “returning good for evil”, which includes praying for our
enemies.
And in our scripture lesson for this
morning, I believe that Paul offers us a blueprint that we can use when we pray
for people. It’s a good model of how to
pray for “anyone”, but I think
it can offer us some specific points for how to pray for “everyone” … including our enemies.
In verses 3-4 Paul says, “I
thank my God every time I remember you.
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy....” Now
notice here, that Paul begins his prayer in a positive way. And that’s the first point for how we should pray
for others … we should “make it a positive prayer.” Even if we don’t have a positive relationship
with the person we're praying for, we can still pray a positive prayer.
If you read the book of Philippians,
it will become evident to you that Paul was close to the Church at
In fact, if you read the other letters of Paul, you will see this characteristic in each of them. In his letter to the Corinthians, he begins by saying, “I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus…” To the Galatians, he writes, “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ…” To the Ephesians, he writes, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” And these were churches that gave Paul all kinds of grief. They attacked his integrity. They accused him of blasphemy. They ridiculed him and spread all kinds of false rumors about him. And yet, in every case, he makes his prayer for them a positive prayer.
Well, as Paul demonstrated, whenever
you pray for someone, begin by making it a positive prayer. Even if we're having a conflict with that
person, we can thank God
that he or she is giving us the opportunity to grow spiritually, to learn forgiveness, to be more patient … and on and on. If we try, we can find something to be positive about in anyone. Like Paul shows us, instead of focusing on everything negative about that person, when we pray, we should focus on the good things.
Are
you familiar with “the 80/20 rule”?
Business consultants say 80% of your sales come from 20% of your
customers. Sociologists say that 80% of
crime is committed by 20% of the population.
In an organization 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people, and so
on.
I once pastored a church where the 80/20 rule was in effect … 80% of the church loved me, the other 20% wanted to kill me. (That's an exaggeration, though at the time it sure felt like it.) And during that time, I knew that I should pray for my enemies, but it wasn't easy. Yet, being obedient to Christ’s teaching, I tried to follow the example of how Paul prayed for the Philippian church. I began thanking God for the people in my church—even the ones who were against me.
One person in particular comes to mind. He had been a key person in the church for many years, and he became upset over a decision that had been made. Though I wasn’t alone in that decision, I became the focus of his anger. Such is the price of leadership sometimes. What he probably didn't know was that the feeling was mutual. I didn't want to be around him anymore than he wanted to be around me. I wished he would move to another church just as much as he wished that I would move. Every Sunday morning, as I began my message, he would put on his glasses, take out his Sunday School book, lean back comfortably in his pew, and begin to read.
The discontent was obvious.
When
I decided to pray for him, I had to look hard to pray for things to be thankful
for. Though I didn't appreciate his
attitude, there were some good things about him. He was in church every Sunday. He gave generously. He
was always doing projects around the building—fixing this and that. He taught Sunday School … I knew that, because
he prepared his lessons each week during my sermons. His children were active and vital parts of
the church. He was a good
grandfather—his grandchildren loved to climb all over him. He had a great lawn. He was punctual. The list continued to grow.
After praying for him several times, something began to happen
within my heart. Remember how we talked
last Sunday, about how prayer changes us from in the inside out. As I prayed for him, I discovered that it was
impossible not to like him just a little bit, in spite of how he felt about
me. Through prayer, our relationship
changed … because I began to see him through God’s eyes. Did we become best friends? Not exactly.
But we did end up learning to respect each other.
E.
Stanley Jones put it like this: “Every time the name of the person you
dislike is mentioned, breathe a prayer for that person, for you beat down
rising resentment by a barrage of prayer.”
One Sunday after church my car wouldn't start. It just so happened that this man and I had
parked next to each other that Sunday, and he volunteered to give me a ride
home. My immediate thought was "God surely does have a sense of humor. What will we talk about for 5 miles?” Well, on the way home I didn't say anything …
I didn't have the chance. He talked the
whole time. He said more to me that
afternoon than he had said in three years.
He told me about his wife's surprise birthday
party, about the place where he used to work, about working on cars … and on
and on. As I got out of
the car, he said, "Good sermon,
today. I wouldn't mind hearing that one
again.” I couldn't believe my
ears! But to this day I know that prayer
made the difference in our relationship.
The great preacher, George Buttrick, said when you pray for your enemies, you should
begin the prayer this way, “Lord, bless
so-and-so whom I foolishly regard as an enemy.
Keep them in thy favor and banish my resentment.”
You see, what I have learned as I pray for my enemies,
is that Jesus teaches us to “Hate the sin, but love the sinner!” And it all adds up to this: The test of
Christian discipleship is to be able to love the people we do not like. Not to love the sin, but to love the person. But the only way we can get to that point, is
through praying for our enemies. And as Paul teaches us, when we pray for
someone, make it a positive prayer.
But “Why?” we ask. After the wrong this person has done to me,
why should I make it a positive prayer?
Well, the Bible gives us many good reasons to do this. In verse 6, Paul said, “I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will
carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” You see, Paul
reminds us that God is at work in the
life of every person in this world.
Through His Holy Spirit, God is seeking to draw all people into a closer
relationship with Him.
As Paul says in Ephesians 1:9-10, “With all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of
his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan
for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and
things on earth.” And 2 Peter 3:9
says that, “God is not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Simply put, God doesn't give up on
us … ever! God doesn't reject people …
people reject Him. As long as a person
has breath, God's Spirit will continue to deal with that person’s life …
calling them; convicting them; leading them; and wooing them. As long as there is a chance, God will not
give up on us. The thief on the cross next
to Jesus was a good example of this.
And the point is,
that since God doesn't give up on people, neither should we. I like the bumper sticker that says, “Please be patient. God isn't finished with me yet.” Well, that’s true for all of us! God is at work in the life of every person,
even our enemies.
So, when you pray for people, make it “a
positive prayer” … not because you have faith in that person or even because
you like them, but because you have faith in a God who never gives up on any of
us.
Thirdly,
“Make it a purpose-driven prayer”.
Remember how I said, that early on my prayers consisted of only “Bless him and bless her” and that was
it? At that stage in my prayer life, I
really had no idea what to say. But last
week we talked about the need to be “specific” when we pray. Paul gives us a good example of this in
verses 9-11 when he says, “This is my
prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of
insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and
blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that
comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”
Here Paul prays 3
things for the Philippians. He prays
that they would grow in “love, wisdom and
holiness.” We can pray that for
anyone. What he’s praying here, is for
God’s Spirit to be at work in their lives.
He’s praying for God’s best to be developed in their lives. Because Paul understood that what Christ
commands of us, is that we desire the best for other’s welfare … that we seek
their highest good, whether we like them or not, when we pray.
I understand, that when it comes to
praying for our enemies, that’s not easy.
But whenever we have trouble doing this, we need to remember how Jesus,
on the Cross, looked down at those who were spitting upon him and jeering at
him … those who had beaten and nailed him to a cross, and he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do.” He could have wished
the worst for them, but he prayed the best for them … that God would forgive
them and not hold their sin against them.
This serves as his example for us.
The final point
that I want to make today, is that we need to pray for others, especially our
enemies, because we are all sinners
saved by God’s grace. Whenever we
gather around the Lord’s Table for Holy Communion, we are reminded of this fact,
that “Christ died for us, while we were yet sinners.” And we love one another, and we pray for our
enemies, because Christ first loved us.
This element of
prayer was so important, that in Matthew 5:23 Jesus says, “If you are
offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother;
then come and offer your gift.”
As Jesus teaches
us in the Lord’s Prayer, we cannot experience God’s grace in our lives if we do
not “forgive and pray for those who have trespassed against us.” As the Lord has forgiven us, so we must forgive
one another.
The truth is, that God knows our hearts … and where there is bitterness
and resentment, his grace cannot reside.
The only path to healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation is through fervent
prayer.
And
so, when we pray for others, and especially when we pray for those we perceive
as our enemies, Scripture teaches us to pray a positive prayer for them; to recognize that God desires to be at work in their lives; to
pray with purpose … praying God's best for them; and to pray remembering that
God has forgiven you and to help you to forgive as well. This is how I believe scripture teaches
us to pray for anyone and everyone.