The Apostle's Prayer | Brother Steve Marsh July 20th, 2025 Philippians 1:9-11

Be glorified today. [Music] You may be seated and bow your heads. Dear heavenly father, we thank you so much for bringing us here together, waking us up, giving us breath to breathe, Lord. And we thank you and love you so much. You know, thank you for your salvation, for your grace. You know, I pray that those who don't know you get to know you and you know, strive for that gift of salvation, Lord. And we thank you so much, Father. We love you so much. You're such a great father. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. >> Good morning. >> Hey, good. I'm on. We're going to continue on in Philippians this morning in chapter 1.

And in this chapter, we find that Paul prays for the Philippian believers, for their church. And in doing so, he basically gives us a model of how we can pray one for another. First of all, think for just a moment. How do you understand prayer? What does that mean? Any ideas? Talking to God. Say again, God talking to us. It's it's communication, right? Two ways. It's not just us telling God, here's what I want you to do, God. We also need to hear from God. And prayer is the term we use to kind of put a put that package together. This church we have lots of opportunities for prayer in groups. If you didn't get one of these sheets this morning, grab one on your way out. It's a lot of prayer opportunities that we as a church can join in prayer for a lot of different areas. Okay. We also have a prayer meeting every Wednesday at six o'clock. Meet down here in one of the classrooms and that's another opportunity to join together with other believers and pray. In the community groups. As far as I know, each group has a prayer time and most groups have like an email chain that they send out so that we can pray during the week for the requests that came up. So we have a lot of opportunities as a church to pray. We also pray during our services. So we're we're seeking to connect with God as a as a church as a body and also as individual believers. So all of these different u avenues for prayer give us you know a way a format by which we can connect with God. But then we have a lot of Scripture that would tell us

I guess maybe different admonitions for praying. I want to look at some of them this morning. I really really do. I really do. This thing and me do not get along real well. Okay, there's the projector. There's the button. Anybody want a flipper? >> You're kidding. You did that, didn't you? Good. Yeah. We will look at a few Scriptures about prayer. This one in Hebrews. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. So, that's kind of an encouraging let's do this. We're also told to come in confidence. Thank you. In First Thessalonians, we read, "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit." So, if you've ever wondered what God's will is for you, here we have it. Pray. God wants us to come before him and pray. Okay. In Ephesians 6, we're told that praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for the saints. Okay? We're the saints, by the way. So, we pray for one another. And we pray in the spirit. That's more instruction there. Another one in John 14. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that the father may be glorified in

The son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples right before he's going to go to the cross. So we have like a guarantee here, right? And so that verse is why we always end our prayers and say in Jesus name, amen. Is that what it means to pray in Jesus name? Short answer is no. That's a form that we use and we use that to try to indicate that we are conscious of praying in Jesus' name as he has asked us to do. But there's more to it than just saying that little short phrase. Okay. One more that we want to look at is in first John chapter 5. And this is the confidence that we have toward him. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we've asked of him. Okay, another guarantee. But it kind of expands a little bit on the idea of in his name. Now it's according to his will. And you know earlier in the verse we got told that his will for us is to pray. So you put those together and we should be doing a lot of praying. But it can be sticky for us because how do we know what God's will is? We get in some situations where it's tough to figure things out. You know, I think I know what I want, but is that what God wants? So, how do I pray? That can get tough for us, especially when we read verses like this in Isaiah. This is God speaking through the prophet. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So what happens to what I want when I pray? Is that what God wants? How do I know this? This can get a little sticky. It's a caution to us that God is God and I am not. There's a bumper sticker that I haven't seen for years, but it was popular, I don't know, long time ago really. Said something on the order of, this is God. I've got today covered. I don't need your help. That kind of thing. That's a reminder to us that we need to understand that because we want something and we come to God for it, it doesn't mean that's his will. That's what we want. And if we keep those two things separate, you know, God, this is what I would like to see you do. But don't think that because I want to see it, it automatically makes it God's will. That's something we're going to take a look at here. And that's something that we kind of have to keep in mind. We're praying to God. We are not God. And there is a distinction there. Okay. We have a Scripture here to take a look at. It's in first or in Philippians chapter 1. This is the passage we're going to sit on this morning. This is Paul praying for the Philippian believers, the new Philippian church. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. So let's pray and ask the Lord to open this Scripture to us today. And Father, we do that. We come before you. We have your word. We thank you for it. And we pray that your spirit would make it alive within us that we might know your heart in how we should come to you in

Prayer. We do know father that there are many within our fellowship that are hurting different diseases. Several fighting cancer, several recovering from surgeries, several kind of in question about how they're going to be earning a living, different job situations. So, Father, we know there are a lot of things like this, but at the same time, we do want to pray this prayer for them all because within their situations, we trust that you can work in them and through them to grow them through these things. So, Father, we now come before you and just ask that you'd open our eyes as we see your word and seek your understanding. And we thank you for it in Christ's name. Amen. Okay. Before we dig into this passage, it's not an outlier. Okay. Realize that it's not the only example of prayer for believers. There's one in Colossians quite similar. And so from the day we heard, we've not ceased to pray for you, asking, and this is the prayer, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in life. If you compare that passage to the one in Philippians, there's there's a lot of overlap. He's he's asking that they know God, that their love would increase, their wisdom and understanding would increase. There's another prayer that Paul

Prays for a group of believers in Ephesians chapter 1. And this is one example here. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the workings of his great might. Okay. Again, Paul is praying generally here for the Ephesian believers and also for the Ephesian church. And one more example out of Ephesians found a couple chapters later. Again, an example of Paul's prayer for the believers. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through love, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of Christ, fullness of God, excuse me. So you have all of these prayers as examples to us and there's a lot in common. All of them talk about growing in love, growing in our knowledge of him. Growing in wisdom, that's always a good thing, and just growing in our understanding, our discernment of how to make wise decisions in life. So, now let's get back to our passage

For some details, back to Philippians 1. We're going to kind of go through this and hit the key words as we go, but one of the words that is repeated in all of Paul's prayers is love. And in this case to the Philippians, he says he's praying that your love may abound more and more. Okay. So, does that mean that the Philippians were especially loving people? Well, on Paul's first visit to the Philippians to Philippi, let's see, he cast out a demon from a slave girl. Okay. And then what happened with all these loving people in Philippi? They mobbed him. He ended up being beaten and thrown into prison. So maybe he's not talking specifically about them being such a loving people. And he isn't. He's talking about God's love because as believers that's what we focus on. Love is one of the fruits of the spirit. In fact, let's take a look at that in Galatians says the fruit of the spirit is love. And that's the indwelling Holy Spirit. Joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control. Against such things there is no law. Okay. Love is also described for us in Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 13, we read this description. Love is patient, kind, does not envy, boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And this love is what identifies us as Christians because without the Holy Spirit, we don't have that kind of love. We have the kind of love that the Philippians had when they mobbed Paul

And beat him and threw him into jail. That's not a good thing. But it goes on in John, Jesus was talking to his disciples and he talked to them about love. Says, "A new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Okay, that gives us love as both a concept and as an action. It's not just something we understand, it's something we do one for another. And that's what Paul was praying for in the Philippians example prayer that their love would grow more and more. So we have love as a quality and as an action. And that was a prayer request of Paul's for the believers. So let's move on in the passage and see what else he prayed for. Says, "It's my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge." Okay. Knowledge. What kind of knowledge? How to love better. What kind of knowledge could he possibly be talking about? Well, fortunately, we don't have to guess. He gives us an example. U another verse we're going to little farther in Philippians in Philippians 3:10 he says that I may know him knowledge and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings becoming like him in death. So knowledge here isn't head knowledge. It's a relationship with God where we know him, we identify with him, and we become like him actually. But that's growth that doesn't happen initially in salvation. But that's what Paul was praying for the Philippian believers, that they could grow in their knowledge of God.

Okay. Let's go on in the passage and look at another word. After he prays for love and he prays for knowledge, he then prays for discernment. Okay, discernment is an interesting word. It's kind of based we would call it we don't use that word too much in our normal language. We'd say having good judgment. How to recognize this is a good thing, this is a good thing, this is a better thing or this is not a good thing. But it enables us to make wise choices because in discernment we can look at different situations and we can say, "Yeah, this looks like a good way to go." But it's not solely based on our human wisdom. Here's Paul praying for the believers to grow in their discernment as they grow in the Lord. So, we get halfway through his prayer, well, a third of the way through his prayer, and now we're motivated by God's love. We're equipped with knowledge of God. We're growing in our relationship with him. We're growing in our discernment. So what's the next thing he prays for? Pardon me. Says that you may abound more and more in love and knowledge and discernment. So here's a result. You can approve what is excellent. Approving what is excellent. So there's choices that have to be made. And we would choose the best. Now, that doesn't come most of you have been two years old at one point or another or another. At two years old, how many wise choices do two-year-olds make? Not too many. Their choices are all defined by I want. And most of us at least partially grow out of that. Sometimes it takes a little longer, but this growth in making wise choices

Comes with what came before it in the passage. We need to be growing in our love for one another. We need to be growing in our knowledge of God. And we need to be growing in our ability to discern better good worse. And then that brings about a result so that you can make wise choices. You can approve what's excellent. And we can continue on here in the prayer. Oh, sorry. Yeah. About making the wise choices. If we just don't know how to make a wise choice, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him. So if you don't know the wise choice, ask God. So you're you're praying for more of the wisdom to make the wise choices. So the end result of this prayer is that we would be able to honor God with our lives. We'd abound in our love for one another. We'd grow in our knowledge, our relationship with God. We would grow in our discernment, our ability to recognize good, better, and best. And then we would make wise choices in our lives. So let's see what the final result of that is in this passage. Having done those things, it says so to be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. And that describes a really tight good walk with the Lord. So that's what Paul is praying for the believers. But you notice what's missing from that prayer? Nothing specific, you know. So what if somebody in the Philippian church was sick? Does this cover that situation?

What if they were, you know, looking for some kind of employment? Would this help them there? What if? What if? What if? The idea here is that Paul prays this for believers individually and as a group because it is what we need in order to live in a way that's pleasing to God. Whether we are sick, whether we're out of work, whether our two-year-old is acting like a two-year-old and we don't know what to do. Whatever the specifics aren't the issue here. The walk with the Lord is the issue. That's something that we tend to forget. Going back to the idea of what is prayer, we tend to think of it in terms of talking to God, which is part of it. We're told to bring our request before him, and we want to do that. But we get we also tend to get focused on what we ask God to do. Here's what I want to see happen. So we pray for that. Nothing wrong. We should be praying for those things, but we should not miss praying for what God is doing in and through the believer through those situations. And that's where we can kind of get focused on what we want God to be doing because I actually know what's best, right? Wrong. I do not occasionally maybe, but God knows what's best. And if I am praying for something, I need to learn to leave it in his hands because he is God. I am not as far as situations go. Let's take another look at that passage in James and expand it a little bit. Go ahead. My battle with this thing is a losing battle. Okay. Consider it all joy, my brothers, cool, when you encounter trials, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know

That the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. For if any of you lacks wi lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. What's this bit about trials that tends to define when we go to God in prayer is when we are in some sort of a trial or we recognize somebody else is and we tend at that point to ask God to remove the trial. If somebody's sick, we say, "God, bring him through this. Help him to get well." And that is what we want. And we would like to see God do that. You read a verse like this though and God is talking about how we go through the trial and what God is using the trial to do in our lives. We don't want to lose sight of that. We don't want to lose sight of the fact that God uses people in different situations and sometimes those situations are not what they would choose, not what we would choose for them either. But God is still God and he is still working. So that when we pray for them, sure ask God to relieve their problem, pain, jobless, sickness, whatever it is, ask God to relieve that. But also ask God that their love would grow more and more, that their knowledge of God would increase, that they would come to know God better, that their discernment, their ability to recognize what's good, what's better, what's best would grow, and that in this trial, they would then be able to make wise choices. Because that would help them walk through the trial and learn through it what God wants them to learn so that he can grow them in the way that he wants to grow them. And the temptation for us when we pray is that we forget part B there. We get so focused on part A, which is God,

Here's what I want you to do. I want you to heal this person. I want you to heal me. I kind of wish I didn't have a cold this morning so I could talk better. But God said, "All right, get up there and do it anyway.", but God's direction, God's will, God's enabling is what we're looking for. We want to know his will. We want to know how we should proceed or not. So we ask him for that and at the same time we ask him to in increase our closeness to him and he'll use trials to do that. He'll use other things that we would never have chosen to do that to bring us closer to him. That's his heart. We have an example there as well. We just finished going through the Gospel of Mark and right towards the end of that Gospel in Mark 14 Jesus prayed and he was facing a situation he did not want to go through said aba father all things are possible for you remove this cup from me that's what he wanted yet not what I will but you but what you will. And he prayed that meaningfully and he accepted what God had for him. We need to have the heart to do the same. Believers in any situation can apply these same principles to life in general, but specifically to prayer and trust that God is active in doing that. Let's look at another verse in Romans. Two verses actually, one is very familiar, one we don't usually tack together. We all know Romans 8:28, right? God's going to make it work out for good. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. But then we

Add verse 29. For those whom he forneew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. All right. Getting conformed to the image of Christ is what God wants for each one of us. And he uses situations in our lives to do that. And as we face these tough situations, if we respond the way God wants us to, we grow and we become more like the image of his son. If we fight against it, say, "I don't like this. God, here's what I want you to do. God, you haven't done it yet. God, here I am again. This is what I want. Why haven't you done it?" As we stay in that mode where what we want is the sole content of our prayer, we're missing God's heart. And God may eventually do what we are asking, but we might not get the benefit of it. So our prayer then becomes a one-way communication where I'm telling God what he ought to do rather than allowing God to let me know what he is doing. And what he is doing really where I need to be, really where we all need to be. We need to be focused on God. So God is working in our lives, each individual believer's life to accomplish his purpose in us and through us. Our communication with God in prayer should be towards that end that we would grow in him that those for whom we are praying our brothers and sisters that are hurting in some way u we need to be praying that they also would be growing in him that their love would abound more and more in real knowledge knowledge of God not just head knowledge but a closer identity and relationship with God and our discernment would grow so that we could approve what's excellent, making wise choices

So that our walk with the Lord would be pleasing to him. And that's what this passage is wanting to give us. Give us that balance so that it's not just a matter of my Santa Claus list at Christmas time that I hand out to God. Here's what I want. Prayer isn't if that's our prayer life, we're kind of hurting. So as you pray, keep in mind that God's on the on the other end of that and he already knows what he's going to do. He knows what is needed and he wants you to be able to think with him as far as how is he working in a particular situation and how is God working in you also as you pray for that particular situation. He wants prayer to be a means of growth for all of us. The one that we pray for and the one who is doing the praying. Because his goal is the same for all of us. He wants to conform us to the image of his son. So let's take a look at the head, hand, heart head heart hand and head knowledge, understanding knowledge. Understand that God wants us to reflect his heart in how we pray for one another. And his heart. We've looked at a lot of verses give us a pretty good idea of what his heart is. He wants all of us individually to grow in him. So heart, let God give us a concern for our attitudes. If you look back at the prayer in Philippians, it's basically all attitude. My attitudes as a prayer and the attitudes of the one for whom I'm praying. We're going to face life in a fallen world. In case any of you haven't noticed, we live in a fallen world. Bad stuff happens. And when bad stuff happens, that's when trials come to us. And in those trials, God still wants to use them. He wants to use them for us to

Grow. He wants to use them for to draw us closer together as a body as we pray for one another and encourage one another and comfort one another. So, let's have that attitude in our prayer that we would be using these situations that we trip over in this fallen world to draw us closer to God and to walk more closely with him. So hand what do we do? Pray. We had that in nearly all of those Scriptures. We he wants us to pray. He says pray without ceasing. So pray for yourself. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Pray in his will, in his spirit as he's shown us in his word, so that we might walk in a way that's pleasing to him. You put those things together and at that point, we're not giving God our to-do list. We're not saying, "Here's what I want you to do." Do God. He already knows what he wants to do and he already knows what he's going to do. What needs to happen through our prayer is that we unite with him so that we then are walking closely with him and the one we're praying for is able to walk more closely with him. So let's go to the Lord in prayer at this point. And Father, we do that. We thank you that you are here present not just in this church building but you're here with us and you leave with us as we go about the rest of our daily life. You're part of it. You're with us. And as we consider one another consider prayer and who we need to be praying for, whether it's for oursel, whether it's for one another. Help us, Father, to be praying more and more that our love for one another may grow, that our knowledge of you may grow, that our discernment, our wisdom, our making wise choices, all of these things can grow even in the midst of whatever

Situation we're praying for. So we thank you, Father, that your heart for us is to work all things together for good as you lead us into the good. So we commit ourselves now to continue to pray, but to continue to pray in your will and in your spirit that as you lead us, we walk with you. And we thank you for that privilege in Christ's name. Amen. You may rise and worship. >> I hear a s, thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Finding me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it as soon. Lord, thou indeed I find thy power and thine alone can change the leper spots and melt the heart of stone. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. >> And when before the throne, I stand in him complete. Jesus died my soul to save. My lip shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. >> Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. >> You may be seated. I well and that's my prayer for you as well is that your love would abound more and more with all knowledge and discernment in Christ Jesus. I want to take a moment and introduce to you Ryan Claybo. Of course you guys know him. As he's been around for I don't know about >> a month, >> eight months or so. And he has gone

Through our new members class. He's given a good testimony of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said that he wants to transfer his membership from another sister church. And if church members, if y'all would affirm him and welcome him into the church family, would you say amen? >> Amen. >> Any opposed? Dad, mom, I'm just messing with you. Hey we're