WEBVTT 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:04.799 John Samus is right. Life does have its losses 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:11.619 and its crosses, its sighs, and its tears. Those 00:00:11.619 --> 00:00:16.620 are adversities. And all of us face adversities 00:00:16.620 --> 00:00:22.120 from time to time of one kind or another. Sometimes 00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:25.320 it comes in the way of physical disability or 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:30.429 injury. Other times, adversity comes in difficult 00:00:30.429 --> 00:00:35.229 relationships that develop, a strain in a marriage. 00:00:38.090 --> 00:00:40.649 Adversity can be in the form of infertility for 00:00:40.649 --> 00:00:45.590 some, financial pressure for others, unemployment, 00:00:47.270 --> 00:00:49.630 or persecution for one's faithful witness for 00:00:49.630 --> 00:00:53.929 Jesus Christ. Adversity comes in many sizes and 00:00:53.929 --> 00:00:57.659 many shapes and colors, and all of us All of 00:00:57.659 --> 00:01:01.979 us know the meaning of adversities. Sometimes 00:01:01.979 --> 00:01:04.599 we think we're the only ones who are going through 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:07.700 a certain experience when the fact is that at 00:01:07.700 --> 00:01:10.159 any one time there are many in our congregation 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:14.239 going through very similar experiences. There 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:17.319 are times when you and I complain to God about 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:20.620 the hard times we're passing through. But that 00:01:20.620 --> 00:01:23.900 was not the attitude of the Apostle Paul. even 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:28.700 during one of the most difficult, adverse experiences 00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:32.760 of his whole life. As he wrote the book of Philippians, 00:01:32.819 --> 00:01:37.019 where we're taking up our study today, he was 00:01:37.019 --> 00:01:41.879 facing the most difficult point in his life up 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:46.400 till then. As he wrote this epistle, he was chained 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:50.519 to two Roman soldiers as he awaited a hearing 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:54.870 before Nero. already had been a prisoner for 00:01:54.870 --> 00:01:58.930 perhaps up to three years. And not only that, 00:01:58.930 --> 00:02:01.650 he had been a prisoner based upon trumped -up 00:02:01.650 --> 00:02:07.629 charges. So here is a man whose whole life is 00:02:07.629 --> 00:02:12.710 in high gear, chained, under house arrest, imprisoned, 00:02:14.110 --> 00:02:16.590 when everything within him wanted to go out and 00:02:16.590 --> 00:02:21.590 share the Gospel with people. It was a tough... 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:27.199 few years in the life of the Apostle Paul. A 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:29.539 terribly adverse set of circumstances and yet 00:02:29.539 --> 00:02:33.500 in the midst of them, as this letter indicates, 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:39.219 Paul's outlook on life was one of triumph. The 00:02:39.219 --> 00:02:43.960 secret of such an attitude is not our circumstances, 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:49.379 but Christ. As Paul says eventually in chapter 00:02:49.379 --> 00:02:54.120 1, for me to live is Christ, he says. The living 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:57.580 of life is Christ. In other words, he's not living 00:02:57.580 --> 00:03:01.099 in his own resources. He's living in the resources 00:03:01.099 --> 00:03:06.379 of Christ. His triumph did not depend upon the 00:03:06.379 --> 00:03:09.860 set of circumstances, but upon the Savior who 00:03:09.860 --> 00:03:13.919 was Lord of those circumstances. He concludes 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:17.740 the book by saying, I can do all things through 00:03:17.740 --> 00:03:25.139 Christ who strengthens me. And in this epistle, 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.840 the Apostle Paul exhorts the Church of Jesus 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:34.860 Christ to rejoice as you and I face our own set 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:38.580 of adversities. Whatever your adversity may be 00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:44.639 today, you can experience joy. The joy of Jesus 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:48.620 Christ right in the midst of your troubles. In 00:03:48.620 --> 00:03:52.300 the midst of your tears and your sighs. Your 00:03:52.300 --> 00:03:56.400 crosses and your losses. You can know the joy 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:02.580 of Jesus Christ. Truly you can. How? How is that 00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:06.460 possible? That is what the apostle writes about 00:04:06.460 --> 00:04:09.900 in this book, it seems to me. Finding joy in 00:04:09.900 --> 00:04:13.560 life's adversities. On the wall behind me you 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:16.699 see six words that basically give some to the 00:04:16.699 --> 00:04:23.060 book. One Lord, one mind, one mission. In the 00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:26.420 light of those truths represented by those words, 00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:30.240 how can you and I find joy in the midst of the 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:35.600 adversities of our own lives? In the first place, 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:39.899 we find joy in the adversities of life by cultivating 00:04:39.899 --> 00:04:42.649 a prayerful heart. That's what I want to talk 00:04:42.649 --> 00:04:47.949 about today. In cultivating a prayerful heart, 00:04:48.129 --> 00:04:50.670 you will find fellowship with God. And in that 00:04:50.670 --> 00:04:54.649 fellowship, there will be a deep well of joy 00:04:54.649 --> 00:05:00.009 in your life. Paul begins this book with a word 00:05:00.009 --> 00:05:02.790 about the place that prayer occupied in his life. 00:05:03.430 --> 00:05:06.509 Read the first paragraph along with me. It says, 00:05:06.790 --> 00:05:11.019 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. to 00:05:11.019 --> 00:05:13.920 all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi together 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:17.939 with the overseers and deacons. Time out for 00:05:17.939 --> 00:05:20.600 just a moment, you will notice that although 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:22.839 this church was but a few years old, it was well 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:27.439 organized and established, both elders or overseers 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:30.579 and deacons had been appointed in the church, 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:33.720 were leading the church on in the midst of its 00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:37.360 circumstances. Now, Paul continues, grace and 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:39.839 peace to you from God our Father and the Lord 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:43.699 Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember 00:05:43.699 --> 00:05:48.279 you. In fact, he says, in all my prayers for 00:05:48.279 --> 00:05:52.800 all of you, I always pray with joy because of 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:55.220 your partnership in the gospel from the first 00:05:55.220 --> 00:05:58.600 day until now. Being confident of this, that 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:02.220 he who began a good work in you will carry it 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:06.050 on to completion. until the day of Christ Jesus. 00:06:07.350 --> 00:06:09.370 It is right for me to feel this way about all 00:06:09.370 --> 00:06:14.290 of you, since I have you in my heart. For whether 00:06:14.290 --> 00:06:18.449 I am in chains or defending and confirming the 00:06:18.449 --> 00:06:21.829 gospel, all of you share in God's grace with 00:06:21.829 --> 00:06:27.230 me. God can testify how I long for all of you 00:06:27.230 --> 00:06:31.629 with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this 00:06:31.629 --> 00:06:35.649 is my prayer. that your love may abound more 00:06:35.649 --> 00:06:39.370 and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so 00:06:39.370 --> 00:06:42.329 that you may be able to discern what is best 00:06:42.329 --> 00:06:47.350 and may be pure and blameless until the day of 00:06:47.350 --> 00:06:50.850 Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness 00:06:50.850 --> 00:06:54.810 that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory 00:06:54.810 --> 00:07:00.589 and praise of God. You clearly see that Paul 00:07:00.589 --> 00:07:07.459 had cultivated a prayerful heart. That's important 00:07:07.459 --> 00:07:10.180 for you and me as well, and I think many of us 00:07:10.180 --> 00:07:14.779 realize that. In the recent survey that we conducted 00:07:14.779 --> 00:07:20.399 as a church, help with personal devotions and 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:26.060 help with prayer life were the two top expressed 00:07:26.060 --> 00:07:31.240 individual needs in that survey. especially among 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:35.540 those of us who are 44 years of age and younger. 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:39.720 Help with personal devotions and growing in prayer. 00:07:39.819 --> 00:07:43.740 I would say help cultivating a prayer life are 00:07:43.740 --> 00:07:46.180 the greatest felt needs that we have as a congregation. 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:51.160 And another question, two -thirds of the congregation 00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:57.040 ask for help in being consistent in prayer. Again, 00:07:57.060 --> 00:08:01.959 that was very strong. age group 44 years and 00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:05.339 younger. And by the way, that represents seven 00:08:05.339 --> 00:08:08.480 out of every ten people in our adult church, 00:08:09.139 --> 00:08:13.600 44 years of age and younger. And even those of 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:15.420 us who are in the older group have expressed 00:08:15.420 --> 00:08:19.720 a strong sense of need to cultivate a heart of 00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:24.040 prayer. What does a heart of prayer look like? 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:28.860 What do we mean when we talk about a prayerful 00:08:28.860 --> 00:08:32.940 heart. And how does that contribute to our joy 00:08:32.940 --> 00:08:38.460 in the midst of adversities? It seems to me that 00:08:38.460 --> 00:08:40.700 in this paragraph we've read the Apostle Paul 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:43.879 describes to us what a prayerful heart looks 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:45.940 like. In the first place he says a prayerful 00:08:45.940 --> 00:08:49.120 heart is a grateful heart, verses three through 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:54.120 five. Paul saw something to be thankful for even 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:56.500 in the midst of the terrible circumstances in 00:08:56.500 --> 00:08:59.019 which he found himself. And what he found to 00:08:59.019 --> 00:09:01.980 be thankful for was the fellowship, the partnership 00:09:01.980 --> 00:09:04.659 that he had in the Gospel with that Philippian 00:09:04.659 --> 00:09:08.480 church. In his mind he goes all the way back 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:13.320 to the first day with them. He remembered arriving 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:15.960 in Philippi and on the Sabbath day going out 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:20.179 by the river and finding there a group of Jews 00:09:20.179 --> 00:09:23.220 who were worshipping. Apparently there were not 00:09:23.220 --> 00:09:26.879 enough of them in Philippi to build a synagogue. 00:09:27.529 --> 00:09:29.990 And so they met under the open air out by the 00:09:29.990 --> 00:09:34.909 river. And there Paul proclaimed Christ to those 00:09:34.909 --> 00:09:38.049 people. And one of those who was in the midst 00:09:38.049 --> 00:09:42.389 of the congregation on that first day was Lydia, 00:09:43.490 --> 00:09:46.470 a businesswoman, a seller of purple dye and purple 00:09:46.470 --> 00:09:50.690 cloth. And the scriptures say that the Lord opened 00:09:50.690 --> 00:09:56.980 her heart to believe. And after the service was 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:00.179 over, she implored Paul and his party to come 00:10:00.179 --> 00:10:02.399 to her house. She wanted to be their hostess 00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:05.360 for as long as they were going to be in Philippi. 00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:09.159 And Paul and his party felt a little awkward 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:12.100 about that, apparently, and deferred, and yet 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:15.440 she persisted and insisted. She said, if you 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:18.320 count me as a true believer, then you will come 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:23.889 to my house. And so they did. Paul looked back 00:10:23.889 --> 00:10:26.230 upon those days with a lot of fond memories and 00:10:26.230 --> 00:10:29.049 he says from the very first day until this very 00:10:29.049 --> 00:10:33.509 day I Thank God for you and for that fellowship 00:10:33.509 --> 00:10:40.350 that we have in the gospel In the midst of whatever 00:10:40.350 --> 00:10:43.690 adversity may be in your life today you too can 00:10:43.690 --> 00:10:48.269 find something for which to be grateful a prayerful 00:10:48.269 --> 00:10:51.960 heart is a grateful heart. I remember the comment 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:54.279 of Matthew Henry when after he had been robbed, 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:57.519 he wrote some things in his diary. And among 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:01.759 them, he said, I am thankful that it was I who 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:07.879 was robbed and not I who robbed. That's pretty 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:12.320 good. You and I can always find something for 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:14.840 which to lift up our hands to God and say, Father, 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:18.620 I thank you Despite the pain that I am in today, 00:11:18.940 --> 00:11:22.960 I give thanks to you for this. A prayerful heart 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:25.639 is a grateful heart. That's what it looks like. 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:30.419 What can you give God thanks for? You know it 00:11:30.419 --> 00:11:34.519 is a thankful heart that's a happy heart. If 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:38.379 you want to find joy in your adversity, mine 00:11:38.379 --> 00:11:41.559 deeply into your adversity and find in there 00:11:41.559 --> 00:11:44.519 those golden nuggets for which you can say, Father, 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:50.940 thank you. for this. In doing that, you will 00:11:50.940 --> 00:11:56.399 cultivate a prayerful heart. Secondly, he tells 00:11:56.399 --> 00:12:00.220 us that a prayerful heart is a confident heart. 00:12:01.460 --> 00:12:04.659 Paul's confinement did not limit God because 00:12:04.659 --> 00:12:09.460 God knows no bounds. God treads the floor of 00:12:09.460 --> 00:12:14.519 the fiery furnace. He enters the rooms, the doors 00:12:14.519 --> 00:12:19.980 being shut. He comes to His exile on the island 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:25.340 and takes Him to heaven for a revelation of Jesus 00:12:25.340 --> 00:12:31.100 Christ. The servants of God may be persecuted 00:12:31.100 --> 00:12:35.559 and may be imprisoned, but God can never be bound. 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:40.000 God knows no confinement. Even though Paul cannot 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:46.009 be in Philippi, God is at work there. And He 00:12:46.009 --> 00:12:49.269 says, I am confident that the very God who began 00:12:49.269 --> 00:12:52.549 that work in you when we were with you is going 00:12:52.549 --> 00:12:55.669 to continue His work. He's going to carry it 00:12:55.669 --> 00:12:59.190 on right until the day of Jesus Christ when you 00:12:59.190 --> 00:13:03.070 see Him face to face. And so in the midst of 00:13:03.070 --> 00:13:06.909 His own confinement and adversity, the prayerful 00:13:06.909 --> 00:13:11.210 heart of Paul is a confident heart. God is at 00:13:11.210 --> 00:13:17.860 work. God is in Philippi. God is doing His thing 00:13:17.860 --> 00:13:24.860 even though Paul is limited. Can you be confident 00:13:24.860 --> 00:13:29.980 in God that way in your own confinement? In whatever 00:13:29.980 --> 00:13:32.740 the chains are in your life, whatever the adversity 00:13:32.740 --> 00:13:37.639 is that's blowing against you, do you see a God 00:13:37.639 --> 00:13:42.820 who is bigger than your circumstances? A God 00:13:42.820 --> 00:13:47.620 who is over all of it, in control. A prayerful 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:52.539 heart is a heart that is confident in God and 00:13:52.539 --> 00:13:56.720 knows that God is at work this moment in the 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:03.799 life. And he is in your life. Believe that. A 00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:08.019 prayerful heart is a confident heart. Thirdly, 00:14:08.039 --> 00:14:10.539 I notice that a prayerful heart is an affectionate 00:14:10.539 --> 00:14:15.850 heart. It's not uncommon for adversity in all 00:14:15.850 --> 00:14:20.190 of us to shrink our concern for others. Do you 00:14:20.190 --> 00:14:23.289 have the same tendency I do? When things get 00:14:23.289 --> 00:14:30.470 tough in life, you become self -focused. I remember 00:14:30.470 --> 00:14:35.250 a lady in our church in Kentucky who was dying 00:14:35.250 --> 00:14:39.929 of brain cancer. And one day our senior pastor, 00:14:39.990 --> 00:14:43.000 I was his associate, went in to see her. And 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:46.659 she was depressed. And when she looked up, she 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:48.820 saw him and she said, I'm having a pity party, 00:14:48.940 --> 00:14:55.960 now leave. And then she laughed. A pity party 00:14:55.960 --> 00:14:59.860 is the smallest party you can have, just yourself. 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:03.960 And it's so easy for us to fall into that, isn't 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:07.360 it? But a prayerful heart is an affectionate 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:13.379 heart. You see, prayer resists... that self -focusing 00:15:13.379 --> 00:15:17.039 tendency all of us have. When we pray, we are 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:19.519 reminded there are other people going through 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:22.940 similar things that we're experiencing. Paul 00:15:22.940 --> 00:15:26.960 was reminded of that. As he thought of those 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:29.299 Philippians and prayed for them, he was mindful 00:15:29.299 --> 00:15:31.620 that they too were passing through a time of 00:15:31.620 --> 00:15:35.240 affliction and suffering. There was this deep 00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:39.580 well of emotion in Paul that is conveyed in his 00:15:39.580 --> 00:15:46.299 words. He says, God can testify how I long for 00:15:46.299 --> 00:15:48.980 all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:53.919 No self -pity here. His heart is filled with 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:58.120 affection and prayer had caused that. It had 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:01.179 helped him keep his focus on others. They were 00:16:01.179 --> 00:16:04.039 co -sharers with him in God's grace, he says. 00:16:04.860 --> 00:16:07.700 That's the most intimate bond that one can have 00:16:07.700 --> 00:16:10.090 to another. The most meaningful relationship 00:16:10.090 --> 00:16:13.230 in existence is that relationship that we have 00:16:13.230 --> 00:16:16.210 because of the bonds of the grace of God with 00:16:16.210 --> 00:16:19.769 other people. The commonality that Paul had with 00:16:19.769 --> 00:16:22.529 the Philippians in their trouble was nothing 00:16:22.529 --> 00:16:24.629 compared to the commonality that they shared 00:16:24.629 --> 00:16:29.769 in grace. It seems to me that actually adversity 00:16:29.769 --> 00:16:35.289 ought to deepen our affection for others, not 00:16:35.289 --> 00:16:39.080 diminish it. In fact, if you had an opportunity 00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:42.259 in those years when people were persecuted in 00:16:42.259 --> 00:16:45.200 the Eastern Bloc to visit them and their churches, 00:16:45.299 --> 00:16:47.519 you would find there a people who loved each 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:51.720 other intensely. The adversity that they were 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:54.720 going through bonded their hearts even more closely 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:57.299 in the grace of God. They were co -sharers in 00:16:57.299 --> 00:17:01.580 it. And as they prayed for their church and prayed 00:17:01.580 --> 00:17:04.579 for one another, there was deep affection that 00:17:04.579 --> 00:17:09.460 was there. and joy. There's not joy and self 00:17:09.460 --> 00:17:13.000 -pity, but there is joy in caring for others 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:16.319 and praying for others and sharing God's grace 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:21.019 with them. A prayerful heart is an affectionate 00:17:21.019 --> 00:17:24.839 heart. It can't help it be. You can't hate people 00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:28.019 that you're praying for. You can't forget people 00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:32.359 you're praying for. Indeed, you grow more affectionate 00:17:32.359 --> 00:17:37.660 for them. And finally, a prayerful heart is a 00:17:37.660 --> 00:17:44.119 perceptive heart, verses 9 through 11. Paul tells 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:49.440 us exactly how he prayed. Would you be comfortable 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:52.339 this morning if somehow God had tape recorded 00:17:52.339 --> 00:17:57.000 your last prayer time and played it for all of 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:01.799 us to hear? How would you feel about that? You 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:03.799 say, well I can't even remember when that was. 00:18:04.269 --> 00:18:08.690 Well, that may be a problem too. Suppose God 00:18:08.690 --> 00:18:12.069 had recorded that last five minutes or 30 minutes 00:18:12.069 --> 00:18:14.349 that you spent with Him and said, now I want 00:18:14.349 --> 00:18:16.750 all of you to listen to how John prays. Here 00:18:16.750 --> 00:18:24.269 it is. Click. Paul was not embarrassed to record 00:18:24.269 --> 00:18:29.269 his prayer for the Philippians. He was very transparent 00:18:29.269 --> 00:18:31.609 about it. He says, here is my prayer for you. 00:18:31.950 --> 00:18:34.190 And basically Paul's prayer was one. He says, 00:18:34.250 --> 00:18:41.109 I pray for your love. Love is the fountainhead 00:18:41.109 --> 00:18:45.789 of all Christian graces. Out of love flows everything 00:18:45.789 --> 00:18:52.369 else. He says, I pray for your love. That sense 00:18:52.369 --> 00:18:56.559 of sacrifice. for the welfare of others that 00:18:56.559 --> 00:19:00.680 God has put inside of you." He says, I want that 00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:04.380 sense of sacrifice, that sense of sharing with 00:19:04.380 --> 00:19:07.279 others, that generosity that God's put in your 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:10.740 heart. I want that, he says, to flood over your 00:19:10.740 --> 00:19:17.000 lives. But he didn't want it to be flabby and 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:21.539 gullible and swampy. You say, you mean Christian 00:19:21.539 --> 00:19:27.400 love can be gullible? Yes, it can. He says, I 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:31.700 want your love to flood over in knowledge and 00:19:31.700 --> 00:19:38.839 insight. I want you to have a love that is empowered 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:44.480 by depth of knowledge and by real insight into 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:49.619 situations. Now, why does he pray that? He tells 00:19:49.619 --> 00:19:54.809 us. He says so that you can discern on those 00:19:54.809 --> 00:19:57.990 things that differ. What does he mean by that? 00:19:59.990 --> 00:20:02.150 You've probably come to that place in your life 00:20:02.150 --> 00:20:04.049 where you know that many of the decisions of 00:20:04.049 --> 00:20:06.309 life are not between good and bad, but between 00:20:06.309 --> 00:20:11.190 good and best. There are many good things in 00:20:11.190 --> 00:20:14.369 life that you and I can be involved in. Many 00:20:14.369 --> 00:20:17.109 good things that can be the objects of our love, 00:20:17.589 --> 00:20:22.529 our sacrifice, our generosity. Paul says, I want 00:20:22.529 --> 00:20:25.900 you to choose to invest yourselves in those things 00:20:25.900 --> 00:20:31.480 that are the best. Not even the good, the best. 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:34.779 So you can see the difference between the two. 00:20:34.940 --> 00:20:37.859 He says, I pray that your love will be empowered 00:20:37.859 --> 00:20:42.420 with knowledge and insight. He says, when you 00:20:42.420 --> 00:20:45.099 begin to live that way, making good decisions, 00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:48.920 when you begin to invest your life based upon 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:55.509 what is best, then you will be pure and blameless 00:20:55.509 --> 00:21:01.029 when Jesus comes for you. You will not give offense. 00:21:01.769 --> 00:21:03.910 You will not be a stumbling block to other people. 00:21:04.009 --> 00:21:09.150 You will not be offensive, worthy of blame, but 00:21:09.150 --> 00:21:11.890 blameless. And He says you'll be pure. The word 00:21:11.890 --> 00:21:18.410 there means sincere. The idea is to check it 00:21:18.410 --> 00:21:25.970 by the light. When I was a little boy, my widowed 00:21:25.970 --> 00:21:30.589 mother helped support our family by selling eggs 00:21:30.589 --> 00:21:36.329 in Topeka, Kansas. We lived 25 miles out of the 00:21:36.329 --> 00:21:39.829 city on the farm. We had about 100 chickens. 00:21:41.549 --> 00:21:46.430 And when they would produce well, we would sell 00:21:46.430 --> 00:21:49.789 eggs to supplement her income as a grocery store 00:21:49.789 --> 00:21:53.380 clerk. And we children had a part in preparing 00:21:53.380 --> 00:21:55.740 the eggs. Of course, we gathered them at the 00:21:55.740 --> 00:21:59.720 hen house. And then when it came time to go for 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:02.079 the selling, we had to check the eggs and clean 00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:06.980 them. And we would get our paper together and 00:22:06.980 --> 00:22:10.859 our wet cloths to wash the eggs. And the final 00:22:10.859 --> 00:22:13.359 step was to check them by holding them up to 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:16.519 a light bulb to make sure that the inside was 00:22:16.519 --> 00:22:18.180 what it's supposed to be. And I'm not going to 00:22:18.180 --> 00:22:21.859 go any further detail than that. and to make 00:22:21.859 --> 00:22:26.099 sure that the shell had no crack in it. Because 00:22:26.099 --> 00:22:28.339 when the light shone through the shell, the cracks 00:22:28.339 --> 00:22:31.319 were visible immediately. And you didn't want 00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:36.140 to give a customer a cracked egg. Paul says, 00:22:36.539 --> 00:22:38.819 I am praying that your love may be so discerning 00:22:38.819 --> 00:22:41.220 that you will live and choose to make good decisions 00:22:41.220 --> 00:22:44.259 in life. And the result of that is when you are 00:22:44.259 --> 00:22:46.359 held up to the light at the second coming of 00:22:46.359 --> 00:22:49.119 Christ, there will be no cracks in your life 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:54.759 made visible. Sometimes those cracks are invisible 00:22:54.759 --> 00:22:57.059 to our eyes, but God knows when they're there, 00:22:57.220 --> 00:22:59.980 and when that light shines, everyone's going 00:22:59.980 --> 00:23:04.319 to see them. That's how Paul prayed. How do you 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:08.940 pray for people? So often our praying is limited 00:23:08.940 --> 00:23:11.980 to physical and material things, and we need 00:23:11.980 --> 00:23:15.539 to pray about those. But oh, that we would learn 00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:21.049 to really be perceptive in praying. There have 00:23:21.049 --> 00:23:23.190 been times when people have said I want you to 00:23:23.190 --> 00:23:27.390 pray for this And I've not prayed for that I 00:23:27.390 --> 00:23:31.710 prayed for something else in their lives Because 00:23:31.710 --> 00:23:34.869 I just didn't sense in my heart that that that 00:23:34.869 --> 00:23:41.509 was what God wanted You and I need to cultivate 00:23:41.509 --> 00:23:44.690 a prayerful heart a prayerful heart is a perceptive 00:23:44.690 --> 00:23:48.710 heart it learns how to pray that doesn't happen 00:23:48.710 --> 00:23:51.859 overnight It comes with practice. Prayer is like 00:23:51.859 --> 00:23:56.039 a muscle. It gets flabby unless it's exercised. 00:23:56.420 --> 00:23:58.420 The more that you and I pray, the more perceptive 00:23:58.420 --> 00:24:01.920 we will be in knowing how to pray for the people. 00:24:03.819 --> 00:24:06.079 So that's what a prayerful heart is like. Oh, 00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:09.680 that God would give us prayerful hearts. Because 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:12.059 it is when you and I have a prayerful heart, 00:24:13.220 --> 00:24:15.900 as described here, that we will find joy in our 00:24:15.900 --> 00:24:20.220 adversities. But how do we cultivate that kind 00:24:20.220 --> 00:24:24.640 of heart? I'd like to suggest to you five ideas 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:26.880 this morning about how to cultivate a prayerful 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:30.019 heart in your own experience and walk with God 00:24:30.019 --> 00:24:38.000 The first idea summarized in the word intention 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:44.980 intention The idea is that you and I must choose 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:48.359 to cultivate a prayerful heart. That is step 00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:52.319 number one. It does not happen by accident. It 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:56.740 is not by chance. You and I develop prayerful 00:24:56.740 --> 00:25:00.759 hearts as the result of a deliberate decision 00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:06.259 on our part. There are very few people here that 00:25:06.259 --> 00:25:08.920 would say, I don't like the idea of a prayerful 00:25:08.920 --> 00:25:12.099 heart. Most of us would say, that's a great idea. 00:25:13.609 --> 00:25:16.309 But if we're serious about it, step number one 00:25:16.309 --> 00:25:21.789 is the intention to develop it. The decision 00:25:21.789 --> 00:25:27.650 to do it. To say, I will by the grace of God 00:25:27.650 --> 00:25:30.529 develop that kind of heart. It's an act of the 00:25:30.529 --> 00:25:35.690 will. If we're serious about cultivating a prayerful 00:25:35.690 --> 00:25:42.690 heart, it begins with intent to do so. David, 00:25:42.690 --> 00:25:46.049 who experienced as much adversity as any of us, 00:25:47.990 --> 00:25:50.690 in one occasion cried out and said, evening and 00:25:50.690 --> 00:25:55.970 morning and at noon, I will cry unto God. What 00:25:55.970 --> 00:25:58.970 was he saying? He said, I am intent on doing 00:25:58.970 --> 00:26:01.990 this. I will cry unto God and I will do it three 00:26:01.990 --> 00:26:05.430 times a day. In the evening, in the noon, and 00:26:05.430 --> 00:26:09.390 at morning, I will cry unto God. There was intention. 00:26:10.119 --> 00:26:15.000 on his part to do that. The reason that some 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:17.279 of us have never developed our prayer lives is 00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:20.759 because we've lacked intention. We've liked the 00:26:20.759 --> 00:26:28.579 idea. We've lacked the intent to do it. The second 00:26:28.579 --> 00:26:30.640 idea I'd like to share with you is summarized 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:33.099 in the word integrity. If we're serious about 00:26:33.099 --> 00:26:36.829 cultivating a prayerful heart, We must be a people 00:26:36.829 --> 00:26:39.569 of integrity with God. There must be transparency 00:26:39.569 --> 00:26:43.769 about us. We must keep short accounts with God. 00:26:45.170 --> 00:26:48.329 When we allow unconfessed sin to accumulate in 00:26:48.329 --> 00:26:54.369 our lives, it deadens the soul. So we need to 00:26:54.369 --> 00:26:56.670 keep short accounts with God. There must be integrity 00:26:56.670 --> 00:27:02.210 and wholeness about us. We must be open with 00:27:02.210 --> 00:27:08.569 God about our struggles. Some people think that 00:27:08.569 --> 00:27:10.769 if they told God what they're really struggling 00:27:10.769 --> 00:27:15.269 with, God would reject them. Nothing could be 00:27:15.269 --> 00:27:17.250 further from the truth. Do we actually think 00:27:17.250 --> 00:27:22.849 God doesn't know what we struggle with? Do we 00:27:22.849 --> 00:27:24.849 actually think that God doesn't know the thoughts 00:27:24.849 --> 00:27:27.190 in our minds and our hearts and the temptations 00:27:27.190 --> 00:27:32.930 that we face? He reads us completely. There's 00:27:32.930 --> 00:27:39.480 nothing that surprises Him. Our need is to be 00:27:39.480 --> 00:27:45.900 transparent about that and to tell God. To be 00:27:45.900 --> 00:27:50.500 a people of integrity in prayer. The third idea 00:27:50.500 --> 00:27:54.740 is summarized in the word information. We must 00:27:54.740 --> 00:28:00.440 learn about God and come to know Him and make 00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:03.109 that a priority in our lives so that we have 00:28:03.109 --> 00:28:05.970 some understanding of this God that we're praying 00:28:05.970 --> 00:28:10.170 to. We must gain information about prayer. We 00:28:10.170 --> 00:28:14.170 can do that not only in reading the Bible, which 00:28:14.170 --> 00:28:16.589 is where we start, but in reading books on prayer 00:28:16.589 --> 00:28:20.029 by E .M. Bounds, who wrote many of the classics. 00:28:21.170 --> 00:28:25.970 Or Oswald Chambers. Or in a more contemporary 00:28:25.970 --> 00:28:29.289 mode, the book by Bill Hybels. Too busy not to 00:28:29.289 --> 00:28:33.369 pray, I think. is a very practical primer on 00:28:33.369 --> 00:28:37.450 prayer. And don't forget to read biographies 00:28:37.450 --> 00:28:42.450 of people, men and women of prayer. One of which 00:28:42.450 --> 00:28:44.210 would be the story of George Mueller and there 00:28:44.210 --> 00:28:48.990 are others. Gain information about what it means 00:28:48.990 --> 00:28:52.009 to pray. If you and I are going to cultivate 00:28:52.009 --> 00:28:54.869 a prayerful heart, we need the insight and the 00:28:54.869 --> 00:28:58.549 counsel of others so that we can develop more 00:28:58.549 --> 00:29:02.490 quickly. And we must come to know the God that 00:29:02.490 --> 00:29:06.569 we're praying to. The fourth idea on how to cultivate 00:29:06.569 --> 00:29:08.410 a prayerful heart can be summarized in the word 00:29:08.410 --> 00:29:13.269 inspection. If we're really serious about cultivating 00:29:13.269 --> 00:29:15.710 this kind of heart, then we need to learn to 00:29:15.710 --> 00:29:20.430 inspect our lives for God's fingerprints. A few 00:29:20.430 --> 00:29:22.490 years ago when we went through the spiritual 00:29:22.490 --> 00:29:27.390 adventure together, we called it, I Spies. Remember 00:29:27.390 --> 00:29:31.700 that? We looked for those times in our lives 00:29:31.700 --> 00:29:35.019 when we spied God intervening on our behalf. 00:29:35.720 --> 00:29:40.640 So often we missed those. And so if we're serious 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:44.599 about cultivating a prayerful heart, it involves 00:29:44.599 --> 00:29:48.559 inspection. Watching for God to be at work in 00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:54.759 our lives. Watching for Him. And finally, if 00:29:54.759 --> 00:29:56.980 we're serious about cultivating a prayerful heart, 00:29:57.079 --> 00:30:01.119 it involves intimacy. The idea is here to develop 00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:04.220 a sense of God's nearness and God's dearness. 00:30:05.240 --> 00:30:08.059 So that prayer becomes a conversation with a 00:30:08.059 --> 00:30:13.240 friend. So often we look upon prayer as being 00:30:13.240 --> 00:30:17.440 that which punctuates a day. We go through the 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:20.460 day oblivious to God and suddenly now it's time 00:30:20.460 --> 00:30:23.299 to pray. And then we go on again oblivious to 00:30:23.299 --> 00:30:27.759 God. When in fact what real prayer is, is learning 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:30.279 to converse with God through the course of the 00:30:30.279 --> 00:30:33.960 day's activities. And we may pause here and there 00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:36.640 and speak to God about this or that, but prayer 00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:39.420 is a conversation because we're intimate with 00:30:39.420 --> 00:30:42.339 God. We're walking with God. The only way to 00:30:42.339 --> 00:30:44.880 be intimate with someone is to spend time with 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:51.279 them. Not just the 15 minutes set aside in the 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:54.019 morning or the evening, but throughout the day. 00:30:56.069 --> 00:31:00.170 I want that. I believe many of you do as well. 00:31:01.829 --> 00:31:03.789 David was a man, as I said, who knew a lot of 00:31:03.789 --> 00:31:07.089 adversity. I remember one occasion when Saul 00:31:07.089 --> 00:31:11.829 was seeking his life, David fled south into the 00:31:11.829 --> 00:31:14.670 area of Philistia and he went to the city of 00:31:14.670 --> 00:31:19.390 Gath. Now why he went there, I do not understand 00:31:19.390 --> 00:31:24.529 because Gath was the home turf of Goliath, whom 00:31:24.529 --> 00:31:28.490 he had killed. And if there was any man who was 00:31:28.490 --> 00:31:30.809 infamous to those people, it was David who had 00:31:30.809 --> 00:31:33.970 killed their hero. And yet he went to the city 00:31:33.970 --> 00:31:40.650 of Gath, and he was recognized. And they began 00:31:40.650 --> 00:31:44.390 to watch him, and David knew that he was in trouble, 00:31:44.990 --> 00:31:49.069 and he was fearful. And so he began to feign 00:31:49.069 --> 00:31:52.650 madness. He went to the city gates, and he would 00:31:52.650 --> 00:31:58.220 claw against the wood. And he allowed his saliva 00:31:58.220 --> 00:32:03.680 to run down his beard to look like he was crazy. 00:32:05.019 --> 00:32:08.519 So when the word finally came to the king of 00:32:08.519 --> 00:32:13.099 the city, of that city state, and he was told 00:32:13.099 --> 00:32:15.059 what David was acting like, he said, don't you 00:32:15.059 --> 00:32:17.299 think I have enough crazy people around me already? 00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:22.680 Don't bother me with him. And David had his opportunity, 00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:27.140 and he escaped and got out of the city. In reflection 00:32:27.140 --> 00:32:30.079 of that experience, he wrote Psalm 34. Sometime 00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:34.759 in your own time, read Psalm 34 in light of those 00:32:34.759 --> 00:32:36.960 five ideas I just shared with you and see how 00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:40.779 they're interwoven, that Psalm. David cultivated 00:32:40.779 --> 00:32:43.140 a prayerful heart and therefore God said, he 00:32:43.140 --> 00:32:47.559 is a man after my own heart. That's the kind 00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:50.740 of a woman, that's the kind of a man God wants 00:32:50.740 --> 00:32:55.710 you to be. If we are ever going to find joy in 00:32:55.710 --> 00:32:59.589 our life's adversities, and many of us this morning 00:32:59.589 --> 00:33:04.150 are going through some kind of trouble, it begins 00:33:04.150 --> 00:33:13.890 here by cultivating a prayerful heart. Someone 00:33:13.890 --> 00:33:18.009 has written, prayer is a golden river at whose 00:33:18.009 --> 00:33:25.309 brink some die of thirst. while others kneel 00:33:25.309 --> 00:33:36.569 and drink. Would you bow with me, please? A golden 00:33:36.569 --> 00:33:41.470 river is before you, child of God, even in the 00:33:41.470 --> 00:33:46.730 midst of the darkest days of your life, where 00:33:46.730 --> 00:33:49.009 the most painful experience you've been through, 00:33:49.029 --> 00:33:53.799 a golden river, flows at your feet. If you wish, 00:33:53.980 --> 00:33:57.019 you can die of thirst standing there right beside 00:33:57.019 --> 00:34:03.380 it. Your soul can shrivel up. You can begin to 00:34:03.380 --> 00:34:07.200 doubt God. You can enter into depression and 00:34:07.200 --> 00:34:14.679 discouragement. You can wander spiritually. Or 00:34:14.679 --> 00:34:18.659 you can kneel and you can drink of that river 00:34:18.659 --> 00:34:23.480 that God has provided and find in it comfort 00:34:23.480 --> 00:34:30.420 and joy in the midst of your adversity. How I 00:34:30.420 --> 00:34:35.039 pray that you will do the latter. That you will 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:39.719 today choose to cultivate a heart of prayer so 00:34:39.719 --> 00:34:43.119 that you can experience joy in your adversity. 00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:48.480 If that is your desire today, to cultivate that 00:34:48.480 --> 00:34:52.570 kind of heart, I'm going to ask you to indicate 00:34:52.570 --> 00:34:56.389 that to God just by an uplifted hand. And say, 00:34:56.429 --> 00:34:59.070 God, that is the kind of heart I want, a heart 00:34:59.070 --> 00:35:03.630 of prayer. That's many hands, mine included. 00:35:04.190 --> 00:35:08.409 I want that kind of heart. Well, if we want it, 00:35:08.409 --> 00:35:12.989 we can have it. But we have to cultivate it. 00:35:14.650 --> 00:35:19.030 Father, help us to do that. May it not only seem 00:35:19.030 --> 00:35:23.070 like a good idea, at the end of this service. 00:35:24.630 --> 00:35:29.769 But may it be the intent of our hearts to cultivate 00:35:29.769 --> 00:35:35.809 it. May we employ every means of grace that you've 00:35:35.809 --> 00:35:42.090 given us to become men and women of prayer. In 00:35:42.090 --> 00:35:43.789 Jesus' name, Amen.