Prayer:Important Spiritual

MattersPhilippians 1:8-11

Adapted from a Steve Shepherd sermonhttps://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/prayer-steve-shepherd-

sermon-on-prayer-general-162363

The story goes that Henry Ford once hired an efficiency expert to evaluate his

company. After a few weeks, the expert made his report, which was highly

favorable except for one thing. "It’s that man down the hall," said the expert. "Every time I go by his office he’s just sitting there with his feet on his desk. He’s wasting your

money."

"That man," replied Mr. Ford, "once had an idea that saved us millions of dollars. At the

time, I believe his feet were planted right where they are now.“

I don’t know what that man was meditating on, but it must have been something good

according to Henry Ford since it was saving him money.

That’s not bad meditation. I think it pays to think before you spend money, yours and

anybody else’s money!

Meditation can be a good thing, but it depends on the object of your meditation.

If you are meditating on nothing, what good is that?

Or even if you are meditating on say the blue sky, what good will that do a person?

The sky does not influence the human spirit.

We might appreciate a pretty blue sky but it can’t affect our inner being spiritually.

It may only remind us that God created it.But the sky is not the same as the Spirit of

God.The other side of the coin, if we meditate on something that is godly, it can make a big

difference in our lives.

For example, some of my best times are when I am studying scripture and working

on sermons. Why? Because I am meditating on the

message of God from scripture and that’s a good thing! It’s a very good thing. It does you some good but it does me a world of

good! It does my heart and my inner being much good. The person who teaches or

preaches always gets more than his audience.

Any time we meditate on the things of God or the will of God or the scripture, it will

affect our spirit in a positive way.Prayer, of course, is different than

meditation.Prayer is talking to God.

And this is something that we desperately need even though it seems to be a one-

sided conversation.I guarantee you God is listening very

closely to every word you speak to Him!

Matthew 7:11 ESV If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your

children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those

who ask him!If God is willing to give to you then He is

definitely willing to listen to you!

There are many things we should pray about but Paul zeros in on some important

spiritual matters in the 1st chapter of his letter to the saints at Philippi.

1- Pray that you will be more loving

2- Pray that you will be more discerning

3- Pray that you will be more righteous

Philippians 1:9 ESV And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with

knowledge and all discernment,

Our love needs to abound.

Pray That You Will Be More Loving

The newlywed wife said to her husband when he returned from work, "I have great news for you. Pretty soon, we’re going to be three in this house instead of two." Her husband ran to her with a smile on his face

and delight in his eyes.He was glowing with happiness and kissing his wife when she said, "I’m glad that you feel this way since tomorrow morning, my

mother is moving in with us."

A husband’s love would certainly need to abound if he found out his mother-in-law

was moving in!More people means more love is needed.

Someone wrote: "There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as prayer for

him.”

I don’t know how much or how often I’ve prayed for my love to grow for others, but

it’s something that should be done. And it’s true that the more we pray for others,

the more we will love others.Generally, if you don’t like someone you

won’t pray for them.But if you do start praying for them your

attitude toward them will change. Prayer must grow for our love for others to

grow.

Matthew 5:43 ESV "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love

your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons

of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the

good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Preacher Wayne Smith said in a sermon one time, “Lord, I know it’s wrong to hate

anyone, but if it ever becomes right I’ve got the guy picked out.”

Do you have a person picked out?Is there someone in life you consider to be your enemy, your opponent, the one who

doesn’t like you and has given you nothing but trouble in life?

What should we do?According to Jesus we should pray for that

person or persons.That’s not easy to do, is it?But it’s the right thing to do!

After all, how did Jesus pray on the cross? “Father, forgive them for they know not

what they do.”WHAT LOVE HE POSSESED!

He didn’t possess love,HE WAS LOVE IN THE FLESH!

We need to pray for our love to grow. And we need to pray for people, all people; the

good, the bad and the ugly, so that our love will grow for them.

Praying that our love for others will grow is an aspect of prayer that we often overlook. We often pray about many things but not

love. If God is love and we know He is, then we, too, should love others. Let’s pray we

will!

Philippians 1:9 ESV And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so

be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

Pray That You Will Be More Discerning

A young man was walking through a supermarket to pick up a few things when

he noticed an old lady following him around.

Thinking nothing of it, he ignored her and continued on.

Finally he went to the checkout line, but she got in front of him.

"Pardon me," she said, "I’m sorry if my staring at you has made you feel

uncomfortable. It’s just that you look just like my son, who just died recently.“

"I’m very sorry," replied the young man, "is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yes," she said, "As I’m leaving, can you say, ’Good bye, Mother!’? It would make me

feel so much better."

"Sure," answered the young man.As the old woman was leaving, he called

out, "Goodbye, Mother!“As he stepped up to the checkout counter,

he saw that his total was $127.50."How can that be?" he asked, "I only

purchased a few things!“"Your mother said that you would pay for

her," said the clerk.

We need to be discerning in life, especially when someone wants to take us to the

cleaners materially or spiritually!There are people in our world who are

doing big business with the devil and they don’t even know it!

He’s using them to dupe or deceive us!

1 Thessalonians 3:5 ESV For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to

learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and

our labor would be in vain.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls

around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering

are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

The devil is a trickster.He’s a clever deceiver.

He’s a liar.He’s a murderer.

He’s a destroyer of men’s souls and he’s out to get you and me!

We must be alert to his scheming ways. One way to be alert is reading God’s Word.Another way is by being constant in prayer!

Joseph Stowell who served as the President of Moody Bible Institute wrote: “Discernment in Scripture is the skill that

enables us to differentiate.It is the ability to see issues clearly.

We desperately need to cultivate this spiritual skill that will enable us to know

right from wrong.

We must be prepared to distinguish light from darkness,truth from error,best from better,

righteousness from unrighteousness, purity from defilement,

and principles from pragmatics.”

James 1:5 ESV If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given

him.Discern what is best.

Far too often we have chosen less than the best in life.How so?

We have often chosen the way of the world over the things of Christ.

We have chosen the material over the spiritual.

We need to be more discerning that we might choose what is best in life and be

pure and blameless anxiously anticipating the day of Christ.

In other words, we need to continue working at our faith,

not the least but the best we can!Pray for discernment and then the power to

choose the best.

Philippians 1:11 ESV filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus

Christ, to the glory and praise of God. It was said that when Robert Louis

Stevenson was a boy he once remarked to his mother, "Momma, you can’t be good

without praying." "How do you know, Robert?" she asked. "Because I’ve tried!"

he answered.

Pray That You Will Be More Righteous

This brings to mind a story about another little fellow -- one who had been sent to his

room because he had been bad. A short time later he came out and said to his

mother, "I’ve been thinking about what I did and I said a prayer." "That’s fine," she said, "if you ask God to make you good, He will help you." "Oh, I didn’t ask Him to help me be good," replied the boy. "I asked Him to

help you put up with me."

I’m not so sure about that last prayer. We should pray to be better than we are.

“Lord, help me to be what you want me to be.

Not my will but Your will be done in my life and on earth.”

Martin Luther wrote: “If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a

great deal of the fire of faith.”

How can a Christian be what they should be in God’s eyes if they don’t pray? We need both scripture and prayer. We need to read scripture in order to discern God’s will and then we need to pray, asking Him to help us

do His will in life.Righteousness comes from our righteous

God. We can’t get it anywhere else. Consequently, we need a constant

connection to Him in order to grow in righteousness.

Philippians 1:11 ESV filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus

Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

“Righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.”

True righteousness can only come through the Lord Jesus. We must be connected to

Him as much as possible.

Galatians 5:22 ESV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.Why is this called the “fruit of the Spirit?” Because this kind of fruit comes from the

Spirit of God.

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness… comes from the Holy Spirit.

He is the one who can produce this fruit in our lives.

This must mean we have to look to Him. The more we pray and the more we seek the Lord, the more the Holy Spirit can produce

His fruit in us.He makes us into better people!

J. Gordon Henry wrote: “It is easier to be a preacher, elder, deacon, Sunday school

teacher, visitor, youth worker than to pray. Maintaining a daily, consistent prayer life is

HARD WORK. The reason is that Satan does not want us to pray, since the only time that we are a threat to him and his

work is when we pray. Therefore, he puts a high priority on destroying our prayer lives.

“Without a daily quiet time, it is easy for the cutting edge of the spiritual life to grow

blunt and dull.The result is complacency.

A believer should plan an encounter with God every day.

Regular daily contact with our Source of spiritual life, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,

is absolutely necessary.” AMEN.

Mark 1:35 ESV And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there

he prayed.

Conclusion

I met God in the morningWhen my day was at its best,

And His presence came like sunrise,Like the Glory in my breast.

All day long the Presence lingered,All day long He stayed with me,

And we sailed in perfect calmnessO’er a very troubled sea.

Other ships were blown and battered,Other ships were sore distressed;

But the wind that seemed to drive themBrought us Peace and Rest.

Then I thought of other mornings,With a keen remorse of mind,

When I, too, had loosed the moorings,With the Savior left behind.So I think I know the secret,

Learned from many a troubled way;You must seek him in the morningIf you want him through the day.