“Heart to Heart”

Philippians 1:1-11

February 14, 2010 – ©Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes

Introduction

We have two goals for our church for this year. What is the first goal? “We will become people of prayer?” As Dr. Phil says, “How’s that working for you?” So what are you doing now, in the middle of February, that you were not doing at the beginning of January to become a person of prayer?

Prayer is so important for God’s people that I want to encourage you to pray. We’ll help people experience different kinds of prayer. We will encourage you to make prayer a priority in your life and in the life of the church. Prayer changes lives! Prayer transforms us and others!

Pastor Doug Pagitt recalls an unusual prayer service he led at a convention of 1,100 church leaders. After a powerful video on the AIDS epidemic in Africa was shown, Pagitt divided the group into four parts. He had one group kneel as an “act of submission and solidarity for those who mourn the loss of parents and children to AIDS.” The second group he invited to stand for those too weakened by AIDS to stand on their own. The third group raised their hands in “a posture of begging for healing,” and the fourth group he told to “dance for those who cannot dance in this world but who will dance when all is made new.”

Pagitt said that the speechless prayer continued for a long time. “It’s hard to fake a physical prayer.” [From Building Church Leaders Newsletter, Feb. 4, 2010, a service of Christianity Today].

These people were praying for people they didn’t know. Yet their hearts were linked by faith. The devastation from AIDS in Africa touched the hearts of those Christians leaders so that they could pray “heart to heart.” Whether it is physical prayer or prayers with words, hearts are touched.

Paul Partnership with the Philippians

Paul’s letter to the Philippians came from his heart. Paul had brought the gospel to the people in Philippi. Their faith was a product of Paul’s preaching and prayers. His love for the people was evident in how he began this letter.

“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your [partnership] in the gospel from the first day until now.” [Php1:3-5].

From the moment they first heard the gospel and believed in Jesus, Paul and these Philippians had been partners in the ministry of Christ. Paul’s prayers for these believers were prayer of thanks and joy because of their response to the gospel.

They not only believed in Jesus, but they continued to learn how to live for Jesus. They had also been sacrificial and generous in their financial support of Paul, especially when he was in prison with no one else to provide for his needs.

Paul had no doubt that God would continue to grow in the hearts and lives of these believers. The work that God had begun in them, God would complete.

So, Paul continued to pray for them that God’s work would bring them to maturity in Christ. He wrote, “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless” [v.9-10].

He knew that the more they knew God, the more they would know God’s love. And the more they knew and understood God’s love for them, the more they would want to live God’s ways.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:17-19: “I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and the power that comes from God.”

Paul knew that the more they grasped the power of Christ’s love, the more they would become like Christ in every way. The more Christian’s lives overflow with love, the more their lives will become pure and holy, pleasing to God.

For this to happen we have to be connected to Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples in John 15: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. … Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” [Jn.15:1, 4-5].

Staying connected to the source of life, the One who created us, redeemed us, requires prayer. Taking time to talk with God and listen to God is necessary to our life in Christ. Unless we are connected to the vine, our Christian life will die.

Becoming people of prayer brings life to us and to the church. The more we become people of prayer, the more we will see evidence of God’s work among us.

Our church here, and all churches around the world do not exist because of their own efforts. They are here today because of the prayers of the people of God who have gone before us.

Our Partnership in Christ

Robert Benson, in In Constant Prayer, wrote, “I am increasingly convinced that if the Church is to live, and actually be alive, one of the reasons, maybe the most important and maybe the only reason, will be because we have taken up our place in the line of the generations of the faithful who came before us. It will be because we pray the prayer that Christ himself prayed when he walked among us and now longs to pray through us. … It will be because we make sure that the wave of prayer that sustained the Church for all time does not stop when it is our turn to say it each day. It will be because we answer the ancient call to pray without ceasing. [Robert Benson, In Constant Prayer (Thomas Nelson, 2008) 72-73].

The life of the church depends on our staying connected to the source of life, God, through prayer. The strength of the church depends on the power of prayer in its people. We must remember that we are in partnership with Jesus and one another.

Language of Love

This is Valentines’ Day – a day on which we hear a lot about love. Husbands and wives, and others, buy each other cards, candy, flowers, and other special gifts to show their love.

But what about the other 364 days of the year?

How do we show our love the rest of the year?

How do we keep our relationship with our husband or wife strong every day?

I want to suggest that prayer is an act of love. It’s not just the sick who need prayers. It’s not just when we are in a crisis that we need to pray.

If we pray everyday for our spouse, our marriage will be stronger. The love between husband and wife will grow deeper. The relationship will be able to handle whatever life throws at you.

Pray for your husband, your wife, your children.

© Pray for them every time you think about them.

© Pray that God will bless them, protect them.

© Pray that God will show his love to them.

© Thank God for them.

God will bless your marriage and your family more than you can imagine if you will begin to pray for them every day.

The same is true for other people in your life. Do you pray for your friends or coworkers? Do you pray for your church family and pastors? As people come to mind during the day, prayer for them.

© Is a family member sick? Pray that God will heal them.

© Does your child have a test that day? Pray that God will help them.

© Did your husband or wife or a friend do something nice for you? Give God thanks for them.

Every prayer connects us to God and to one another. Every prayer strengthens the bond between God’s people. As God’s people, we need to pray for one another. We need to pray together. We need to be people of prayer.

In 2007 a woman had 2 brain aneurysms. For weeks she lingered on life support, growing weaker each day. As her condition got worse, her children were called in to say their goodbyes, and her church prepared for a funeral. Then she suddenly snapped out of her coma. As she came to, she looked over at her husband and asked, “Where is everybody else?” Shaking his head, he explained, “They allow only one of us at a time in the ICU. There is no one else here.” She argued, “No, I heard them. They were all speaking at the same time, and there were hundreds of them, too. Some of them I knew; others I didn’t. But they were all around me. They were here!” Her husband assured her that all those people had never been in the room.

However, a few days after her miraculous recovery, she discovered that a large prayer chain had been created to pray for her. This group had been formed when news of her condition was sent out to local churches, and then it had spread to other groups throughout the region. Within days her name had been placed on hundred of prayer lists and written in scores of prayer logs. For weeks, thousands were praying for her each day. Her miraculous recovery convinced her of two things: the voices she heard were of the people who had been praying for her, and those prayers had pulled her back from death’s door. [PreachingToday.com, “Woman in Coma Hears the Prayers for Her Recovery” (Ace Collins, Sticks and Stones, Zondervan, 2009, p. 207-208)].

A community of believers praying for others can be a powerful force. Learning to be people of prayer can not only change our lives, but the lives of others and the life of the church.

“Constantly ask God’s help in prayer, … always praying for all God’s people.” [Eph.6:18]. Why? Because prayer works.

How do we do that? By praying as Paul prayed for the believers in Philippi.

© Thank God for the people in your life and in your church.

© Pray with joy because we are all God’s children, working together in partnership for the gospel.

© Pray each time someone comes to mind.

© Pray confidently that God will fulfill his purposes in the people in your life.

© Pray that God’s love in us will inspire us to live pure and godly lives.

© Pray that our example as people of prayer will encourage the next generation to become people of prayer.

“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your [partnership] in the gospel from the first day until now.

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” [Php1:3-6]. Amen

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This sermon is copyright ©2010 by Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes, Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago, Illinois.