This has to do with the message. How long were you waiting? One minute? Okay, perfect. So that has to do with the message, actually.
So, leaving that aside, we’re going to read in Philippians today. Sorry I’m late, and also, sorry I played hooky last week. Some people asked me why I was missed.
You know, the announcement today was about sicknesses in the nursery. We think maybe Gabriel caught a sickness in a nursery somewhere at a conference. Catherine caught it from him, then I caught it, then the whole compound caught it. No, Jordan caught it. And I won’t share the gross details. Some of the youth heard at our Bible study, because we’ll eat today. But thank God.
Matt Graham seemed to share my message last week on love and even read some of the same verses.
He read some verses from Philippians 1:9-10, at least they’re listed there on the website. He was talking about love growing, and this is a prayer here for love to abound more and more in discernment.
Actually, this is what I was planning on sharing last week. In the preparation time, and putting everything together in my heart, I kept getting stuck on this phrase: “This I pray.”
Now, the message has to do with the meaning of the prayer, and I want to look through the book of Philippians in light of this prayer that Paul the apostle had for the Philippian church. But in preparation, I couldn’t get past, “This I pray.”
So actually today, we want to share more on this phrase: “This I pray.” This is Philippians 1:9. It says, “And this I pray,” like I’ve been saying.
And I felt slightly—not slightly—I actually felt convicted about looking into this prayer. The question is: Can we say, “This I pray”? Or another way to say it is, can we say, “I pray”?
Now, Paul is praying for this church in Philippi. I want to read some verses right now. But today, because the message time is short—we have baptisms today, this big, real spiritual, joyful event—we’re going to have a shorter time. This is a precursor, or a part A, to next Sunday.
So I’ll also be sharing next Sunday, God willing, and we live. We’ll look at the actual prayer next Sunday. Today, we want to look at some things ahead of time. So turn to Philippians 3.
In Philippians 3, there is verse 17.
Be imitators all together of me, brethren, and fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model.
Some translations say, “Follow my example,” or at the end of the verse, “those of us that you have for examples.”
There is another verse, actually in 1 Corinthians 11:1. I’ll just read it quickly.
Be my imitators, even as I also am of Christ.
So in light of that concept, Paul is imitating Christ, and here he asks us to be his imitators. Paul is following the example of Christ and asking us to follow his example.
One more verse: Philippians 2:20. It is talking about Timothy.
For I have no one like-minded, who will care with genuine feeling how you get on; for all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ.
So let’s pray together.
Lord, we thank You that we can stand here today in Your presence and worship You together. This morning, You brought us to remember You and forget about ourselves. Just now, we want to look away unto Christ and behold You, and fellowship together with You.
We pray You breathe on Your word, and that something specific would touch our hearts today. We pray that we can hear something from You directly, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So today, we’ll look at some examples from the book of Philippians. There are three people mentioned there that I want to look at as examples: Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus.
The Scripture says, “Be my example. Follow my example. Be my imitator.” It also speaks of those others whom you have walking in front of you as models. There is so much to talk about with examples, but we’re going to limit it to this one thing: the heart that they had for the church in Philippi, especially the action of praying for the church.
Here in Philippians 1:9, we read, “This I pray.” His prayer goes on, and we’ll look at that next week. Also, before that verse, you’re just going to want to keep your Bibles open today.
Philippians 1:3 says:
I thank my God for my whole remembrance of you, constantly in my every supplication making the supplication for you all with joy.
Then verse 8 says:
God is my witness, how I long after you all in the bowels of Christ Jesus.
So the apostle Paul, as our example, is praying for the Philippian church. I’m sitting there looking at the actual prayer he prays, the teaching involved with it, and the concepts of it. It seems like, if we join in this team of people praying for the church, that prayer will affect us more.
Imagine Paul and Timothy, and even Epaphroditus, praying for the church in Philippi. They are praying that their love will abound more and more, that it will have more knowledge and discernment, and that they will be able to tell the things that are on the Lord’s heart.
It is a prayer for their love not to remain at the base, shallow point, or just the initial first-love point, but to actually grow in truth. It is a prayer for their love to gain discernment and maturity. This is what they are praying for this church. They are laboring and praying for this church.
Now, this prayer would affect Epaphroditus even more, being a Christian who is praying for the church. And Timothy, being a Christian—like Paul said, “I have no one like-minded. I have no one like-souled. I have no one who shares the same heart with me for you all.”
Paul could send Timothy there and know that he actually cared about them. “I can tell it in his prayers. I can tell by the way that he prays for you. He really cares about you.”
With us, we have two approaches to the local church. We are going to try to follow their examples, but their examples are so beyond us. Our capacity is not as large as the apostle Paul’s, I would say, in general. His capacity to pray for the saints is really large. His heart is very large.
As we read through the New Testament, he is praying for many different churches and many specific things. Even in 2 Corinthians, he mentions all these outward things he is going through—trials, difficulties, physical hardships, staying up all night, praying, fasting, and other things.
But he says, besides these outward things, the biggest thing is this inward burden he has for all the churches. He is praying for them. Then he says, “Who is weak? Who has stumbled? And I burn not?”
It bothers him when trials are going on in the churches and when there are problems in the churches. His heart so cares for the saints that when they stumble, he is not full of judgment for them. He is not saying, “I told you so,” or, “This is your case. Why are you doing this?”
He is so burdened for them because his prayer life for them is real. He is mentioning them often, making mention of them in his prayers.
So this is his life in general, but I want to apply it to us in our setting here in Richmond: our gathering right here, praying for each other right here, and praying for the church here.
In the book of Philippians, we can see these brothers praying for the church in Philippi. Epaphroditus seems to have come from there, been sent from there, joined up with Paul for a time, and then Paul sends him back with this letter.
For us, following this example of prayer, there are two approaches we can take. When we come, gather together, and think of the church—whether of problems or good things in the church—there are kind of two ways.
One is that we are spectators. We are watching, observing. The other is that we are serving.
Many people here watch sports. If you’re in a room with people who watch sports, one problem is they eat a lot of chips—but that’s not my point. The other thing is, they end up yelling a lot at the team.
Very calm men suddenly stand up and start yelling when they are watching sports. I know some men like this, and I am very shocked. I see them watching sports, and suddenly they are up yelling at the television—either in excitement, yelling about what the referee did wrong, or yelling at the player who missed a catch.
Now, as a spectator, you can see the whole game. True. If you are watching it on television, they zoom in at certain spots. Now with HDTV, you can see the person’s shoelaces.
You can see the whole thing, and you become your own coach, it feels like. You become the expert, it feels like. Suddenly, you know every mistake that everybody on the team is making, what should have been done, and what you would have done better.
But put those same men who ate too many chips in the backyard playing football and see what happens.
When you stand up for action to actually play football, basketball, tennis, or whatever, you have more sympathy for everyone you watch play the game. When you are in the game, you are not as much of a complainer, but more of a teammate.
When you are in the game, you want everyone together on your team to win this thing. It is a different approach, and it is the same in the church.
When you come to the church and observe, say the believers in Philippi came to some gatherings and observed problems. They would have complaints, and some of them could be legitimate. Some may just be confusion about how things should be.
Either way, there is a difference between that and Epaphroditus, who was somebody there praying for them. There is a difference from Timothy and Paul, who were actually praying for the church in Philippi.
When there is a problem, they see the problem. Their vision of it is clear because the Lord is giving them discernment, but their heart is different. It is this heart of Timothy that Paul can say, “I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how you get on.”
Paul said about Timothy that, in general, everyone seeks their own things, not the things of Christ.
Personally, this has stayed in my heart. I want to say that all of us, I think, must have some room to grow. I do not want to stand up here and say, “Follow my example,” but I want to look at Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus and say, “Let’s follow their example of prayer.”
One test that I did in considering this was to use a stopwatch on my phone. My phone right now is in airplane mode, so I can’t get any text or phone calls, so don’t try.
I have a stopwatch on here, and I tried to see: How long does it actually take me to make mention of somebody in prayer? Because this is a problem that a lot of us have with praying for the church.
We feel like, “I need an hour to sit down and pray,” or, “I need thirty minutes to sit down and pray,” and it becomes overwhelming.
Maybe in your life, you have had an hour of prayer before that was so sweet and so good. You touched the Lord’s heart, broke through in prayer, and because of that, you feel every day, “I need this hour of prayer.” Now, if we can do this, this is great.
But I want to speak to those who have lives, times, or periods in life when it is so busy that you feel, “I can’t even pray for other people. I’m just barely surviving and making it.”
So, testing this out: earlier, you guys were waiting for me for a whole minute, and you saw how long that was. It probably felt like a lot longer than one minute, I guess. I’m sorry.
Right now, I am just going to be quiet for ten seconds. I am going to start it and stop it and see how long this actually takes. Okay, ready? Go.
That was a long time, wasn’t it? Do you think you can pray for one person in that amount of time—at least making mention of them?
Now, it is true: when you start to pray for one person and you are making mention of them daily, maybe on a certain day something stands out to you. Maybe you think of a verse for them or something to do. Maybe you think, “I need to call this person, just to see how they are doing,” or something like that.
So it is true, it can take longer than ten seconds. But ten seconds, as a bare minimum, you can pray for somebody.
I tested Philippians 1:9-10 too. I am going to read it in ten seconds. Here we go:
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence, that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent, in order that ye may be pure and without offense for Christ’s day.
Okay, eleven seconds. Sorry. I was reading a little slow for your all’s sake. On my own, I talk faster. Sometimes I talk faster here and people complain, so I am trying to talk slower.
Also, in less than ten seconds, people can run one hundred meters. Recently, in about five seconds, someone created a robot with a phone like this and some Legos that could do the Rubik’s Cube in five seconds.
Some humans can also do the Rubik’s Cube in less than ten seconds. And also, at my house, I can pick up Gabriel’s toy room in less than ten seconds—if it has only been one day of mess.
Ten seconds. It happens six times in a minute. I went to school. Within one hour, how many ten-second periods are there?
How many ten-second periods are there? Is it 3600? Huh?
Six times six is thirty-six. Okay, add a zero. All right, 360 ten-second periods, right?
So even if you had an hour, you could pray for 360 people. I am not challenging anybody to do this.
Actually, today’s challenge is three people. This is half a minute daily for this next week. This is the challenge: just to try, just something to try, to make mention of at least three people daily.
You feel you have no time. Now, ask the Lord. This is not a law. This is not something I am putting on anybody. The Lord may give you something else from what we are talking about today.
But at least I would say we have time to make mention of some of the saints here in Richmond. As a habit, I wonder how many of us go to bed and, during the day, did not make mention of the saints here. We did not share in the Lord’s heart.
So, follow the example of Paul the apostle. He cares about this church in Philippi. If he were a spectator, there in prison, he might have a complaining heart that they did not send some gifts earlier.
Remember in Philippians 4, he says, “I rejoice greatly that now you have revived your thinking of me. You did not have an opportunity before, but now you have revived your thinking of me. You sent this love gift, and you sent Epaphroditus.”
Instead, it could have been, “It’s about time that you sent this gift to me.” But this was not his thinking. His heart for them was a heart that cared about them.
The spectator heart that does not pray for the church quickly sees the mistakes. Sometimes we see the good as well, so I should not say it only sees mistakes. But when you see the mistake, the heart is off balance.
The heart is more like thinking of its own things and not the things of Christ. Spiritual discernment is a good thing, but spiritual discernment that comes from touching the Lord’s heart—real discernment given by the Holy Spirit—is a whole other realm from human discernment, where we are just clever and can observe problems.
So let’s look at Timothy really quickly, in Philippians 2:19.
But I hope in the Lord to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be refreshed, knowing how ye get on.
For I have no one like-minded, who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on.
For all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ.
But ye know the proof of him, that as a child with a father, he hath served with me in furtherance of the glad tidings.
Him therefore I hope to send immediately, as soon as I shall see how it goeth with me; but I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall soon come.
Something that stands out to me in Timothy’s example is that, in his laboring with the apostle Paul, he began to share the same heart as the apostle Paul.
He was traveling around with Paul. Daily—most likely daily—they were praying and travailing together for the churches. They were sharing everything together.
What gradually happens is that this “like-minded” means like-souled. Gradually, not just spiritually are they connected because they both have the Holy Spirit, but even in their hearts they become joined together because they share the same heart.
Now, applying this to us: Timothy joined Paul’s team in caring for the church in Philippi. But for us to follow this example, let us join the Lord’s team together.
Timothy and Paul were on the Lord’s team, praying for Philippi. The Lord Jesus, as it says in Hebrews 7:25, is ever living to intercede for us.
The Lord is praying for the church here in Richmond. The Lord is praying for the saint who is stumbling, the saint who is missing, the saint who is causing trouble, the meeting that is failing, and all the problems that are going on.
May we join His team? May we be like-minded? It is almost as though the Lord could stand there right now, look down on us in this room, expose us with His light, and ask, “Do I have no one like-minded?”
Or does He say, “See this one? This one is like-minded with Me. This one shares My heart.”
That is why I feel we need to get swept up into this and join together, daily praying for the saints. You know what happens? You start to touch the Lord’s heart for His people.
As you think of them, when you see them, because you have been praying for them, you have a whole other thought about them. Even with people whose personalities clash with yours, when you see them, you remember that their personality does not clash with the Lord’s personality.
The Lord’s heart for them does not have bitterness, anger, or anything like that. When He sees them, the Lord has love in His heart for them. So you begin to have this joined soul with the Lord. You begin to be like-minded. You begin to actually care about the saints.
One thing that can happen is this: say you go to a Bible study. Maybe at a certain point you come back from a Bible study and say, “It’s not that lively,” or, “At this Bible study, it is too heady. No one is really bringing life there.”
Now, take the approach that daily you begin to pray for that Bible study time. This is not an individual saint, but still, in ten seconds you can pray for the Bible study.
As you pray for the Bible study you are going to, you begin to change as well. Your heart changes. Instead of going into the Bible study asking, “What’s it going to be like? Am I going to get anything out of this Bible study?” take the Lord’s mindset toward the Bible study.
The Lord wants to bring life to that Bible study. As you go, the Lord prepares your heart. If everybody is sharing in a heady or merely theological way, at least you can come and share something full of life.
At least you can be part of the solution and not part of the problem. But if you come and have not been praying for everybody, and you are just watching, it will be what it is and it will bother you.
As we pray with the Lord, we begin to share His heart for it. The same happens if you go to a prayer meeting.
I would not say, “Try this,” but some people have tried going to a prayer meeting and not praying. This is not to say it is a rule or an evil thing. I have done this before, mainly because of nervousness—being so afraid that I would pray the wrong way.
At Harvey Cedars, with the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders, we had prayer times in the mornings. We talked about why we struggle to pray. Our biggest issue was that we were afraid people would hear our prayers and that we would mess up.
We were very nervous about it. “What if I pray the wrong thing? What if I am off topic?” So we actually did some prayer training. We all had to pray the first time, just to get the exercise.
The one rule we said was, “Don’t be fake.” If you are not fake, your prayer is okay. If you are fake, then your prayer is no good. So everybody prayed, and I do not think we were fake.
The next day, we tried to pray like we do here on Wednesday nights. We take one topic, and it is all voluntary. No one is assigned: “You are number one, you are number two, you are number three, you are number four.”
We actually leave it up to the leading of the Holy Spirit to prompt each person to pray. So we tried that in our prayer time. Beforehand, everybody agreed that they would pray at least twice each.
I said, “If you don’t do it, I am not going to catch you.” But afterward, everybody said they had done it. We prayed, and it was wonderful. We had to look to the Lord to free us from being nervous about praying.
But in the past, especially with youth praying, we have sat there to pray, expecting to do it like we do here on Wednesday nights, and there would be silence—ten minutes, fifteen minutes. We were just silent.
One person would pray. One overcomer would peep out a prayer, and then we were just silent. We were all so nervous.
Then we would walk away from the prayer time and everybody would say, “Oh, I don’t want to go tomorrow to that prayer time,” because it was so dead, so quiet, so whatever.
This year, when we left our prayer time, I think everybody felt, “This was a good prayer time.” What made the difference? They all went in not as spectators, but they all prayed. They all went in and were part of it. We were all on the same team praying together.
You come to the Wednesday night prayer meeting. Even in your heart before the Lord, ask the Lord if this is for you, but determine before the Lord to pray at least some, at least once, at least to join in.
When you do that, you join in on the team. You become not somebody who can complain about the prayer meeting, but you become part of it. You become somebody who actually changes the atmosphere of the prayer meeting.
What I mean is, if your prayer circle is praying for a certain topic and it all seems dead, were you dead when you prayed for that, or were you not? This is just a different approach: “This I pray.” Let us join in and be able to say, “This I pray.” We actually are doing this.
Another thing that can happen is this: pull back from meetings for a little bit and think of your own time. One thing that can happen to us is that we believers need to reach each other outside of gatherings, just one-on-one.
This happens a lot, probably more than we realize, but as Christian brothers and sisters, there needs to be a lot of one-on-one fellowship happening in the church.
Take the two approaches again. As a spectator coming to the church, you can sit back and notice, let’s say for two weeks, nobody calls you. Maybe for two months, nobody invites you over for a meal.
One approach is that this can really bother you. It can become a thing where you can even be bitter or angry at the church.
But another approach is that you are praying for the saints. You know of this need even for yourself. Being part of the solution, through God’s leading and through your prayer time, you actually begin to invite people over or call somebody up for fellowship.
This changes your whole approach with everything. Even people you think should reach out to you—reach out to them. It is a whole other thing.
So with Timothy, “I have no one like-minded who cares with genuine feeling how you get on.” I wonder, with believers who are actually acting like this, how much they are thinking of what the church is doing for them.
You know, like the president of old said, “Don’t ask what your country can do for you.” I am not going to baptize that, but maybe we could take half of that and say, “Don’t ask so much what your church does for you, but go to the Lord for the sake of the church in prayer.”
I mentioned something from when Catherine and I were in college. We were at this very lively, fun Christian camp, and all these hundreds of teenagers would go back to congregations that were small and, spiritually, most of them were pretty stale, pretty dead.
This was a known thing. It was a major problem with all of these teenagers going back to these places. Catherine actually started a newsletter called Mission Possible.
What it meant was: it is possible for the church to be revived where you are. A lot of the teenagers would say, “My church is impossible.”
They would come and talk about the music, the preaching, and everything. “I don’t have fifty teenagers there for me to play with. I don’t have all the same stuff as this.”
Something captured our minds, and our thought changed. A lot of us, especially college students and some high schoolers, began to think of our local churches differently.
We could join with the Lord to pray for that local church. It was possible for the church to be revived. It was a whole different approach. For us, it was radical. It was like learning the priesthood of all believers.
It was like we were going back, and even though we were not pastors, priests, leaders, or people with positions—and we were actually very young and not even able to do some of the tasks—we were able to go back and bring life, bring joy, and bring the Lord’s heart to the local churches.
There are two approaches to that, especially, I feel, as a teenager—especially as you begin to transition and get to where you are going to college. Then you get the freedom to choose what you are doing.
Up until about seventeen or eighteen, we can hold on to them because the parents have them, right? But something happens when you are going to college. You have this choice.
Now, you have to look at your heart and your mindset. If you have reservations about the church here, ask yourself: Do I pray for the church here? Do I share the Lord’s heart here? Am I part of the solution, or am I part of the problem?
Imagine if all of our young people here—sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, even younger—began to pray for the church here. What difference would that make as they approach college? What difference would it make for coming back into the church to serve?
In the church, the approach is, “I am here to serve the Lord.” Now, here there is a lot of opportunity to serve.
But it is true: if you want to be entertained, or if you are asking, “What can my church do for me?” it would be easy to find fault and drop off. It is very easy.
Maybe you come as a spectator and you do not like the preaching. “I don’t like the way the guy looks. He’s losing his hair. He’s not as pleasant as this other preacher.” Or some need preachers who yell very loud. Some need preachers who use PowerPoint.
I think PowerPoint is helpful, but I do not always use it. You can go somewhere that always uses PowerPoint, plays videos, and has all kinds of nice things like that.
But what is the point of gathering with Christians? Is that the purpose? “What can my church do for me?” Or do we share the heart of the Lord for the church here in Richmond? Do we pray for the saints here in Richmond?
So let’s also look at Epaphroditus. This is also in Philippians 2. In Philippians 2:25, Paul says:
But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-workman and fellow-soldier, your messenger and minister to my need;
Here is the verse I want to focus on:
Since he had a longing desire after you all, and was distressed because ye had heard that he was sick.
He was sick, close to death, but God had mercy on him—not indeed on him alone, but also on Paul, that he might not have sorrow upon sorrow.
His longing desire after them was not homesickness. You have to match it with Philippians 1:8, where Paul says:
God is my witness, how I long after you all.
Paul was not homesick for Philippi. In his prayers, he had a deep care for them. It was a longing in the sense of, “I want to be with you. I want to fellowship with you.”
This is something to follow in their examples. Epaphroditus was there in Philippi, then he was away, and Paul was sending him back.
This heart that cares for the church grows, or is cultivated, when you begin to pray for the church.
I really want to press this specific thing. Consider this: whatever age Christian you are—whether you are getting baptized today or have been a Christian for fifty years—when are we going to touch the Lord’s heart for the church, if not in prayer?
When you are praying, you are doing it together with the Lord. Specifically, here is how it may happen: you are praying for a certain person. You do not know what to do in the church, or where to start, but you begin to pray for some people.
As you are praying, specifics start to come to you. You think of writing a note. You think of a verse from your morning time that is just right for that person. You think of calling them up. You think, “I want to sit with them at lunch on Sunday.”
Or, as you are praying for the Bible study on Friday night, the Lord may give you something to share there. In your prayer time, you are in fellowship with the Lord. You are on His team. You are sharing His heart.
You have this same-mindedness as the Lord. You join in that longing for the saints, that care for the saints, and that love for the saints.
Another thing is in Colossians, right after Philippians. This may not be Epaphroditus. Some people debate back and forth, but either way, this man has a similar name, and they were probably friends if they were not the same person.
In Colossians 4:12, Epaphras—Epaphras might be a shortened form of Epaphroditus. Either way, let’s follow Epaphras’s example, whether he is the same man or not.
Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondman of Christ Jesus, saluteth you, always combating earnestly for you in prayers, to the end that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
For I bear him witness, that he laboreth much for you, and for them in Laodicea, and for them in Hierapolis.
Now, his capacity is pretty big, but Paul says, “I bear him witness that he labors much for you.” How can we serve in the church? How is Epaphras serving and laboring? He is laboring for them in prayers.
All of the physical things that we do in serving in the church are an outflow of the prayer burden for the church. All of our service for the church—if it does not have prayer ahead of time—you have to question: Whose strength is that? Whose strength is your service coming from?
If I feel called to serve the Lord in the church and I do not get on my knees to pray—I mean, you can sit in a chair too; you know what I mean—if I do not get into praying for the church, my service will be by myself.
But if you pray, if you labor for them, combating earnestly in prayers, you join the Lord’s team and the Lord’s heart for those souls.
Also, today we have people getting baptized. This first week after baptism sometimes can be a violent week. It can be a week that determines whether they start off strong, really walking and saying, “I am going to serve the Lord,” or whether they get crushed by the temptations of the world.
This can be a real week of a fight. I believe many in this room are probably already determined that they are going to pray for these three who are being baptized today. This is a real labor of love for the church.
So next week, if we look at the prayer in Philippians 1:9-11, we could come here as people who are also praying for the church. To look at this prayer and be people praying like this for the church is a different approach.
So, a test thing: how many in this room have been baptized? Just raise your hand. Okay. All right.
Next week, I hope this will not be embarrassing, but God willing, and we live, I will ask: How many this week got to pray for some of the saints? Just raise your hands.
Now, this is not so that I can ask who did not do it and make you stand up and go to a corner. But let us join this team with the Lord.
We have these people getting baptized today. We have things that we feel are difficulties in the church. Maybe you see something that needs to be prayed about. Pray about it. Take the complaints to the Lord.
To start off in serving the Lord and laboring, we start with prayer. But to finish in serving the Lord and laboring, we finish with prayer too.
For example, maybe you feel there is something that ought to be different. “This ought to be different. It seems like the Lord is sharing His heart with me about a certain thing.”
Instead of first going and telling everybody what ought to be different, first tell the Lord. In a laboring, travailing, earnestly combating way, take it to the throne first.
From the throne, Christ can actually come down and help other people. It is like this: I can either go directly to you and rebuke you, or I can first go to the Lord, and He can actually convict you inside, by the Holy Spirit, in the gentle, proper way.
Normally, this is the normal way things happen. Normally, we fight and labor in prayer.
It is not like what we all think when we say, “Oh well, can’t do anything about that. We’ll just have to pray.” When we say that, we are thinking, “We can’t do anything.”
But we do not realize that when you are praying for something, that is the main thing that will do something. Instead of saying, “I have no ability to change this. All I can do is pray,” we should say, “God is the God of the impossible, and He can change this impossible situation. Thank God I can pray today for His will to be done.”
This is a real thing when we pray. It actually works. If we try it this week, I think it will actually work. Something will happen.
So that is my exhortation, my encouragement today. They asked me to share shortly, so I will not go on.
Just one last thing: I was thinking about this gathering tonight, this family gathering, and in light of this like-mindedness of Timothy, it touched my heart.
Whether or not, in the church, whatever we are doing, our opinions all agree on certain specifics, we go along together as a family. This is being joined.
This mindedness of Christ is the willingness to lay down and go the way of the cross. To stick together and be one soul does not mean that we all agree on every specific.
In Philippians 2, we are not going to get into it, but when it talks about having this mind of Christ in you, before that it says not to think of all your own things but to highly esteem the others.
The ideal is that we are together as a family. As we walk together, true, sometimes we have to give up even what we feel is right and correct of the Lord. But we continue going on together, and the Lord will lead us on in the right way.
Sometimes we are wrong too. That is the thing of humility: realize that you do not always know God’s will. Even when it feels like the Lord is showing me something, I am willing to lay it down because I might not be right.
For example, on a Saturday morning, some of the brothers get together to pray about who would open for our breaking bread time. Say everybody comes with ten people, and they all share, “I think this is the opening,” or whatever. They all share some word.
Everyone in that room needs to be willing to lay down what they feel is the Lord’s leading. If all ten of them get up here and share right before we have our breaking bread time, all of us will be lost in so many different directions.
But one person will get up and share. That is an example of how, even if something came from the Lord—He spoke to you, gave you the burden, showed it to you—when you are on the Lord’s team, your heart is not so opinionated.
You are willing to drop and lay down your opinions, willing to drop and even lay down the things that are of the Lord, that are your burden.
So hopefully we can take this up: “Follow my example”—not mine, but the apostle Paul’s. Follow the apostle Paul’s example as he follows the example of Christ.
Hopefully we can take this up and see, “This I pray,” and actually ask, “Am I praying?” He prays for them. He labors for them. Timothy labors for them. Epaphroditus labors for them. Christ labors for them.
This week, can we all join in and labor in prayer for these people getting baptized? Can we labor in prayer for each other? Can we labor in prayer for our gatherings—for the church here in Richmond?
Let us all join in this as a family together. Even with this conference meeting tonight, if as a church we are hosting a conference to proclaim a certain word—a word of God’s eternal purpose—whether we see certain specifics differently or not, if as a church we are doing this as a family, we can join together in prayer.
Even if my schedule conflicts and I cannot come, that does not drop me out, because prayer really works. You can join the team that is praying for this. We can join the team that is praying and seeking the Lord’s will. We are all in this together as a family.
So that is on my heart. “This I pray.” Let’s take that up and actually join with the Lord to pray for the church in Richmond. Let’s pray together.
Lord, we pray for ourselves that we would be people of prayer; that in our minds, we would not consider this as something ineffective, but that we would know and realize, and have that real revelation, that You are the One who works these true spiritual things.
You are the One who can do impossible things, and by prayer, we can join with You and agree with Your will on earth as it is in heaven.
Lord, we pray that You would speak to us specifically in our own lives concerning what measure You would have us pray, who You would have us pray for, and when to set apart time.
Lord, we pray that this would not be something just in our minds, but that we can actually join in with You and labor together for the church here. In Jesus’ name, amen.