So you know me, I'm gonna ask questions and I'm not doing it to embarrass anybody. Right and wrong answers are all excellent here. I'm not trying to intentionally step you up like I did for the heresy class though. But since we are in Philippians and I just wanted to recap again what we know about the book of Philippians. So who is the author of this letter? We call it a book, but it's a letter. It's an epistle. Who is the author of this? Where was he? What was his situation during this writing? He was being detained in Rome. Am I being detained? Do you remember some of the other prison letters? And if you like Philly cheesesteaks, Philemon. Where is Philemon at though? What location is that? I'm jesting, but... Most of the letters are written to a church location, but if you remember, we know Timothy is obviously written to the disciple of Paul, Timothy. We know Titus is written to another one of his disciples, but Philemon is another one. Sometimes it's mixed up as a church, but this is another individual. In fact, it's a group of individuals he's writing to by name, but Philemon. So yes, it's one of his prison letters. And where's the location of Philippi? You remember that? Yeah. I'm only sharing this, again, not because I expect you to know it, but when you're reading the Acts of the Apostles and you start following the missionary journey of Paul, you see where they're going, you're seeing the people put in place. Do you remember the four people that were named during this initial church plant in Philippi? Obviously, we got Paul, Timothy. Remember, he was in prison with Paul, Silas. And by inference, I showed you in the book of Acts, who was the fourth? Luke. Okay, so again, we're going to get into the text now, but just wanted to make sure we're constantly remembering and knowing our letters or knowing the New Testament, how we got it. what's important about it. And these people who were instrumental as God's... Instrumental in God using them to build his church. So, as I said last week, we went over to salutation. Okay, so we're going to be just looking at verses 3 to 11. We're going to read them and then I want to dive into this idea. This is a prayer for the church. This is a prayer for the saints at Philippi. I normally have flashcards I pass out to do the various texts. I'm just going to ask if somebody would read through different ones. We're going to get through a lot of text. I'll read some and when we get to John, As I said, we're going to be all over the place here, but I want to look at this idea and what examples we can take from Paul. In prayers to God, examples and models, but Paul especially in his prayers for the saints and praying for each other and how important that is. And honestly, it's an area that's lacking. We've discussed this before. We fail, we get so busy, caught up. Wait a minute, if we're too caught up to talk to the one who is sustaining everything, we're in the wrong mindset. But that's life, and we know that sometimes, or while I'm trying to pray and I end up falling asleep. Thankfully, the great intercession we have with the Holy Spirit and Christ is not gonna fail us in that, but let's look at Paul here. somebody read the from 3 to 6 and then I'll have somebody else pick it up. You don't mind Philippians chapter one versus 3 to 6. Thank my God every time I remember you and all my prayers for all of you. I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. So I just want to finish that section through 11. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you can approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. How encouraging is it to know that there is a brother praying for you this way? praying for you in this way. First of all, I love, and we're gonna bring it to, yes, look in the languages, some things can mean something else, but I'm just gonna go over what I believe the majority of the rendering of the text says, and what Paul is getting at here. First of all, he's, I thank my God, thanking God. in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you are all making my prayer joy." So basically, every time I pray, I am remembering you guys in my prayers. And I don't feel that that's a stretch, especially when we look at the other prayers in Paul's letters. But I always remember you when I'm praying, and I'm thanking God for you. And it's joy. And then he goes on, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And that's why I thought it was important to start that history with what did that look like. So if you remember in Acts, when Paul and Silas are going to Macedonia, they go out on the Sabbath where some ladies are meeting and they are preaching the gospel. And do you remember one of the ladies there? God opens her heart and she believes and becomes baptized and her whole household and she's taking them and helping care for them. And then later on when they get arrested for the annoying girlfriend around that they cast out and rebuke, then Paul and Silas preach and the jailer, the Philippian jailer is saved. So early in this ministry, and that's what we're talking about from the beginning here. So since the gospel was brought to this part, since God opened up the hearts of his people here, And he knows he's not done. We'll get into that. But I've had this joy and you've been a partner in this. Some take that as assisting Paul financially. And yes, while he's in prison, he is being taken care of by the saints. But I believe that this is more because of your partnership in the gospel and that, you know, here's what we're doing. Here's what we're doing for God, his church, his people, his message. from that first day until now. And I'm sure of this, that he who begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at that day of Christ. That's encouraging. He's reminding them the author of their salvation is going to finish it. You know, it's right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness how I yearn for you with the affection of Christ Jesus. way he's doing is, I hold you in my heart. Okay, you're partakers with me in grace. So this family, this bond that they have in Christ, and he's yearning for their affection of Jesus Christ because they are still partaking with him, both in his imprisonment and in the confirmation of the gospel. But then he says, it's my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." Encouraging them, telling them where their strength is, that they are partakers of the same grace, and that they may be able to be blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness. So this is a great prayer and we can dive into this and we can see how this pertains to the Philippians, which we will in the letter as we go on. But I want to pause on this aspect of this prayer. He's praying for the saints. And I wanna ask a couple things on prayer in the Old Testament, New Testament. Look at some examples and models that we have, not only from some of the letters that we have, but also from our Savior. He's modeled some prayer examples for us. And the prayers of the saints and what that looks like for us. So where do we get some prayers? Give me some familiar prayers in the Old Testament. I'm gonna cheat real quick and just mark out A ton of them before anybody goes that route. The Psalms are filled with prayers. What was prayed in this prayer? We have some more familiar prayers? I don't care if I butcher your name, you know, so I'm going to make my letters look like I intentionally did that wrong. And it's just for us to think about that, the prayer life. So we see this prayer here. Did prayer begin with our examples that we have of Christ, or was this a model that we see in the Old Testament? I say the Psalms especially. You see that you have Psalms of praise, you have Psalms of confession, you have Psalms of please destroy my enemies. In Genesis, man began to call out to God, call out to the Lord. Then you have these, yes, I'm gonna call it a prayer, these promises to God, these oaths made with God, especially in the patriarchs. Can we think of anything that Abraham praying for? Similar to Hannah. I'm gonna put an error here. He wanted his heir, remember, and then he butchers that as we're so prone to do. Isaac's gonna continue along some of the heirs, but when you get to Jacob, who's also making his oath of God and praying, you know, yes, I'll enter this pact and do these prayers to God. What about the prophets? I won't go to my boy Ezekiel, but I'm gonna go to my boy Ezekiel. Okay, full of prayers there, and some of it is damning prayers. Like, I am praying this because you messed up, and this is what's gonna happen. This is the prayer of punishment, but also that God is glorified in this prayer, so. And the judges, you'll see some there. So this communion with God, this communication, what is a prayer? Just give me a basic definition of prayer. When they say there are no atheists in a foxhole, that all of a sudden everybody wants to commune with a deity of some sort. Old Testament, I'll give it to you, it's a little bit harder because I took out the Psalms, so it's a little bit more difficult there. By the way though, if you want to see a broken heart for sinning against God, read David's Psalms of Confession, Psalm 51. Beautiful. What are some of the prayers that we have in the New Testament? The Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer? You should have taken that one right out in front of me. If you took out the Psalter, you should have taken that one out. I wanted this up there because I disagree that that's the Lord's Prayer, but the one that I call the Lord's Prayer, they call... Yeah. John 17. Yeah. What's another name, nobody? The High Priest's Prayer. Huh? The High Priest's Prayer. That first one should be the Disciples' Prayer. And we're gonna get into these two a little bit because I think that there is much to show where Paul is getting some of his encouragement for his brothers and sisters in the faith. It's from that high priestly prayer especially. Or some other prayers. Paul and Colossians, I love that prayer. We're gonna take out Paul though. Did I take all the best parts again? I'm glad that that wasn't recorded though. Accusing Jim of taking all the choicest meats in the study here and leaving you the gizzards. When I meant throw it out, I meant take it from you as an answer. I'm not throwing it out, obviously, for sake of clarification. But what do we see? What are these prayers? We see this prayer of Hannah. What is she asking for? She's asking for a child, right? She's asking for something to be supplied to her. The Book of Psalms, I've already said that we see this prayer of contrition, that I have sinned against you, make me whole again, forgive me. So we see this prayer of forgiveness. But I want to look at a couple of our Lord's examples. Can somebody go to Mark 1, 3, 5? I wanted to see some of these models of prayer. We've looked at some prayers, but what is this model of prayer? How does that look for us? And we can get some examples of of our Lord. And I think these are not necessarily for everybody. They are for everybody, but they're not for everybody, if that makes sense. It will, after you read this one. Mark 1, 35. 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. Early. You hear people ask that question, when is the best time to pray? Of course, I know a lot of people will go right to Jesus. He woke up early. I hate mornings. The only thing I hate more than mornings is morning people. That's me. Yes, I had to do it a lot. We joke, I'm getting up sometimes and my son's just now going to bed. I'm like, this is not happening. No. What's he getting up early? Can somebody do Luke 5.16? Now, if you're on page two, you'll see some of the other scriptures if somebody wants to cheat and go ahead on some. Say again? This is a frequent event of his, often. Going to these desolate places, so rising up early. Then we have the frequency, which is often. We see these examples if you look at the different Gospels often. I love this prayer in John 11, 41 to 42. He's doing this for the sake of his people. Somebody got John 11, 41 to 42? So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes. that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. It's just something again that we overlook a lot of times because we're going right past it to the Lazarus come forth. All right. You know, I prayed this. I know that you hear me, but Father, hear me. I know you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. And then the high priestly prayer. And I would read that whole thing, but I'm hoping to get into some discussion here on how then should we pray. But in John chapter 17 verses 1 to 26, it's what we call the high priestly prayer. And this is Christ, I'll read some of it starting out there. When Jesus spoke in his words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. Verse 6, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. And then nine, I am praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. There's a lot more to say in that, but I'll just go past. Verse 10, all mine are yours and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. This is going to go forward so that I am encouraging you, Philippians Paul, I'm encouraging you that he who began a good work in you is going to finish it. We have the words of Christ confirming these prayers that we see in Paul. Where's Paul getting this idea from? Our Lord said it. This is from our Lord. And verse 17 of that high priestly prayer, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. So I'm not just praying for these right here, I'm praying for those who are gonna believe because of these that are going out. That's why I love Acts. That's going out. We see the conversion of God's people by his means, the preaching of his word. These whom Christ is praying for now, the cornerstone is sending out his construction and they are gonna build his church. It's beautiful. I'm just grabbing, I got like three open water bottles here now. But I would drink them all, I assure you. And then in 26, that I may known to them your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them. So we can definitely tell from what Paul writes, he's quite familiar with this teaching of our Lord. He is quite familiar with this this love the love that he shares for the brethren when he writes in these letters is awesome It's beautiful. We see that love the truths of God's Word I gave you know sanctify them in the truth your words the truth I sent them into the world as you sent me. All right. I'm giving this commission to them They know your word and so here's Paul now expressing and this beautiful love. We're all together We're all one this unity. All right, Jesus gonna say that I want them to be One in us as I and the Father are one. That's the best example you can get Okay, and then we have the Lord's Prayer somebody doesn't mind reading that from Matthew chapter 6 Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven Somebody has a writing from other manuscripts after that? Some do, some don't. It depends on which manuscripts they use for this. I'm okay with it. Like I said, there are some footnotes that I accept as a scribal footnote. There are other things. It's not taking away or adding to the scripture as the warning is. But yes, some have, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. ESV, I think, is one of the few that doesn't, of the mainstream. NASB does. I use NASB and the ESV, so in that. I think the King James also has, for thine is the kingdom, power. They use the same text there. But here's what Jesus is saying, pray like this. And of course, there are some that take this to the extreme of this is how you're supposed to pray. Exactly like this and nothing else. It's a good example, and we can unpack that, which we're gonna do here, and see the truth of what we're learning from the scripture, not that this is how you have to pray. Well, then Paul is failing here because he's praying a different prayer. He's not following the Lord's prayer. Again, this is why I mentioned in week one, hermeneutics, the context. What is the context here? Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So we already have this proclamation to God. Okay, giving him the authority, giving him, and I've got this acronym up here that I want to break down. And then he goes in to give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts. So we see this petition for something and then this confession and asking of forgiveness as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. It's keeping us pure. And yes, I am fine with the, for that is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. But this, I believe it's Sproul. Yes, it was Sproul because I like his extreme in the other way. A way to think about when we're praying. all right, is the acronym AACS. So, who wants to guess what the A is for? What's that? All day? Who wants to guess what the C is for? What about the T? Supplication. I know that's a big word, too. Do we know what these are, though? What is adoration? Right, adoring. We don't often do that. I like that that's at the top, too, because even that, you know, our Father, our Father Christ, praying, Holy Father, our Father, my Father, God, thank you. Confession. We don't like this one either too much. It makes us reflect and look in the mirror. And that's why I love the consecrating yourself. This is a time, we're adoring our God, getting ready to enter a time of worship. We need to consecrate and that happens. And I like the example too. I know that I'm not perfect, so there has to be sins. Even if I think I didn't sin, I know I did. So forgive me even of the things that I've done inadvertently. Thanksgiving is an easy one to understand, right? We're thankful for things. All right, yes, as a kid, they're thankful for stuff that you're like, that's okay, you're thankful that you got a new Barbie doll, but you're thankful, that's an example of learning. Others are like, I'm thankful for not being in that accident with the weather earlier when you feel the tires go off underneath you. And supplication, what is an example of supplication? I'll put a need request here. It could be any of those things there. And I like this model, though, of adoration. Glory to God alone. So that should be our preeminence right there. And then confession, because we want to have a pure heart when we are speaking to Him. And then we want to be thankful because He is worthy, the only one worthy of being adored, and because He is the one who forgives. So thankful should be right there. And then supplication. That doesn't always mean, and we went over that again with the hermeneutics and context. Whatever you ask for, you know, in my name, I'll give it to you. I can do all things through a verse taken out of context. I still want that coffee cup that they sell. But that's a good model, a good example. Sproul says that we use this acronym, but we pray for it a different way. Scat. I love the dual entendre there. All right, we start praying. I need, I need God, God help me, God do this. Remember, G-O-D stands for genie on demand. Gotta rub that lamp and get my wish out here. All right, then we'll confess because we're asking for something, so I better confess. And then, oh, because you're God, and thank you. All right, so, but yes, if you know what scat means, that's close enough to that model there. Now some of those things are wrong, and sometimes we do that in our hour of need, we do call out to God. But hopefully we're walking in a manner of where that adoration is automatically assumed. That's our posture when we're praying. And a lot of times, yes, needs. We think of needs and the felt needs and the physical, but spiritual needs. There are battles. There are mental battles. There are hard times. I hate it when I'm on night shift. That's when my mind is the worst as it is, trying to still live life and be on night shift. And yes, the spiritual battle is the worst. So I'm not even thinking about any of the physicalness I'm thinking about, I need to make it through, keep my mind focused here. And it is a spiritual battle. So there are these needs. There's a, uh, a prayer request of knowledge. We want to know God more. Nothing wrong with that. All right. But remember, is it a head knowledge or is it because we want to know the one that we adore more? So this is a model for us, uh, with practical application. Yep. That's that one. So I want us to just talk about how we live that out then. And then I wanna show some examples. We're not gonna read them all. If you look at your last few pages there, I did take Paul's prayers to the different churches that he wrote to. And we're gonna read through some of those, cause it's beautiful. But what are some helps in a better prayer life? I can say that the easiest thing is just do it, but let's be realistic here too. and keeping that up, though. Who can help? Because it's hard to get started on that, isn't it? Setting up habits, setting it as a standard, instead of waiting to see if you'll feel like doing it, and then you'll never do it. It's just, I'm gonna do it this time, or whatever. That might help some people, maybe not for everyone, but at least I know it's my time to. But I'm busy, bro. Like you said, first thing in the morning, you're brushing your teeth, nothing to say, you know what I mean? But is that biblical being habitual? Wow, yeah. I'm going to say yes. There is, and that's why I brought up the Lord's Prayer. Well, I said the Lord's Prayer in the morning because that's my habit. So not everything habitual is good. The intention might have been good for some people, but that's a rote. But yes, the example, and I do remember a pastor friend of mine, Brian Nolfe, who said, just do this. You're going to get into the practice. Doesn't matter if you're not good at it when you first start. Were you good at riding your bicycle when you first started? Which I said, yes. So bad example, but. No, no. When I first tried to do that, you land. Yes. The wind knocked out of you. That's a terrifying feeling as a young kid. I like personally, like you said, I don't know if you mentioned prostrate, maybe your position as well. I think that enhances mine. I actually think it was the weirdest thing, just to be honest. I'm going to get on my knees, I'm going to get my face down. Is posture biblical though? I'd say yeah. Anytime anyone came in contact with God, I think it was just, Jesus lifted up his eyes Well, but there's also Prostrate so yes, we see in some of the Psalms. We'll see some different positions So I think that that is I mean, I'm gonna throw out the biblical there because I want us to be thinking that yes There are examples in Scripture for us to model, you know, yes No, I have to stand like this and my hands like this and make sure wait. Okay, here comes everybody Okay, we have an example of that too, and it's not in the positive example I want to make sure everybody sees me pray, then we have those known. We say, go hide in your prayer closet, as it were. I think that expecting to have an encounter with God. So most of us don't pray like that. Most of us pray ritualistically. But going into prayer expecting to have an audience with God. I think that's so hard to do. Brother Lawrence wrote a book, Practice in the Presence of God, in the 1600s. But most of us are praying habitually. Most of us are praying ritualistically. But most of us aren't praying, I don't think, realizing that he's in the room with us. It's a scary thing to really think about that. It would be, I can't even think of anybody who would create that much angst in me. But anyways, I think we sometimes enter into prayer so casually that even when we're eating, like bless the food, Sometimes you might even have a piece of food that's just dripping out of your mouth, because you feel bad because you forgot to bless the food. But I think just having an expectation to meet God. Well, I'm sure everybody, when they have a prayer of supplication, now they have that expectation. On your food thing, though, I remember someone saying, don't you pray for your food? No, we trust my mom's cooking. I want to sidetrack with a story you guys have probably heard already about me and my wife earning our marriage but yes cookbooks for the win And again, if you're using the right model though, habitual. If you are teaching your children to revere God as the holy one that he is, this adoration, the only one who's worthy of our worship and adoration, so then that habitual is something. It's not the same, I know it's not the same, but when I leave the house for work, all the kids give me a hug and tell me bye. In fact, it bothers me when Liz is like, I told you bye. My bad. Because sometimes you left and I didn't get to give you a hug, so you took off. It's a habit, but it's this bond that we have, and it's a loving bond. Sarah sometimes gives me the side hug, sometimes I get the kiss on the cheek. This makes Daddy feel important, but also it's this act of love. There is an adoration. Not the same adoration that we have for our Heavenly Father, but we do have examples of that here. All right, you know, husbands and wives, you're going to form your own, you know, that yes, we don't leave without saying bye. And if we do, it's because one of us is mad and we're going to have to reconcile that later. But, uh, we have this habitual expectation and, uh, why not with the one who creates and sustains? You know, I say we look at that. Yes, we have our earthly relationships here, but none of that matters without the heavenly relationship. But we're quick to spurn that. Oh, I haven't talked to this guy in a while. I better go over and talk to him. When was the last time you talked to God? Do we ever feel guilty about that? I've got brothers, I'm like, oh, I forgot to text him. Do you have that same gut punch when I haven't talked to God? All right, so we're trying to get better at it in different areas around here, in homes, with brothers. And one of the hardest things that I had here, so here's an example for me is, Let me make sure I'm not doing my... All right, hey, I have this prayer need. All right, I'll pray for you. Hey, I have this prayer need. Hey, let's pray. How many of us honestly are gonna remember to pray later? All right, I love writing prayers down, okay? Or prayer requests. So I can go back and look at it. But honestly, how often when you're writing now three pages back, you saw I already had a bookmark there writing three pages back. Do you remember to pray for them? It's not that you don't care. I have brothers in here. I need to pray for them. Okay, here's highlighted. This one I need to make sure I'm praying for more. Ah, but I forgot. All right, well, when somebody brings a prayer request to you, you know, petition over right there, you're together. All right, pray, pray for them. That's encouraging, that's comforting. Imagine the comfort they have reading this letter from Paul. And it starts off with, one, we get this beautiful introduction and we see this grace and peace and their co-labors, you know, to the master. But then, I thank my God every time I pray for you guys. How would you feel knowing that somebody's praying for you like that? Anybody have something else on this? And I want to look at some of these other prayers that Paul has for the brethren. I think the one thing that jumps out is praying joyfully. You know what I mean? We all pray, but we pray like, whoo-hoo, praying for, you know what I mean? Are you going Pentecostal on me, brother? Yeah, you know what I'm saying? I mean, most of us, if we're praying in the morning, you're fighting dozing and intrusive thoughts. I've done that before for some time, I finally got to wake myself up. Or you're reading your Bible and you're going like. So you get up and pray and read out loud, but I do think that that really jumped out at me, that he's praying joyfully, like it's bringing him joy. And I don't think I've ever prayed joyfully, man. I mean, to be quite honest, I've prayed expectantly, I've prayed, repentantly, but I don't think I've ever prayed like, like, yeah, this is awesome. Yeah. For our prayers of Thanksgiving, oftentimes when it's a positive in the Thanksgiving, we're very excited about that too. You know, but there are times when, you know, thank you that you carried us through this hard tragedy. Those are a little bit more somber and hard, but he is still the sovereign and it is for his glory. And we don't know everything to our good, but you know, we need to be, we need to be remembering that. I love that Paul reminds them to, you know, this is the word here. This is, this is the truth. This is for your life. Be encouraged in this. And I pray that your love abounds even more so that you can look at the things and see what is right from this fruit of righteousness given to you in Christ. So that's, and if you have more as we're going through these, you see something else in Paul's examples. But let's look at some of the other prayers from the different epistles of Paul. How many epistles, how many letters did Paul write? Unless you count Hebrews like some of us, but yes, 13, the 13 letters. Just trying to help us there so we can know our Bibles better. On that second page I have them, but if you want to use your Bibles, because they do have different translations, somebody read those three verses from Romans, chapter 1, verses 8 through 10. I love this prayer too because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. First of all, that's an awesome encouragement from the Apostle here. But then we get another example there. He's praying without ceasing. And he's even going to invoke God, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit and gospel of his son, that without ceasing I mention you always in prayers, asking that somehow by God's, now he's making a petition that by God's will, he may be able to come to them. So we have this without ceasing too, joyfully. I like to frequently, but without ceasing. And that's a difficult part too. I know some people have mentioned that I pray throughout the day. All right, some job you can probably do that. My job, five minutes in, I'm seriously really having a hard time thinking about not strangling people or throwing something, so it's trying at times. Other times, it's just busy answering the radios and stuff, so I say, well, I'm too busy for God. Well, I need to get better at practicing where I am, able to focus on that, and everything you do, do to the glory of God. So one, I can at least make sure my attitude is not where people see me. I know John's already named, he's been able to identify me when my jaw starts clenching. Oh, Jim's getting a little bit upset over there. You know, I have tells, I'm not good at poker, I have tells. You know, the wife knows it too, like, you know, just come over and grab the hand or something, oh, it's time, let's intercede here. But sometimes I don't give any warning, it's just, you know, zero to 60, so. Oh, that's my leg. But anyways, what about in the letter to the Corinthians, the church in Corinth, chapter one, verses four through nine. I give thanks to my God always for me, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any gift. as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you are called into fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And I don't know why I did not delete out literary genres beneath that, but... I didn't think that was inspired so many years. That was the... See? We're having an example of how stuff gets added in inadvertently. But again, He's promising them this truth of God, who's going to sustain you to the end. So we have that encouragement again. And if you've read the letter to the Corinthians, you know that it's not all good. So He's still sharing this positiveness. He's thanking God for them, because of the grace of God that was given to them in Christ Jesus. All right, and then he's speaking to them about this being sustained. So he's about to go into here's some things we need to correct because you guys are crazy over there. We don't know the other letters, but he's still giving thanks to God and praying for the brethren here. I won't read all of Ephesians here, but in the first chapter of Ephesians, which is again, it's another great letter, but Paul in verse 15 says, for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. This again is a beautiful encouragement to to brothers, to saints, brothers and sisters, saints, who are loving other saints, and Paul is hearing of this, their faith in the Lord Jesus, through their love, and their love toward other saints, and so he's not ceasing to give thanks for them. So, like I say, I've got my list right here, and I kind of, my sanctified imagination, Paul, with his pray for the believers in Ephesus, pray for the believers in Philippi, oh, I remember Lydia, oh, this, I can't wait to write this next letter to him. All right, and we have the letters, but how many other correspondence? I don't know. And of course, in my head, I don't write a whole lot of letters, but if there's any indication, it's not, they just wrote them once. So we do have other conversations. Colossi, Colossians. starting in verse three says, we always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Again, a biblical truth. from God's word to encourage them, but then they're thanking God because of this redeemed people here. All right, we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for the others. How will people know that we belong to Christ? By our love for one another. This is beautiful these prayers of Paul that introduction to Philippi this prayer and the letter is going to like it's a very beautiful letter So I can't wait till we get into it more, but you have to wait until next week And then Thessalonians we give thanks to God always for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers Remembering before our God and father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus And then again in Thessalonians, somebody read those two verses there in 2 Thessalonians 1, 3-4. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as it is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness, His beautiful relationship with Timothy, who he's discipled, and both those letters are full of very encouraging, edifying, educational truths of God. Because I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. For this reason, I remind you to fan and to flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not a fear. but of power and love and self-control." Again, he's discipling this young man, Timothy, here, but this relationship, all right? And yes, we can pray generically, but what I'm hoping we're seeing here in Paul's letter to the Philippian believers is this relationship, this love, this genuine love. May not agree on everything. All right, we may have differences. There may be some aspects that we don't agree on. I still got friends that are very militant on eschatology. I still love you, bro. You're wrong, but I still love you. All right, we got other areas that we disagree on certain. day-to-day things, all right? Raising kids certain ways, but we're still unified in Christ. We are still one in Christ. That is our identity, and that's where we have our relationship together. And we see that it's on love, on the knowledge that he's going to perfect us, that he's working his righteousness in us. And let me just lastly hear Philemon. I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints. And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. So we see an example here of Paul and he's consistent for everybody that he's praying for. All right, what do we notice in that? Some of these are already up here, right? He said, especially for his son, his son, not son, Thomas, or Timothy rather, not Thomas. All right. Joyfully, without ceasing, encouraging. But what I want to take from that, That introduction to Philippi, though, is how can we be known as a praying church? Looking at that example of Paul. All right, this is some application. I hope we do get some discussion here. We have some examples here and some things we're looking at, but how do we become a praying church? Do you have a prayer list? Do you guys keep a prayer list that you pray for? All right. I remember we used to have prayer lists. Oh, wait a minute. Doesn't he need to come off the prayer list to not get taken care of? That becomes more of that ritual habit instead of genuine, you know, no, I need to know. All right, I'm still waiting on somebody that was supposed to get back to me. I was praying for them for a result. They were supposed to let me know. I still haven't got back, so I'm pestering them now. I wanna know if I'm rejoicing or if I'm praying for comfort, but I'm gonna do both right now until you answer me, so answer me. All right, but that's a follow through as well. What do you pray for for your brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ? I do. I make a habit every Wednesday, so I'll send out texts to certain groups. And like you said, keeping track, so that way it's not like I forgot like you're interested, or at least taking the effort to be like, I remember you had this issue, how's it going? It's easier to do with others, especially if you have a ton of people that you have to keep track of. I do appreciate it more. I think prayer, it gets overlooked sometimes. What should we pray for our brothers? When I say brothers, just to caveat that the brethren, I am also including sisters. So, um, just because unity that we have that example here back, that's Christ's prayer. and understanding of God's world. Sometimes you've got to be careful with prayer, I think, in the sense that, particularly when you start having mass prayer going out, where we think we're changing God's mind. And that's always, the more people praying, the more better our results. It is approaching God humbly and realizing that we're making our desires known, but we must remember what Jesus said in Gethsemane, nevertheless, your will be done. And sometimes that's hard, like when you're at the bedside with people, you know, in the hospital, or when they're dying, or they're experiencing really tough things, to hear what they're asking for and really to know Yeah, I've had somebody well, don't you believe God can do that? Yes, I do believe God. I'm going to go back to the three Israelite children. Yes, our God is able to but even if he doesn't we're not going to do this thing. So, but I liked what you were saying there. The, yes, the mass, no, you're not. If we only have one more person praying, we would have changed God's mind. No, but what you do have is hopefully a group of people that are going to be encouraging, comforting, or rejoicing with you in that prayer or the results. It's the people of God coming together and demonstrating what Jesus commanded, love one another. It was a demonstration of the love of the brethren, and that's important. So I'm not taking away from that, but just making sure that they understand. We're not changing God's mind. And if we could change God's mind, there's about, what, eight billion people on the planet, that would make us 50% of God. I said we had one more than them, so our prayer got answered. I think that's what happens. That's what people on the football team, pray that we win this game. Don't you think the other team is praying? Any questions or comments? And again, I know that prayer is a whole topic that we can go over a whole class on, but... When you read in verse 8, and I think in English it translates to, "...for God is my witness, how I yearn for you with all the affection of Christ." That word that's being used there in the Greek is one that is rendered, the meaning, the range of it is, the inward parts, the entrails, the heart, the love, the affection it is it's it's a particular word that kind of just get it doesn't translate well in english but it's the affection is so deep that paul has for them that he uses this this this little word and and splanching it just doesn't give the same sense in the english and that's my plug for all of y'all to learn greek Vini vidi vici. You got it, man. Well, if somebody wants to volunteer to close us in prayer, we should all be excited to prayer. Joyfully. But without ceasing, you can cease it so we can go on our way this evening.