Hey friends, my name is George Sinclair.
I am rector of Church of the Messiah,
and it's my great privilege to open the word
with you this morning.
And we'll be looking at Philippians chapter one.
But before we do that,
hopefully you've been able to find this.
I know there's a bit of a double link,
but I'm sure hopefully you'll find this.
If not right now, then eventually.
Let's just pray.
Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit
would bring us close to Jesus,
that you would help us, Father,
to grow in our remembering of Jesus,
who he is, what he did for us,
and what the work he continues to do
in every person who put their faith and trust in him.
So Father, let the Holy Spirit fall.
And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
I always start my timer after my prayer.
You know, it's a really interesting thing psychologically
that most of us think that we know other people fairly well.
And I shouldn't sort of phrase it that way
because it sounds like I'm sort of thinking
that you don't know or I don't know
what other people are like.
But if you think about it for a second,
it's a very, very common thing
that we meet somebody at a party
or at Costco or some other thing.
Obviously now with six, I shouldn't say party.
That's bringing back to those days
when you could do those things.
But we can go back in our time and our memory
for when we actually could spend some time
with people and meet them.
And we can talk to somebody for five or 10 minutes
or maybe it's the barista or the server
that we go to at a restaurant that we frequent.
And we have a basic sense that we know what they're like.
And we think we're probably pretty good
at knowing what they're like.
But the interesting thing is,
is that most of us don't think the other person
is as good at knowing what we're like
as we think we know what the other person's like.
I should say that again
because I probably mixed it up a little bit.
But isn't it true?
You meet somebody and you think,
you know, I have a pretty good idea
about what they're like, I think,
in terms of the way their mind works
or a few other things.
But if you ask yourself the question,
do you think the same thing is happening with them?
Do you think they actually know
what you're like pretty well?
And most of us think, nah, no.
I know what they're like,
but they don't actually know what I'm like.
But why is that?
And if you think about it,
a lot of our problems
come from that type of a sense.
We know what they're like.
We know what they think.
Do they know what we're like?
No, that's the problem.
They don't know what I'm really like.
That's the problem a lot of times in marriages,
with bosses, with kids and parents and all of that.
And it goes along with this other thing,
which is a very, very curious thing
about how we just tend to be.
And that other thing about how we just tend to be
is that a lot of times
when something goes wrong.
I mean, this, believe it or not,
I thought of this analogy
before we had problems with this.
And maybe I shouldn't even use it,
but I'm going to use it.
It's just a generic thing.
Often when something goes wrong
or when something bad happens to us,
that's actually even a more common thing,
that when something bad happens to us,
we actually think that it comes from malice.
In other words, a bad will,
a bad attitude towards us,
a desire to hurt us.
And we rarely think that it comes about
from incompetence.
But if you think about it for a second,
most of the things that happen to us
that aren't very good,
probably the majority of the things
that happen to us that aren't very good
are actually due to incompetence,
not malice.
But why is it that we don't automatically
go to incompetence,
and then after the incompetence thing
doesn't seem to explain it,
then we go to malice?
Why is it that we usually go to malice?
So you think about these two things
about human beings,
that we have this sort of
a very, very common matter
of assuming that we can understand
and read people,
but they can't read us,
and that when things that happen to us
that aren't really very good,
that they come from malice
from the other person
rather than competence.
Well, if you think about it,
it's one of the reasons
why so many of our relationships
are all messed up
and cause a lot of trouble.
So we're going to be beginning
a new sermon series today
on the book of Philippians,
and the passage
that we're going to look at today,
one of the things we do
at Church of the Messiah
is we read,
we study, pray, read, think
through entire books
from beginning to end.
It's how they were written.
It's the best way to understand them,
and we're going to look
through the book of Philippians
and the first 11 verses,
and believe it or not,
the first 11 verses
actually have some
very insightful things to say.
about this problem
and a way to sort of
understand and deal with them.
So if you find your Bibles,
it's Philippians chapter 1,
1 to 11,
or you can just listen
as I read through it.
I'm not going to read it
from beginning to end.
We're going to read
a couple of verses,
think about it,
talk about it,
a couple of others.
Just before you,
just before I start to read it,
for some of you,
many of you,
maybe most of you,
maybe all of you,
you don't really know
much about this.
You know, I love saying this.
You know, I'm reading
out of the Bible.
It looks like a Bible,
and it used to have
like gold type stuff
on the edge in the end.
Now it's all getting,
I use it so it gets wrecked up.
But this originally
was just a letter.
And it was a letter
towards a church in Philippi,
which is what we now
call Greece.
And it was written
around the year 60.
And there's just a couple
of things which are
very interesting
about this letter.
I'll say other things
about the letter
as we go into it.
But there's two things
in particular
that are of interest
about this letter
is that this was
the very, very, very,
very first European Christians
were in this church.
The first.
Like the way
that Christianity
entered Europe,
we tend to think
of Christianity
as being mainly
a European thing,
but the very, very way
that the beginning
of Europeans
hearing about the gospel,
it happened in Philippi.
So some of the people
reading this letter
back in the year 60
were in fact
the very first
European Christians.
And the second thing
is that Paul
is writing this,
the whole sermon series
is called
The Letter from Quarantine,
and then like
two little dots,
Philippians.
And that's because
Paul is writing this
from jail,
from home imprisonment
in Rome.
So he spends over
two years
in house arrest
in a sense,
a very real sense,
in quarantine.
And it's while
he's in quarantine
in Rome
that he writes
this letter.
And one other
just final interesting
thing about this
is why is he
in house arrest?
He's in house arrest
because he proclaims
that there was
a man named Jesus
who died just outside
the walls of Jerusalem,
and on the third day
the grave was empty,
and the grave was empty
because he had risen
from the dead
and appeared to people.
He's in jail
for that proclamation,
for that fact.
Anyway,
remember we're talking
about the problem
with why is it
that we think
we can read other people
but they can't read us
or not as well
as we can read them,
and we're also thinking
about this whole thing
about why do we tend
to think that problems
come,
that what happened to us
come more from malice
than incompetence,
and here's how it begins.
Paul and Timothy,
servants of Christ Jesus,
to all the saints
in Christ Jesus
who are at Philippi
with the overseers
and deacons,
and just pause,
one of the things
you have to understand
in the New Testament
is a saint,
the word saint
is just a way
of describing
an ordinary Christian.
It's not at all
the way we tend
to think of it today,
so whenever you see
the word saint
anywhere in the New Testament,
it's always just referring
to an ordinary person
who follows Jesus,
trusting him
as their savior and Lord.
Okay, so I'll just
read that again.
To all the ordinary people
who follow Jesus
and are in Christ Jesus,
who are at Philippi
with the overseers
and deacons,
grace to you
and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, this is how
he begins the letter.
It's very important.
Grace to you
and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And just what I'm
going to do today
with my points
and I might end up
running out of time.
I have to watch the time.
And so I might end up
going through the last one
fairly quickly.
But what I want to do
is just sort of summarize
what we can learn from it
in the form of four prayers.
Four very simple,
short prayers.
And I think they're going
to show up in the notes.
And if they don't show up
in the notes,
you can always go
to the church webpage
and we post the sermon
on Monday or Tuesday.
You can always listen
to the audio version.
You can watch the video again.
But here's the first prayer.
Lord, please grow in me
a humble, trusting,
remembering of your gift
of grace and peace to me.
I'm going to phrase
all of my points
in the form of a very simple,
short prayer.
And the first one is,
Lord, please grow in me
a humble, trusting,
remembering of your gift
of grace and peace to me.
Now, here we get into
our very, very first problem.
And this is going to be
where the Bible starts
to show some great wisdom
about this.
The fact is that just
as we think,
I think that I'm pretty good
at knowing you.
If I meet you,
I think I'm pretty good
at getting a basic handle on you.
But I don't think you're very good
at getting a handle on me.
And if something
that you're involved with
goes wrong and it hurts me,
I'll tend to think of malice
rather than incompetence.
The same thing happens
when it comes to the triune God.
Let's be honest.
We think to ourselves,
oh yeah, okay,
grace and peace from God,
our Father,
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, just as we tend
to think about this
as other people,
we tend to think about this
with a triune God.
Now, it's very, very odd
if you think about it.
We tend to think
that we know all about God.
We know all about
what he's like.
And in fact,
for many of us,
we're going through
a very hard time right now.
I mean, many of those of us
who are listening to this
were maybe struggling
with the whole physical isolation.
We're struggling maybe
with some relational types of things.
We're struggling maybe
with fears around the virus.
There's a variety of different ways
that we're struggling with this.
And we think we know God,
the triune God,
the God that's talked about
in the Bible.
And we tend to think
that he's not really that good.
He doesn't really know
what he's doing.
And this idea
that the fundamental thing
that comes from him
is both grace and peace,
it's something that we're
a little bit skeptical about,
more than a little bit.
It's a bit of a gag type thing
for many people.
And if for those of you
who are watching this
who wouldn't call yourselves Christians
or you're trying to figure out
what you are,
the fact of the matter is
is a lot of Christians
have that gag reflex
which they cover
when they see words like this
because we're well trained
not to show it.
But the fact is
there's something deep
within our flesh
that we just have a hard time
thinking that the fundamental thing
that comes to human beings
that God desires to give you and me
is grace and peace.
that that's the deepest,
truest, realist thing
about the triune God.
And we even wonder
how that could happen.
Now, so let's take a step back
about our problem.
Like, what does it say
about you and me
as a human being?
It's actually not really
very flattering
if we think that
every individual one of us
thinks that we know other people
better than they know us.
And some of you might say,
well, George,
it's not true for everybody else.
But it happens to be true about me.
I actually really do know people
better than they know themselves.
And then you might actually think that,
you know,
that's not what other people
think about you.
But all the other people around you
probably know that
that's actually what you really think.
That you really think
that you're better at knowing people
than they are at knowing you.
And they, in fact,
think you're full of pride
and arrogance.
But it is a problem, right?
And it's also a problem
to assume malice
rather than incompetence.
It means that there's something
bent in us.
That there's a type of pride
or self-centeredness
that's bent in us.
Because obviously,
I mean, in a good relationship,
you want to both reveal yourself
so the other person
can get to know you.
And you want them
to reveal themselves
so they can get into your life.
And you want to reveal yourself
so that that person
can get into your life.
We need,
this is what social isolation
really teaches us.
We need to have
good social interactions
and we want to have it.
But there's something bent in us
if all the time
that we're trying to go
through this process,
there is this inherent thing
that actually
they don't really know me
but I know them.
I know what they're thinking.
I know what they really want to do.
And when they screw up
and it hurts me,
it's because they are bad.
Not just because
they were incompetent.
There's something bent
and broken in us.
And the interesting thing
about the Bible is
I think that if you would actually
study the Christian faith
and you study the Bible,
you would discover
that there is no religion,
no spirituality,
no system of thought
that's more wise
and insightful
about the human condition.
I'm not saying
that you don't get wisdom
and insight
from a range of sources.
No Christian should ever say that.
But I think
if you actually look
and compare,
only the Bible actually
really accounts
for this fundamental aspect
of a sort of a bentness
within us.
And I say bentness
because obviously
we do get some true insights
about the other person.
But there's a type
of fundamental bentness
in us.
And we can't leave ourselves
to fix that bentness.
Like we carry it with us
wherever we go.
And you see,
so this is the wonderful thing
about the Gospel.
The Gospel is this profound news
that God was going
to show grace to us.
And grace is God's,
that God in his kindness
bestows unmerited favor
and blessing
upon ordinary people
like you and me.
So when it says
grace and peace to you,
grace to you and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's saying that
the fundamental thing
to understand
about who Jesus,
what God is like,
what the Christian way
is like,
what Jesus is like,
is that God looks
on you and me
and in grace,
his grace means
that in his kindness
he bestows unmerited favor
and blessing upon you.
And favor doesn't mean favoritism.
It means he looks at you
far better than you deserve.
And blessing,
when it's used
in the New Testament,
blessing is always
a power from God
to move ordinary people
like you and me
towards thriving in goodness.
That's what blessing
always means.
It means it's a power
from God
to move the individual
towards thriving in goodness.
So when it says here,
grace to you and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we tend to be
suspicious about God.
We tend to be suspicious
about what his motives are,
suspicious as to whether
he's actually good,
suspicious as to whether
it'll actually make
a difference to us.
We're suspicious
that if we get too close
to God,
he'll only hurt us.
We're suspicious about God
because we think
we know God
better than he knows us.
The same things
that we have
that cause us problems
as human beings
are the same things
that we put on God.
there's that bentness
in us as human beings.
And God's response to us,
because if God is real,
he actually knows you perfectly.
And you can't know him perfectly.
But the fundamental message
of the gospel is,
the thing that Paul wants
to tell everybody first
before he says anything else
is that the basic thing
is that God gives you grace.
And grace means
bestowing in his kindness
unmerited favor
and blessing upon you.
And blessing means
an actual power from God
to help you to thrive
in goodness.
You see,
how this works
is something like this.
And it's worth my while
to take some time on it,
even if it means
that some of these other points
we have to go through
very, very briefly.
You see,
God,
the good news of the Bible
is that God,
the Son of God,
sets aside his glory
and divine honor
and privileges
and all of that,
his appearance as God
and remaining fully God,
he takes into himself
our human nature.
And that when Jesus is,
and he lives
a fully human life,
and when he's living his life
and when he's dying his death
and when he's rising
from the dead,
he's doing all of that
as our representative.
That's why it can stand for you.
Some of you have heard
this analogy before.
I'll use it again
because it's a really good analogy.
Imagine
after the pandemic
is all over
and people are able to gather
that there's a group of terrorists
who one day go into
Wembley Stadium in England,
which I think holds
110,000 people,
something like that,
over 100,000 people.
And terrorists
are able to seal
and lock all the doors
and they reveal
that they've placed
a very, very large bomb,
maybe a nuclear bomb,
in the very, very center
of the stadium
and they're going to kill
everybody in the stadium
unless their demands are met.
And that, of course,
would be front page
and Twitter news
all over the world instantly.
The whole world
would be riveted.
And if, let's say,
I called them up
and said,
listen, I'll offer you a deal.
Somehow or another,
I get the terrorist number.
And I say, listen,
I'll offer you a deal.
Why don't you let
all of the crowd go
and all go and sit
on the bomb instead?
Well, they'd laugh at me
like, come on,
like, what,
we're going to give up
110,000 people
just for you?
That's dumb.
What would happen
if the Queen of England
called them up?
They'd take her.
They'd let 110,000 people go
to have the Queen of England
sitting on the bomb.
Because not only
do they have the 100,000,
they have something better
than 110,000 people.
They have England
and Scotland
and Ireland
and Wales
in their grip.
They have Canada.
They have the old,
all of the old
Commonwealth countries.
They'd have United States.
They'd have many,
many countries
in the world
would be gripped
because they're
just understanding
that the Queen
represents more than
the 110,000 people
that she, in fact,
can stand for,
in fact,
she's going to be
standing for millions,
for, in fact,
maybe even billions,
all gripped by him.
So the message
of the Bible
is that God
sees how we're bent
and how there's this,
in a sense,
inherent selfishness
and self-centeredness
and just wrongness
about us
that doesn't mean
that we never
get anything right,
but there's just
this constant something
that's not quite right
that we can't fix
with ourselves.
And what's God's
response to us?
It's kindness.
It's unmerited kindness.
And it's an unmerited
kindness
of showing favor
to those very same people
who shake our fist
at God
or laugh at God
or mock at God
or gag at God.
And it's a kindness.
It's a type of power
that changes.
And it begins
with the fact
that Jesus' life,
his life can be,
represent me,
and his death
can represent me,
and his resurrection
can represent me.
And it's not just
the way,
like, in a sense,
like our politicians,
I'm not going to be dumping,
like, both Trudeau
and Scheer
have been in the news
this past week
as to whether they
really identify
with us
in our lockdown.
Why is it that
there seems to be
a separate rule
for them?
They're not really
identifying what it's like
to be unemployed.
They're not identifying
what it's like
to not be able
to get on a plane.
They're not identifying
with those of us
who can't go to a cottage.
But here's the thing
about Jesus.
Jesus really did
identify with us.
If you read the Gospels,
you'll see he comes
and he's lower working class
and he has to work
for a living
and he's persecuted
and he's misunderstood
and he has to walk places
and he eats.
He completely and utterly
identifies with ordinary
people like me.
And so we have
this profound idea
in the Gospel,
this profound news.
It's not an idea,
it's news.
It's not just this,
wouldn't it be nice
if something like this
were the case?
It's an actual proclamation
that this actually happens,
that God sends one
who could truly be
the representative
of every human being
and he doesn't come
as a representative
who has no idea
what it's like
to be a human being,
but he comes
to represent us
and he identifies with us
even to the point
of becoming
a substitute for us.
that he lives the life
that I could not live
and dies the death
that I could not die
and deals with death
in a way that I cannot deal
by triumphant over death
in his resurrection.
And he offers that
to ordinary people
like you and me.
You see,
that's God's
unmerited kindness
being offered
to you and me
and it's not just an idea
of unmerited kindness.
It's the actual
accomplishment
of unmerited kindness
made real in the world
by one who represents you,
identifies with you,
is your substitute
and offers you
to take his...
He says,
George,
I'll take your place,
you take mine.
And you say,
well, why on earth,
Jesus, would you do that?
Do you know
what I'm really like?
Do you realize, Jesus,
that I think I know you
better than you know me?
Do you realize
that I think
that any time
something goes wrong,
it's all due to malice?
Do you know
what I'm really like?
And Jesus says,
yes, I know exactly
what you're like.
That's why my kindness
to you is unmerited.
And so when we put
our hand in the hand
of Jesus
to trust him
as our savior,
to trust him
as our representative,
to trust his life
for mine,
his death for mine,
his resurrection for mine,
because God is kind
and because he's
showing you grace,
well,
Jesus enters into you
and you enter into him.
And the very,
very, very, very,
very fundamental truth
about you now
is not that you are bent
or that I am bent.
The fundamental truth
about you and me
when we are in Jesus
is grace
and peace.
Peace means that
we're now at peace
with God.
He has made peace,
a peace for us
that we can now begin
to move towards
being in balance
and harmony
with the true
and living God.
And you see,
that's why
one of the things
that Paul,
Paul in this letter,
he's going to be talking
about selfish ambition,
he's going to be talking
about people trying
to screw up his life,
he's going to be talking
about fights,
he's going to be talking
about,
he's going to give
a profound critique
of religion
and he's going to say
that those who think
that the world
is divided between
the religion,
people who are religious
or spiritual,
being spiritual
is just being religious
in a hip way.
Let's just be honest,
right?
Unhip people are religious
but I'm hip
so I'm spiritual.
I've probably just offended
a couple of you
but that's what it really is,
isn't it, right?
And in fact,
your irreligious friends
would say,
bang on George,
that's exactly what it is,
it's just religion
taking your hip.
By the way,
just for the record,
I'm closer to hip replacement
than hip
as you can probably
already tell.
So anyway,
to get back to this,
Paul is going to be talking
about the problems
of religion,
the problems of thinking
that it's the choices
between religion
and irreligion
and the choices never
between religion
and irreligion,
the choices between grace
and anything else.
That's the only option.
Do you receive grace
or do you turn your back
on grace?
And God's heart is
that he wants you
to receive grace.
That's his heart.
His heart about you
right now,
no matter how skeptical
you are,
how cynical you are,
how down you are
on the world,
how down you are
on yourself,
no matter how alone
you are,
or how full you are
because you're surrounded
with your kids,
you're having a great time,
you're an introvert,
you love being indoors,
the paycheck's coming in,
whoever you are,
God only wants you
to receive grace.
He only wants you
to receive grace.
That's his heart to you.
And that's why
it's going to be
really important
as we go all the way
through this letter
and it's really important
for every one of us,
if you haven't
given yourself to Jesus,
there's no better time
than to do it right now
to just stop listening
to me or press pause
and just say,
Jesus,
please,
thank you that
you were my representative.
Thank you that
you identified with me
and you know me perfectly.
Thank you that
even though you knew me,
know me perfectly,
you are only kind to me.
And I can see that
because Jesus really did
live and die
and rise from the dead
and that's what he really
did say about who he is.
And so Jesus,
be my Savior and my Lord
and thank you
that you will never
let me go.
And for those of us
who are Christians,
Paul wants us to grow
in a humble,
trusting,
remembering of your gift,
that is God's gift,
the Lord's gift
of grace and peace
to ordinary people
like you and me.
Now we're going to go
through the other
three little things.
I just picked
three other things
throughout the rest
of this text.
It's going to keep
coming down to grace.
It's going to keep
being a bit of a challenge
to the fact.
You see,
it changes.
Here, let's read
verses three to five.
Here's how it goes.
I thank my God
in all my remembrance
of you,
always in every prayer
of mine for you all,
making my prayer
with joy
because of your partnership
in the gospel
from the first day
until now.
I'm just going to read it again.
I thank my God
in all my remembrance
of you,
always in every prayer
of mine for you all,
making my prayer
with joy
because of your partnership
in the gospel
from the first day
until now.
Now, some of you
are gagging.
Okay, one moment.
Why are we gagging?
Well, because we think
we know things better
than other people.
Why?
Because we think
that malice accounts
for more things.
And if it's not malice
or it's incompetence,
it's never good.
I mean, those are
the basic options.
Malice or incompetence.
Like, there's a deep cynicism
in many of us
and there's a deep cynicism
when we see words like this.
But remember who's writing it.
It's Paul writing
from quarantine.
It's Paul writing
because he's not going to let up
on the profound truth,
the profound fact
that this man, Jesus,
did die
and that he did rise
from the dead
and the grave really was empty
and that the whole purpose
of his life and death
and resurrection
was that God's
unmerited kindness
would be offered to you
and made real
in your life
in a way that will
transform you forever.
It begins to transform you today
and it will go on
and on and on
into all eternity
and that's the ground
by which he's working on.
And so what we see here
in this prayer,
I'll just give you the prayer,
I'll try to unpack it
in another minute or two.
Lord, by your grace,
the second thing,
Lord, by your grace,
help me to die
to cynicism
and instead
grow in thankfulness to you.
Lord, by your grace,
help me to die
to cynicism
and instead
grow in thankfulness to you.
Back when I was still able
to go to coffee shops
and talk to people,
I was talking to a business person.
We're talking about attitudes
and we got talking
about the fact
that if you have
a certain type of attitude,
there's lots of foolish people
who think that
if you have a good attitude,
then only good things
will happen to you
and bad things
won't happen to you.
And we both agreed
that that's just foolish.
That's in fact not the case.
You can have the best attitude
in the world
and all sorts of crappy things
will happen to you.
But what is true
is that if you have
a better attitude,
you have far more resources
to deal with
what's in front of you.
To deal,
to in a sense,
my sleeves don't have
to be rolled up.
To roll up your sleeves
and deal with the world
as it is.
As I said,
the rest of the letter,
Paul is going to be dealing
with hypocrisy.
He's going to be dealing
with religion,
with irreligion,
with selfish ambition,
with people who think
they're super spiritual,
with people having fights.
He's going to be dealing
with a lot of different
types of things.
So it isn't as if
Paul is saying,
Lord,
give me rose-colored glasses
so I only see the world
in a certain way.
No,
the problem,
every,
one of the big problems
that people have
with reading the Bible
is that it's so profoundly
realistic,
but it's never cynical.
And that even when it talks
about the evil in the world,
it talks about the evil
in the world
and the evil in you
in such a way
that God wants to connect
with you,
not to drive you away.
That's the problem
we have when we read the Bible.
It's the opposite
from it being rose-colored glasses
as we flinch
from its moral
and psychological realism
and power
without cynicism.
And so here Paul is saying,
remember,
so why is he saying this?
And here's where
it's really,
really helpful
for us to think about it.
And by the way,
these little prayers,
I should mention this.
I forgot to mention it
because I'm trying
to spend less time
looking at my notes
and more time
actually trying
to have a conversation
with you.
These prayers
are all about
his prayers for Christians.
There's going to be
other places in the book
where he talks about
non-Christians,
but here what you're
listening into is
how a Christian
should pray
for another Christian.
And I want to tell you,
I mean,
if you're still trying
to figure out
where Christianity is
and whether it's true or not,
you already know this.
We Christians
can be just as cynical
and full of backbiting
and bad behavior
as anybody else
and especially
towards other Christians.
But here's where Paul begins
in his thinking
about other Christians.
You're getting a chance
in a sense
to hear how Paul
thinks about other Christians.
Christians.
And the better way,
the better place
to deal with problems
amongst Christians
is when we're praying
a prayer like this.
Like rather than dealing,
beginning with,
it's because of your malice
that this is screwed up
or it's because of your incompetence
that this is screwed up
or I know you
but you don't know me
and because I know you
this is what you're really doing.
A better place to begin with
is thankfulness for them
because the fact of the matter is
is that when you,
if you,
as a result of this talk
and God's grace in you,
you give your life to Jesus,
you have now become
my brother or my sister.
You have a new identity.
It might be that
before you gave your life to Jesus,
you thought of your identity
as being primarily Canadian
or primarily Chinese
or primarily black
or primarily white
or primarily PhD
or primarily working class
or primarily gay
or primarily transgender
or primarily straight
but when you give your life to Jesus,
you get a new identity.
Part of, in fact,
the Christian life
is learning to die
to all those other identities,
to receive an identity
based on grace
that goes on into all eternity
and your new identity
is brother
or sister
to me
and I
have become,
when you give your life to Jesus,
your brother.
And if, in fact,
God's grace
has been working in me,
then isn't it a wise thing
to begin
when we want to start
to deal with selfish ambition
and other types of things
because we do bad things
to each other.
Excuse me.
Allergies.
It makes me a bit,
sound a bit rough sometimes.
But, Lord,
by your grace,
help me to die
to cynicism
and instead
grow in thankfulness
to you
when I think of other Christians
to begin with thankfulness.
Why?
Because they're my brothers
and sisters in Christ.
And it's a far better place
to begin with
to walk through
and to think through
the different problems
that I have to face.
It looks like
somebody's going to be
bringing me some water.
We're live.
That will help.
Thank you very much, Daniel.
So,
that's just a beginning prayer
for you and for me
to try to combat it.
And by the way,
it's a really interesting thing.
Notice here again in it,
I thank my God
in all my remembrance of you.
Verse 3,
always in every prayer of mine
for you all,
making my prayer with joy
because of your partnership
in the gospel
from the first day until now.
Just a bit of an aside.
If you seek joy,
you'll never find it.
Joy is a byproduct.
If you want to increase
the joy in your life,
begin with thanking God
for his grace
and being thankful to God.
And that's something
you can work on.
Trying to push yourself
to start being more joyful,
that's just psychological manipulation.
But in fact,
if God has taken a person
like you and me
and bestowed upon us
unmerited favor,
that will go on
into all eternity,
thankfulness is always
the right place to begin.
And it's the right place
to begin
when we want to solve problems
with other Christians.
A couple of other points.
Let's look at verse 6.
And I am sure of this,
that he who began
a good work in you
will bring it to completion
at the day of Jesus Christ.
It's referring to
the fact that Jesus will return.
It is right
for me to feel,
and actually the word
is more than feel,
it's talking about affection.
It's talking about
both a mindset
and an attitude
and a habit of thinking.
And it uses the word here,
feel,
because there's not really
a good English
single,
simple,
I'm a communicator,
as you can tell,
simple English word for it.
But it's a combination
of a mindset,
an attitude,
a habit of thinking.
It's a type of affection
for the others.
So,
it is right for me
to have this affection,
to think 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.
Jesus,
here's the third prayer.
It really comes out
of verse 6.
Lord,
by your grace,
help me to put to death
my confidence
in my work
and instead,
grow in me
great confidence
that you work in me
for my eternal good.
I can't read my own writing.
I'll say it again.
Lord,
by your grace,
help me to put to death
my confidence
in my work
and instead,
grow in me
great confidence
that you work in me
for my eternal good.
You see,
if we begin by praying
that for ourselves,
then we can pray that
for other people
because that's the emphasis here.
You see,
look at verse 6.
It says,
I am sure of this
that he who began
a good work in you
will bring it to completion
at the day of Jesus Christ.
In other words,
the work of grace,
when you receive
God's grace,
his unmerited kindness
to you
in a way
which is a power
in your life
to have you thrive
towards what is truly good.
He begins that in you.
Jesus comes to enter into you
and you enter into him.
The Holy Spirit comes into you.
The Father makes his home in you
and that will continue.
That work
of changing you
to live out of grace
is something
that you're never going to get perfect
but it's going to continue
to work in you
because not because
you're so good at doing it
but because it's God doing it.
The same God
who's showing you
unmerited kindness
with power
for your true good
and he's going to do it
and do it
and do it every day
and some days
you're going to really feel it
and it'll be good
and some days
you won't feel it
and you'll maybe feel
like the dark night of the soul
and some days
you'll realize
how much you transgressed against it
and the point is
to remember
that it's his work
in you
not your work
and if that's true of you
then it can be true
of the brothers and sisters
that you need to pray for.
Because the fact of the matter is
my brother and my sister
if you have opened yourself
to God's grace
the same thing that is true of me
is true of you.
It's confidence in his work in you
not your work
which we really need to be gripped by
to begin to be changed
and transformed.
One final thing
the final sentence
in the original Greek
by the way
a little nerdish point
verses 3 to 8
are one sentence in Greek
and verses 9 through 11
are a second sentence in Greek
and this one
just as we read it
because I've run out of time
the point will be
the fourth point
will be
Lord by your grace
please teach me
and help me
to pray for others.
Lord by your grace
please teach me
and help me
to pray for others
and this
this is in a sense
a bit of an outline of prayer
a bit of a lesson in prayer
about how you and I
should be praying for each other
listen to what he says
this is one of those texts
like you should memorize
verse 6 by the way
you should
you know
if you want to do something helpful
memorize verse 2
and then after you've memorized
verse 2
memorize verse 6
and then maybe
as a way to
to learn how to pray
take verses 9 to 11
and use it as a bit of a guide
as to how you can be praying for me
or for people in your local church
it's a brilliant
guide to prayer
that's why I said
Lord by your grace
please teach me
and help me to pray for others
and listen to what it says
and it is my prayer
verse 9
that your love
may abound
more and more
isn't that a wonderful thing
to pray for people
and love here
doesn't mean feelings
love is a verb
it's
an
action
an orientation
an action
towards seeking
the true good
of the other person
so he says
here's how you pray
that your love
may abound
more and more
and not only that
but you're
you're at the same time
that you want their love
to grow
you want their knowledge
and discernment
to grow as well
with knowledge
and all discernment
verse 10
why so that you may approve
what is excellent
and excellent here
means what is necessary
to thrive in the Christian life
that's what it means
it doesn't mean
Shakespeare and Bach
it means what's necessary
to thrive
in the Christian life
why
and so be pure
and blameless
for the day of Christ
we want to pray
that people are pure
that we're not insincere
we're not manipulative
that we're pure
and that
that we're
that what you see
is what you get
and and
and if we try to show love
it's not
out of manipulation
not out of get private gain
that's why by the way
you know
if we can help you
in some way
let us know
we'd love to help you
we'll do our best
to try to help you
and then
and then verse 11
filled with the fruit
of righteousness
that comes through
Jesus Christ
to the glory
and praise of God
Lord by your grace
please teach me
and help me
to pray for others
and verses 9 to 11
are a brilliant way
to learn how to pray
for others
just want to wrap it up
friends
as I hope
you've seen with this
by the way
I'm not saying
that I've arrived
I've made it
or anything like that
but what I know
is is this
God's fundamental way
fundamental way
of wanting to deal
with you is grace
he offers you
his grace
and that's why
the very first prayers
may be the most important
one for all of this
is a takeaway
Lord please grow in me
a humble
trusting
remembering
of your gift
of grace
and peace to me
that can be a prayer
for the rest of your life
let's pray
Father we ask
that the Holy Spirit
would fall
with might and power
and deep conviction
upon all who are
listening in
and watching in
we ask Lord
that you would grow
in each one of us
grow in me
a humble
trusting remembering
of your gift
of grace
and peace
to me
and all God's people
said
Amen