Sermon Tone Analysis

Making Your Requests Known to God

February 10, 2008

*Philippians 4:4-7*

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In many churches, today 2008 began with a prayer week.

In some places, 2008 began with 40 days of prayer.

We began our prayer emphasis the second Sunday of January.

Today is the fifth consecutive Sunday I have preached on prayer, but it won’t be the last.

I would like to see our personal emphasis on prayer last not a week or even forty days, but for 366 days this year.

Why do we have a concerted prayer thrust at the turn of each year?

We did it last year, we are doing it now, and we’ll probably do it again next year.

Why?

We do it to make a statement as a church—a statement to God, to the world, and to our own people—that we exist as a church to do things that we cannot do without the special, supernatural grace of God.

These prayer weeks proclaim that Good Shepherd Community Church exists mainly to do the humanly impossible.

Most of what you see happening at this church can happen without that special, supernatural grace.

Common grace—the general providence of God—that sustains our bodies, and minds, and wills, and the whole of nature itself, is enough to account for preaching and teaching and singing and evangelism and missions.

Balancing our church budget can be done without supernatural intervention - that is /not/ why we exist.

We Exist to Do Things That Can't Be Done without God's Special, Supernatural Grace – God-sized things!

Good Shepherd Community Church doesn't exist to preach, but to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit so that people are supernaturally awakened from unbelief and changed beyond what any human could cause.

We don't exist to teach Sunday school, but to teach in the power of the Holy Spirit so that children and young people and adults are supernaturally converted and built up in faith and love beyond what any human could cause.

We don't exist to sing, but to sing in the power of the Holy Spirit because the affections of our hearts are supernaturally illumined, and the glory of Christ is seen and savored beyond what any human or any music could cause.

We don't exist to do evangelism and missions, but to do evangelism and missions in the power of the Holy Spirit so that hard, unbelieving hearts would be supernaturally changed into soft, believing hearts.

And the list could go on and on.

Do you see this? Are we in agreement on this?

We are not a club.

We are not a mere social organization.

We are not a weekly pep rally.

We are a covenant band of saved sinners who have been supernaturally converted from unbelief to belief in Jesus as our God and our Savior and our Treasure.

We are a people in whom the Spirit of the living Christ mercifully dwells.

Romans 8:9, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

Therefore, everything extraordinary we aim to accomplish as a church is impossible without God's special, supernatural action.

From the making of a dish for Family Sunday, to the changing of a diaper in the nursery, to the preaching of a sermon—our aim in all of it do it by the grace that God supplies so that in everything he gets the glory.

And that is impossible without God's special, supernatural grace.

We make this clear—we declare this and show this—by having six weeks of concerted prayer at the turn of each year.

I hope we demonstrate concerted prayer all year long.

But once a year, at least, we lift the banner extra high and say, we exist to do things that we cannot do without the special, supernatural grace of God.

And the reason a prayer month shows this is that God has designed and ordained and planned and promised that he will act for us when we pray.

God has promised to do for us things we cannot do our for ourselves when we pray—that is, when we get on our faces before God and confess our sins, and give thanks for his grace, and lift up the cup of salvation, and plead for him to fill it with supernatural blessings for the needs in our lives and families and church and homes and town and surrounding area and this country and the world.

Is it not breathtaking to hear Jesus say, /“ Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” /(Matthew 7:7).

Isn't it sad to hear his brother James say, /“ You do not have, because you do not ask” /(James 4:2)!

Or to put it positively, /“If you had asked, God would have acted to meet your need.”/

Listen to Mark 11:24: /Listen to me!

You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you will have it.”/

This is astonishing: God acts in response to prayer.

The all-knowing, all-foreseeing, all-planning, all-governing God wills for your Christ-exalting prayers to be the occasion of his action.

This is why prayer month makes the statement that we exist to do things that we cannot do without the special, supernatural grace of God—because God planned and promised that he would do these things /in answer to prayer/ .

So when we plan to pray in a concerted way, we are saying: the special, supernatural action of God is essential in the life of this church.

Think about the special supernatural action of God in relation to our church.

/We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ/.

If that's why we exist, then our success is utterly dependent on the special, supernatural work of God.

Nobody has a passion for God's supremacy in all things for Christ's sake without a supernatural conversion.

Try and see what you can do to make a person with no spiritual interest have a joyful, Christ-exalting passion for God's supremacy in all things.

Can you summon up this passion in your non-believing child or neighbor or friend?

You can’t, can you?

Only God can do this.

That is why we pray without ceasing.

That is why we declare this loudly with a month of concerted prayer.

Now our formal month of prayer was last month, but we will keep on with our prayer emphasis for the next couple of weeks.

God does not intend to complete his saving purposes in the world without prayer.

He /will/ complete these purposes!

That is crystal clear in the Bible.

And he will do it /by prayer/ .

That is also crystal clear.

Listen to Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:1, /“Pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you.”

/In other words, the word of God came to you, and by God's sovereign grace you heard it for what it really is, the word of God, and you believed, and you forsook your idols, and you are eagerly waiting for the coming of Jesus to deliver you from the wrath to come, and you are living lives of love.

That's what happens when the word of God “speeds ahead and is honored”.

And Paul says, Pray, that it may happen!

Why would he say that?

Because the advance of God's saving power happens in response to prayer.

God will see to it that there are praying people, because he means to get the job done.

If prayer is a means to an absolutely certain end, then God will see to it.

He will see to it that there are praying churches, that the word might “speed on and be honored.”

My desire and my prayer is that we will be one of those praying churches — that we would not be passed over and just left with our human successes, which have no eternal value.

How sad would that be, to get to heaven and find all your~/my efforts were hay, straw and stubble because no prayer was in them, only human effort?

If there were time, I would love to do an extended exposition of Philippians 4:6-7.

Turn there with me now.

It is our key passage for today.

But, for today, I simply want to read it, make a brief comment, then stand on it, and trust the Lord to apply it to your life as I unfold the vision that I have for Good Shepherd Community Church as a praying church.

So let's read it:/ “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”/

The effect of faithful prayer here is stated first negatively, then positively.

Negatively: /“Don't be anxious about anything.”

/Positively: /“The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”/

Paul promises that a life of faithful, Christ-dependent, Christ-exalting prayer will be a life protected from anxiety by God's peace.

If you want victory over worry and you want to have the steady enjoyment of God's peace, then here is Paul's prescription: /“In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”/ Don't miss the words “in everything.”

In everything . . .

let your requests be made known to God.” Pray about everything.

Stay in a mindset of prayer all day.

Don't just pray in crises.

Pray about everything—that whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do you would glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31 ).

The most crucial prayer for every situation and action should start: /“Hallowed be Thy name”/ (Matthew 6:9).

His name is holy.

He is able.

Trust Him.

How do we do this?

Paul uses three different words in verse 6.

First, “/prayer/ ”—that's the broad word of spiritual devotion, including different kinds of prayer.

Then “/supplication/ ”—that's the narrow word that focuses on the kind of prayer, namely, asking for help.

“ And /with thanksgiving/ ”—that's the humble, non-demanding mindset that flavors all of prayer with our attitude of gratitude.

Making requests /thankfully/ means that we will be content and grateful with whatever God wisely and lovingly gives us.

And we know that he will hear our prayer and wisely and lovingly give us what's best for us.

When we let our specific requests for help be made known to God in the devotion of prayer, with a heart that is thankful for everything God designs for us, the pleasures and the pain—then his peace will guard our minds and free us from anxiety in a way that defies mere rational explanation; it surpasses all understanding.