Praying with Paul: Anything We Want
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Intro:
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
Tonight, we will continue [Praying with Paul]. The title of my message is, [Anything We Want].
Paul had a unique relationship with God. His transition to enemy of Christianity to its biggest advocate stems from his personal relationship with the Lord.
As we read his prayers, we discover something about his confidence in God to answer his request.
It reminds me of holidays as a child. Neither of my parents got much for Christmas as children. They decided to try and get us whatever was on our list, within reason.
Their love for us showed through generosity to us. To this day, I have to convince my mom that as an adult, I do not need them to get me anything I want.
She even asked if Bekah and I needed an Easter basket! I bet if I lost a tooth, she would make sure there was a dollar on my nightstand the next morning.
They show their love in their desire to give.
I believe our Heavenly Father has the same disposition. He longs to answer the prayers of His children.
23 “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.
God wants to answer our prayers, but He needs us to ask.
As I read Paul’s prayer in Philippians 3:9-11, I wondered, if I could ask God for anything, what would I request? Paul shows us, He: [Wants Righteousness], [Wants Revelation], and [Wants Resurrection].
Let’s begin
1. Do We Want Righteousness?
1. Do We Want Righteousness?
9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
The word righteousness in the original language means, ethical uprightness, right legal standing before God, right relationship with God, covenant faithfulness, vindication, and deliverance.
Prior to His conversion, Paul was self-righteous. He felt his could get right with God on his own. He viewed his works as the means of attaining all God had for him.
The moment he submitted to Jesus as His Lord and Savior, everything changed. Immediately, he was made righteous, he was in right standing with God.
He explains,
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The Lord showed him through experience, that the only way to get right with God is to accept the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross.
The one who was sinless became sin for us. He took on the penalty of our debt to God. His life enables us to get right with God.
If we are right with God when we come to Him, why did Paul, years after his salvation, request God’s righteousness and not his own?
He wanted God to help him grow in his faith, enabling him to display the FRUIT of God’s righteousness. The fruit of righteousness is a gradual growth process.
Every time depend on faith in God, we grow in His righteousness.
Our life’s aim should be to grow in faith and display the fruit of righteousness.
2. Do We Want Revelation?
2. Do We Want Revelation?
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
Paul wanted to KNOW God. How can someone really know the Lord?
It requires revelation from heaven. We cannot see God, we cannot touch Him, and we cannot physically walk with Him, but we can know Him.
God wants to reveal Himself, or make Himself KNOWN to us. What did Paul want to know, He wanted to KNOW God. He did not desire mere knowledge ABOUT Him, but a personal understanding of who God is and what He can do!
He also wanted revelaiton concerning the POWER of His resurrection. We know Jesus rose from the dead, but how?
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
The Holy Spirit was an active participant in Jesus coming back to life. Therefore, to want to know the power of the resurrection is to long for a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, Paul wanted to fellowship with God in His suffering.
Suffering will come to everyone. Something that encourages me in suffering is:
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Jesus understood the pain of sorrow. He was acquainted with grief. What caused Jesus’s suffering— His eventual death. Think, the giver of life had to die for us.
Paul also wanted to die. His desire was not necessarily for a physical death, but a spiritual death
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
He wanted to die to self so that the life of Christ could flourish in Him.
God wants us to know Him through the work of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit is at work, we will die to self.
3. Do We Want Resurrection?
3. Do We Want Resurrection?
11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Paul kept in mind what was most important, an eternity with Jesus. Of all the writers of the New Testament, Paul’s description of the resurrection captures my attention.
Paul’s words, by any means, does not express doubt that He will rise to spend eternity with Jesus. Instead, it shows his sincere desire to do whatever it takes to go with Christ when He returns.
The desire for the resurrection was common within the early church, in part, because they were so close to Jesus’s first coming.
It has been 2000 years since Jesus walked the earth. Imagine what it was like when it had been twenty or thirty years. Though Paul did not know Jesus personally, he knew people that knew him.
No wonder so many of them longed for His soon return.
How will the resurrection of the dead occur?
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Paul shows that death is never final for the child of God, those who die in Christ will rise from the dead. Those who live in Christ when He returns will rise to meet the Lord.
The greatest danger we face is if we lose sight of Jesus’s return.
Paul’s life shows that we should never grow comfortable on earth. Instead, we should long for the day when Jesus returns and we spend eternity with Him.
Close:
Until then, if God would give us anything we want, how bad to we want righteousness? Do we want His revelation knowledge?
As much as we want this from God, God wants us to have righteousness, revelation, and resurrection.
The key is to trust God and continue to ask.
Do we live a righteous life? If not, we need to ask for His help.
Do we walk in revelation of His Spirit and sufferings in this life? If not, God will speak to us as we seek Him.
Do we long for the resurrection? It not, we can pray that God give us a heavenly perspective on what He has for us!
We should boldly ask for the Lord to accomplish His will in our lives.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.