Cynicism and Grace

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,

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

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,

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

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.

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

an

an

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