empowering prayer: personal empowerment

Each person understands the need for empowerment. Also, most of us understand or have experienced a sense of powerlessness. A sense of powerlessness can lead us to all the wrong places: anger, frustration, despair, or even depression. Our sermon series Empowering Prayer is intended to lead us to spiritual strength, especially within our hearts and lives. As you consider the difficulties and trials of the early believers, it is a wonder that God’s church has survived. Despite all the difficulty and hardship, the early Christians not only endured but they expressed a love and joy that could only have come from the power of the Holy Spirit! One of the clearest examples of this is found in Philippians 1:3-15. The Apostle Paul is imprisoned in Rome and he has received a gift from the Philippian church. His thanksgiving and joy flow throughout these words, but he also prays for the Philippians. In the sermon Personal Empowerment we realize that these verses communicate not just the excitement of a singular gift, but they give us great clarity about how God can empower us in times of struggle and hardship. We will all have moments in which we will need to endure. We will all confront times in which there is great fear and uncertainty. But the Holy Spirit uses this moment between Paul and the Philippians to give us a beacon of genuine strength to show us a path to joy and hope. Our prayer is for you to find this strength springing up within your heart and soul as you read Philippians 1:3-15.

Philippians 1:3-15: I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ⁷ It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. ⁸ God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. ⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ– to the glory and praise of God. ¹² Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. ¹³ As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. ¹⁴ And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. ¹⁵ It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.  (NIV)