with me please the Philippians as we look at Paul's prayer this morning to the church there at Philippi. Philippians chapter 1 I will begin in verse 9 and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. Let's pray together. Father God we pray that through our time together you would indeed do what we just read in advance your gospel that you would equip your children with your spirit to share the love of Christ to all those that we run into. We love you and we praise you. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. What do I share with you before we go is the question as I sat down to study and I thought if I can leave you with anything it would be a prayer. It would be a prayer to equip you to sustain you when times are hard when things are difficult and I won't be here to walk with you so I thought I would go to a prayer because I don't know what the future holds for each individual for each family nor do you but we live in a sinful world and I know that there will be hard times for all of us and here we find Paul in prison but he's happy he's in prison and he's content and the reason why he's content and the reason why he's happy is because he's convinced of his purpose. What is our purpose? What is our purpose in prayer? How do we pray for ourselves? How do we pray for each other or Paul has this wonderful understanding of God's beautiful sovereign hand and he's assuring the people in Philippi that circumstances he finds himself in prison are not stopping the gospel but are growing and advancing the gospel. See everyone from Philippi was wondering about Paul what's going to happen to Paul and Paul's not worried about Paul. He's worried about the spread of the gospel that was his main concern because he knew that he was called to go and make disciples how will that work if he's stuck in prison. I trust as we look at this prayer together if we can learn to view everything everything that happens as a way to advance the gospel God will do just that. Verse 12 there it says that he'll advance the gospel. I found out and I just love this this Greek word used here is from the first century and what it refers to is a company of woodcutters and what the company of woodcutters would do would chop down away for the army to proceed. You see what our call is as God's people we are to be those divine woodcutters we are to be chopping down the way for the gospel to go forth. I trust that Paul's prayer here reveals to us that we have everything to do that everything that we need all we have to do is grow it. I did kind of start where we will finish with our goal the goal of prayer is to glorify God the goal of prayer is to advance the gospel what we'll look at now is what has been given to us to accomplish that. What did God leave us what did he give us to accomplish the spread of his gospel and then we will look at what is consuming our thought life what is consuming our prayer life and then finally what is growing out of that consumption what is growing out of our prayer life so what has God given us what is consuming us and what is growing out of that and then we'll get back to what the goal is first what has been given to us it was such a joy and a privilege to be able to watch pastor palm chile's funeral and I hope that you were able to do that if you weren't I'm sure it's still on the website there but what a joy it was this was said and I put it out to you if God can get it through you he will give it to you you see that if you're going to give it to somebody else God will give it to you what in this prayer are the two things that Paul says God has given to us not to keep to ourselves but to give away I see two things love in the fruit of righteousness first I want to look at love what is so interesting here is Paul does not say who the subject of this love is normally when when when it's stated your love of God your love of each other your love of your spouse your love of that person that you can't stand usually there's a subject attached to where our love is supposed to go but it's not there in this prayer and I think it's purposeful I think Paul isn't concerned about the subject I think he's concerned about the source of our love you notice it says through Christ he's saying this love if you remember from last week this agape love this committed love this love that we can only have if God gives it to us if you have that you have to give it to everyone else if you've been blessed with the love of God and you know you don't deserve it it doesn't matter who God puts in your way you're going to give it to them notice also Paul isn't praying that God would give the people that fill up high this love I think that's so interesting he's not praying for them to have it he's saying you already have it you see he's praying to believers now will be our focus this morning he's saying you already have it now grow it if by chance you're here this morning and you don't have that agape love you don't have that love that unconditional love if you don't have a relationship with Christ I am begging you I am imploring you come talk to me come talk to one of the elders after the service so we can introduce you to Christ but our focus this morning is to believers who God has implanted his love into us he says I know God started a work in you and I know he's going to complete it you see Paul seen evidence in that love just like I see evidence in the love of Christ in you and he wants more he wants to see it growing he prays that it will abound more and more I trust in Paul's other letter to the Corinthians he gives the perfect description of this love in action I had always thought first Corinthians 13 the love chapter was a definition of love but spending time in it this week I realized that Paul wasn't defining love at all rather he was trying to show the Corinthian church how to apply love for their specific situation he's showing them what love looks like act it out what love looks like lived out if you remember the Corinthian church was a mess they're attitudes and their behaviors were nothing they were not showing love they were puffed up even in the wrong doing they would brag about their sin they were unwilling to suffer long and bear long so that each they were taking each other to court they were insisting on their own way and eating meat and causing other people to stumble they are acting in rude ways not wearing the customary head dressings they insisted on their own way hate their meals at the Lord's Supper without regards to others they were jealous and envious as they compared their spiritual gifts with each other you see what Paul was doing for the church in Corinth wasn't defining love he was showing them how to apply love to their exact situation if you'll grab your bulletins I had Jessica put this in here and I do ask that you would use this in your quiet time use this with your spouses uses with your children as a check to pray through to look at is this love growing out in my demonstrating this love
look at the second column I've heard and argued before the opposite of love is hate then I've heard the opposite of love is pride and what I'm convinced of the opposite of love is our selfishness that's why I put blanks in there because I want you to put your names in there Steve is impatient and unkind Steve can be envious and egocentric Steve can be arrogant and rude Steve is insulting on his own way Steve can be irritable and resentful Steve can also celebrate sin and mock what is true Steve can be whiny and thin skinned always skeptical always pessimistic a born quitter but Steve do you see the our ability of our flesh can end things where we're supposed to be showing the love of God to grow thanks I pray that you will use this you go to bed at night to look have have I been patient have I been kind has has that love of Christ that he poured into me that I don't deserve is that coming out of me you see this wasn't just a Corinth problem this isn't just a Carolina problem this is a Steve problem this is a you problem it's a sin problem I can't get past love is patient how patient have I been how patient have you been this week you see if we're going to love this way we need supernatural we need divine help in some strange way I don't know if I should admit this or not but it brings me comfort when I read that when it says that the first thing that he wants us to exercise with his love is patience it brings me comfort because it shows it's going to be hard to show love there are going to be things that happen in our lives that cause us to want to be impatient what it says is people are going to hurt you but you still need to love them we will need to suffer long we will need to endure long what it's saying is if there's two people together or 200 people together there's going to be sin and there's going to be a need for patience to love one another do you know what this says to me there is no perfect marriage out there there is no perfect church out there we all need to be crying out and praying more and more of this love make me more and more patient make me more and more kind notice that Paul is praying this for the body at philipai they didn't write it just to one individual he wrote it to everybody because he's saying everybody struggles with loving one another and he's praying that that love that God put in you will grow more and more because the more that we know God the more time we spend with God the more than we all love him and want to show him to one another the more we spend time with each other the more we'll know how to pray for each other you see our goal for each person that we meet is how can I help that person how can you help that person to glorify God the only way is to show them the love of God how do we live this love out Paul saying you need discernment you need knowledge you need to know how to share this love we live in a very dangerous time people are foolishly falsely using God is love to justify sinful lifestyles and and Paul is praying for the people at philipai he's praying for the people here at Carolina and he's saying look I want that love to grow more and more but it's got to be in the boundaries of his word it's got to be with wisdom it's got to be with discernment
how and why I think verse 10 shows us why our role in giving this love you may approve the things that are excellent better superior essential vital that we are to discern what is best for each person that we come into contact with what the love of God as we pray for it does in us and should do in us is it enable us to have a sense of what is vital in each other's lives again the more time we spend with God the more we fall in love with him the more we'll want to show him what is vital the more he will consume our minds the scary question to ask you this morning what did you dwell on today what consumed your mind this week this this past month what is on the forefront of your mind what have you been dwelling on what has been consuming your mind is it vital Martin Lloyd Jones wrote this the difficulty in life is to know on what we ought to concentrate what should consume our minds he goes on to say the whole art of life I sometimes think is the art of knowing what to leave out what to ignore what to put on one side how prone we are to use our energies and to waste our time by forgetting what is vital in giving ourselves to second and third rate issues again what is vital what should consume our minds I love Paul because he shows us and he gives us commentary on what should consume our minds listen to this later on in his letter finally brothers whatever is true this this is what is to consume this is what is to dwell in our minds whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is ever is commendable if there is anything excellent if there's anything vital if there's anything important if these things worship worthy of praise think about these things do you see what's supposed to consume our minds things of the gospel but how often do we allow something that somebody said about us that heard our feelings that they did something that we didn't like and it just runs and runs and it consumes and it consumes and God's saying no if that's not excellent if it's not praiseworthy if it's not vital don't think about those things think about how to get the gospel into their lives think about how to show them love think about how to be patient with them even though they may have just smeared your name think about how to be kind to them even though they haven't been kind to you those are the things that we are to dwell on the promise is that he'll give us his peace that passes all understanding as we dwell on those things how often do the things that consume our minds steal destroy our peace Paul saying don't do that i'm praying that that won't happen that you will have discern that you will know that you will prove what is vital by what you think about by what consumes you by what's on your heart and what's on your mind you see this piece that he promises when we dwell on things that are vital when we dwell on things that are pleasing and praiseworthy of him is a fruit of the spirit we've talked about this before it's not the fruits of the spirit you can pick them when you want them it's the fruit of the spirit so if our joy has been lost what else has has been lost if our peace is lost that love is lost you see they go together if you don't have peace of God you don't have the love of God you will struggle with that if you're not enjoying God you are not going to be able to show love to one another because it all goes together how often do we not show love because we don't feel like it i'm not being mean this morning but our feelings aren't vital what's vital is that person feels the love of God that they see the love of God from us again Paul is in prison and he's consumed with what well with me how'd i get here now he's consumed with how am i going to get the gospel out there's people that he is that he is changed to that come to know Christ that come to understand who he is how because the love of God is oozing out of him and it's so beautiful it says in verse 12 the things that have happened to me literally it reads this this is so beautiful the things dominating me the words which happen aren't even in the Greek text because they're not needed nothing just happens to us and Paul knew that Paul knew that everything comes directly from the hand of God and when you know that no matter what happens you'll have that peace you might not like it but you'll have that peace and you'll still be able to show love to one another i said there was two things love of God being filled with the fruit of righteousness it says having been filled with the fruit of righteousness this is a perfect passive participle to you that means nothing listen to what it means it means it happened once in the past and it will continue to have results when he saved you when he grabbed the hold of you he put his righteousness in you that robe of righteousness that we wear he did that once but it will continue to have fruit there will continue to things that will grow out of us because of his righteousness in us and that is wonderful God has filled us with his righteousness there should be fruit coming out of us continually let me illustrate this to help this make sense to really hammer this home this morning what if i gave you each a piece of fruit this morning i don't care what kind of fruit it is you have your pick whatever fruit you like and you stuck it in your trunk and you forgot about it what's going to happen to that fruit next week you're going to eat that fruit what if it was a month later oh Steve gave us that fruit and you opened up the trunk what's your reaction that stuff stinks it's rotten right he's he's giving us his righteousness if we're not growing if we're not thinking about the things in him that stuff is getting rotten in us that's that that's the passage from Amos that i wouldn't let you go to listen to listen to what it says it will be turned into wormwood this is the only other time that this this phrase is used in the old testament you know what wormwood is i didn't either it's bitter fruit it is rotten fruit do you see they used to have this and use it it was a very bitter tasting plan but here's the key it was poisonous you see what i'm trying to say to us we can be deadly we can be poisonous to each other right but but Steve can end things our selfishness when that fruit gets rotten and we're more concerned about ourselves we can end relationships we can end that we were cutting the way miss Brenda was cutting the way because she was praying it through she was doing that woodcutting and then we got in the way because of our rotten fruit do you see how it works we're not supposed to be spreading our rotten fruit we're supposed to be spreading the fruit of the spirit it's supposed to be spreading that to people when we focus on ourselves when we love ourselves the smells kind of stanky it ain't good it's rotten it isn't good nobody wants to be around that nobody wants to be around the selfish person nobody wants to somebody does want to be around somebody with a fruit of righteousness with a love of God is oozing out of them and you just see it everywhere that's attractive that's what's supposed to be growing out of us let me be crystal clear on this point what consumes you is what you are producing what consumes you right now is what is growing out of you whatever you're dwelling on that's what's growing in you and out of you in the reality is right now something is growing in each one of us is it rotten do you have seeds and weeds of discontentment and hate and pride and and lust and stuff that you just need to empty out or are you dwelling or are you filled with the fruit of righteousness the love of God and that's what you're spreading do you see what scripture is so clear whatever that is in you that you're focusing on that you're dwelling on it's coming out of you and if it's coming out of you you are spreading it so we're either spreading the love of the gospel or we're spreading this rotten filth that isn't doing anybody any good here in Paul's prayer is help for us he says the only way for us to be consumed with the right things with vital things is to view all things in the right way the end of verse 10 says so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ the original language suggests here with a view to the day of Christ see what he's saying keep your eyes on eternity if you live with a view of eternity you'll be consumed by it how many are getting ready for a graduation and you get ready for a graduation it consumes you I couldn't help but think about you know those important benchmarks in your life when when you get married when you get married it consumes everything when you when you have your first child it consumes everything and you're preparing everything for that day then not only yourself but those around you you are preparing them to celebrate in that day to be ready for that day and it consumes you that's how we are to be as his children consume not with temporal things consumed with eternal things to keep a view of eternal things that helps us that helps us when somebody takes us off that helps us to be able to still be kind and to still be patient even when things don't go the way that we want that's how we need to be prepared look at our goal filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God God will not be glorified if we're running around spreading rotten fruit you won't God will be glorified if we're running around spreading the love of God the only way to do that is what Paul does here pray for it pray for more and more and more and then he will give you wisdom and discernment with how to share that that's what we should be praying for ourselves so we should be praying for each other you find yourself impatient give me more patience give me more of it I need it don't know how to share the love with someone maybe in your family maybe a coworker pray for more and more give me wisdom give me discernment find yourself dwelling on things that you know you shouldn't that aren't worthy of his praise that aren't vital pray God take those away and show me what is vital show me what I should be consuming in my thought life it's sad and I'm I'm ending here it's sad how many times this past week I guess actually really this past month I've had to apologize to my kids and it looks like this it looks like this column that he's not patient that he's pretty whatever and here's how it looks that he making excuses I mean that you're under a lot of stress we're in a really hard transition time blah blah blah Paul's in prison Paul ain't making no excuses do you know what Paul's making prayers you see where I fall you see where we all fall quit making excuses about why we're not loving quit making excuses about why we're not sharing the gospel quit making excuses and start making prayers and pray God help me more and more I need more and more love I need more and more discernment that's the only way that his love will spread let's pray Father God the only place to start is asking and begging for forgiveness to preach something that you don't do enough of father help us all give us that that Holy Spirit nudge that we need that says you are not acting the way that you should and you have no excuse Father help us to stop passing out that rotten fruit and help us to pass out the love of Christ that you have poured so generously into us Father give us wisdom give us discernment help us to dwell on those things that are vital to dwell on those things that that have eternal value to show us how to show the gospel how to live out the gospel we love you so much and we ask all this in Jesus name amen