A Prayer for the Philippians

worship you. To spend some time in your word, we ask that you would prepare our hearts to receive from you. Precious and holy name.

Worship the God who is in your hands. If dreams of a be your name is said, be your name. When I'm found in the desert place, though I walk Lord, I just pray that we would trust in you more each and every day. Let go of whatever it is that we are holding back.

Lord, you've got it. There's nothing too big. There's nothing too hard for you. Only desire good things for us. Help us to surrender. Come to a place of surrender and trust in you.

Help us to seek you.

Never trusted their life with you and never trusted eternity. Maybe today's that day. Every day. But we love you and we praise you. God, as Pastor Ryan this morning comes, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would just overflow him. Give him the words to speak. Directly to our hearts and prepare our hearts to receive that word that you've prepared for us. We love you. We praise you. We thank

you in Jesus name and all God's people said, Amen. Let's have some fellowship to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you've joined us this morning. A few things to take note of. First of all, on the left hand side of your bulletin are the studies that go on throughout the week. The only update that I need to make to that is that the mom is getting ready to start the book of James. So fellas,

if you're looking to get plugged into a men's study, you can join them on Monday nights. Back in the Agape room, they're getting ready to start the book of James. And then over in the middle section of your bulletin, a couple of things to pay attention to. College group starts back up tonight at 630 in the Agape room. I'll be leading the college kids down there.

So if you know any college kids, send them my way. Also, today is National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. So on January 22nd of 1984, Ronald Reagan designated the third Sunday, or as it says on the website in parentheses, or thereabouts, as National Sanctity of Life Sunday. And it's just a day to bring awareness to what's still going on in our nation. You know, Roe vs.

Wade was overturned, which was amazing, and yet we still see abortion as a major problem within our country. Because, as I've always said, it has less to do with laws and it has more to do with the heart. And so we want to remember that lots of people are affected by this and that God can deliver even if you are someone who has had an abortion in the past. God's grace is enough to cover that.

But we want to be remembering those that are caught up in this horrific sin and this horrific industry in our nation. So we'll be praying for that here in just a minute. So that's today. Also, one more thing that's not in your bulletin is that I'm going to have Glenn Davis come up and share with us for just a minute about a new midweek study that he's going to get going.

Sandra and I are, as Ryan has encouraged, church isn't just Sunday. Church is any day of the week. And we all need to take part in, you know, be being filled daily. So Sandra and I prayed about it a lot last year leading up to this, and we're going to go ahead and take on a home group on Thursday nights starting February. Oh my gosh, what was that date? The first

Tuesday in February. So I think that's the first? Thursday. Thursday, not Tuesday. Sorry. Too many Christmases. First Thursday, if you're interested. Basically, well, in spirit, basically what we're going to do is we're going to discuss the message from the previous Sunday. And if we have more time, if we're not too deeply involved, we'll move on to our study,

our reading through the Bible, and take up a passage or two and discuss that as well if we have time available for that. Otherwise, we'll just go ahead and throw Ryan under the bus as much as we can on Thursday evening, and then I'll talk to him on Sunday before he does the next study, right? We'll go ahead and do that. We're going to start it at 7 p.m. to 8.30 at our home.

Everybody is welcome until we burst at the seams, then we'll come back here. Let's see, what else am I missing? Every other Thursday. Thank you. Yes, it's not every Thursday. It's every other Thursday starting this first Thursday in February. Thursday, good. Okay. If you have any questions, find Sandra and I after church. We're usually hanging around in the hallway

in the back toward the copy room. Other than that, that's all I've got.

Very good. And what he meant was if you have questions, ask Sandra. So, all right, so exciting stuff. Also, a good segue to remind you that in the back of the bulletin, again, is our weekly Bible reading. So hopefully you guys are being able to take advantage of that. And I just can't remind you enough that if you are having a hard time, we discussed this at men's breakfast yesterday.

That's actually kind of what I'm going to start making men's breakfast be a really big part of, is discussing kind of what we're going through in the Word with our weekly readings, but also, hey, how can we encourage each other? Where are we falling short? How can we do a little bit better? Things along those lines. But what we talked about is that, hey, if you can't keep up with every single reading,

that's okay. Do what you can do. That's the most important thing because I really just care about you being in the Word. This is just something to hopefully guide you to be in the Word every day. So, okay, those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 111.

Psalm 111, looking at the New American Standard, just so that we can all kind of sound the same. If you need a copy, it should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 111, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Jared in the even verses. Psalm 111. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart in the company of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is His work, and His righteousness endures forever.

He has made His wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear Him. He will remember His covenant forever. He has made known to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations. The work of His hands are truth and justice. All His precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever.

They are performed in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to His people. He has ordained His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever. And Father, we do praise You for how holy and awesome Your name is. And Lord, just for how powerful

You are. And Lord, we want to lift up today as we remember this National Sanctity of Life Sunday. Lord, we want to remember all those caught up in the abortion industry. Father, I want to pray for these providers that You would convict their hearts. Father, that they would begin to understand the value of human life and the reality of life, Lord, as they are

made aware of the little lives that are being grown inside of those mothers. Father, I want to pray for those who have taken part in the abortion industry. Lord, they've had an abortion and now Lord, they're experiencing the guilt of that and they need healing from that guilt. And so Lord, I pray that they would know and understand the healing that comes from You.

And Lord, I want to lift up those who are considering it. And Lord, I want to pray that Your Holy Spirit would do a work in their hearts, Lord. Lord, set them free from the feeling that they have no hope and they have no one. And Lord, I lift up organizations like Family Life Services as they do everything within their power, Lord, to minister to these mothers. Lord, strengthen

them, encourage them, and give them the grace that they need to show Your life and Your truth to these young mothers. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, please open up in your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians chapter 1.

Last week we started into the book of Philippians and we looked at the first couple of verses just by way of introduction as we looked at who Paul and Timothy are as they are the ones who are sending this letter to the Philippian people, bondservants of Jesus Christ. We talked a little bit about who the Philippian people are and how that came about and that story from Acts chapter 16. And then we also looked at that greeting that Paul greeted them with the grace and the peace that only comes from God through Jesus Christ. And so now as we move into this epistle of joy, the first thing that we will look at is what I have titled in these first verses 3-11, what I've titled as a prayer for the Philippians. A prayer

for the Philippians. And so we pick up in verse 3 of chapter 1 and this is what it says. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Always offering prayer with joy in every prayer for you all. In view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until

the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all because I have you in my heart. Since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel you all are partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. In this I pray that your love may still

abound still more and more in real knowledge and discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. Having been filled with the fruits of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory, the glory and the praise of God. So as we look at this prayer for the Philippian people as Paul starts off this epistle of joy to the Philippian people he starts off with this prayer and there's two things that we're going to see about this prayer. We're going to see the thanksgiving and then we'll see the actual prayer requests themselves. He starts off by

thanking God for the Philippian people. We'd like for you to take note of verse 3 it says, I thank my God in all of my remembrance of you. Now before we get into the specific things that he is thankful for about the Philippian people I just want you to think about something. Now we're in January so we're nowhere near thankful Thursday right? We're nowhere near Thanksgiving time

and so Ryan why are you talking about Thanksgiving this is January. We only talk about that in November. But I want you to think about something. Usually around Thanksgiving there's things that go around on social media right? Where you're supposed to be thankful for something every single day. It's always kind of fascinating the things that people write that they're thankful for.

I've even tried to do this with groups of my students in the past. I would ask them a question of the day. Then on Thursdays especially when it got closer to Thanksgiving I would have what I called thankful Thursday. You know what they hated more than anything? Thankful Thursday. Oh Ryan this is so cringy. Why are we doing thankful Thursday? Well because it's good to be thankful for things.

But you know what I always notice that we're thankful for? We're usually thankful for things. You ever notice that? Now maybe this is just me. But it's what I hear. It's what I see. We're thankful for lots of things. Usually the things that God has provided for us. Now I don't want you to get me wrong. We should absolutely thank the Lord for the things that God has provided

for us. But I have been reminded over these past couple of years how thankful we should be for people. Because when it comes down to it, when you sum up life at its very base, at its very core, life is made up of relationships. Have you ever noticed that? All of life really can be summed up in two relationships. The relationship that you have with your creator and the relationship

that you have with each other. Now my philosophy is this. Life is too short for bad relationships. Right? Because life is really a lot shorter than we give it credit for. And I think one of the things that sometimes we fail to do is thank the people that are in our lives and give thanks for the people that are in our lives. Listen, while they're still alive. Have you ever

noticed that? You ever notice people show up to funerals and they say, I really wish I would have spent more time with them. I really wish they would have known more how much they meant to me. I hear people get up at funerals and share that all the time. I don't know that I ever really expressed to them just how much they meant to me. You know what? I've never, in all

of the funerals that I've done, you know what? I've never heard anyone say, I spent way too much time thanking them for how great they were. I spent way too much time thanking God for that person. And so, as Paul starts this off, he says an interesting thing. He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Let me put that in really basic terms. Every time

I remember you, I thank God for you. And I just have a little bit of a challenge for you. It's kind of a Thanksgiving challenge, even though it's January. We're nowhere near Thanksgiving. The challenge is this. It's kind of twofold. Number one, make sure that you are thanking God for the people in your life. But second of all, make sure that the people in your life know

how thankful you are for them. Because it's a whole lot better to tell people now than to wait until they're gone and say, I wish they would have known how much they meant to me. Those aren't always easy conversations to have. It's not always easy to come up to someone and be like, hey, thanks for being you, right? Thanks for what you've done in my life. Because

sometimes we avoid those awkward sort of like emotional moments with people, especially us as men. But listen, let the guard down for a little bit and make sure the people that you are closest to, that you care about the most, know just how much you care about them. He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. And then one more thing before we get into the things that he's thankful for.

He says, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all. One of the things that you'll always pick up on when you read any of Paul's epistles is what a great man of prayer that he was. Now, this does not make Paul unique. It doesn't make him better than any other apostle. I think all of the apostles were men of prayer. I think all of the great men

that God uses throughout history have been men of prayer. After all, that's where their strength came from. We talked about this just a little bit yesterday in Men's Breakfast as well, is that one of the greatest things that we can do, and I sent around an article a few weeks ago, two or three weeks ago about this. One of the greatest things that you can do if you're going to get into God's Word is to start by praying.

Because we forget that the Bible is not just a book of facts. It is a letter from a God. A God who loves us. A God who said, I want them to know everything that they need to know so I will put it all in print so that they can hear my words. Well, the only way that we can hear God's words is if we spend time praying and seeking Him for His guidance. But you know what else? If we want to

see God's work done in our families, if we want to see God's work done in our church, if we want to see God's work done in our community, it always starts with prayer. Every great move of God has always started with a people who will pray. Every great move of God has always started when people get down on their knees and they begin to seek God for what's going on in the world, in their house, in their community, in their lives. It always starts with prayer.

Because prayer, I believe, not only moves the heart of God, but prayer moves my heart and gets me in line with what God wants. But I also wholeheartedly believe that prayer does move the heart of God. After all, one of the greatest prayers of intercession that we saw is the prayer that Abraham offered for Sodom and Gomorrah when he said, Lord, if there are a hundred righteous there, will you spare the city? And God said, I'll spare the city for a hundred. And he

works them all the way down to ten. Lord, if there's ten righteous people in the city, will you spare the city? And God says, I'll spare it for ten. Sadly, there weren't ten people in that city, but God's heart was moved by the prayer of Abraham. And if there were even that small amount of people in the city, he would have spared it. Brothers and sisters, we cannot

overemphasize the necessity of a prayer line. And there are some who find themselves saying, there's nothing else I can do. I can't serve in any other way. I'm stuck in this physical position. I'm stuck in this place, and I can't do anything, any kind of serving of the Lord. Do you realize that you can always pray? Because, after all, Paul's doing great ministry right now, and where

is he? He's in prison. And yet, he's still ministering to the Philippian people. How is he ministering to them, since he can't go to them? He's ministering to them through prayer. Some of us find ourselves stuck in places where we can't get out anymore. Maybe physically, you are ailing, and you can't do the things that you used to do. And you say, I can't be used by

God anymore, because my body won't do what it used to do. And I would tell you, it doesn't matter what your body can do. What matters is what your spirit does. Because you can go to God in prayer. And you can move the heart of God. By your prayers for people. Because that's exactly what Paul does, is he sits in a prison cell. And so, he says, I thank my God for you. And what does he thank God for?

Three things. Number one, he thanks God for their partnership. Notice what it says in verse 5. He says, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. He says, I thank God for your partnership, your participation some of your translations may say your fellowship in the gospel until now. What does he mean by that? Well, from the moment

that Paul arrived in Philippi up to this point in time, they have been participating in the gospel. They have been partnering with him in the ministry of the gospel. The first partner in the ministry of the gospel was Lydia. Do you remember that Lydia brought them to their house, or brought them to her house, and she ministered to them by providing for their physical needs so that they could give them, themselves, to the preaching of the gospel?

My gosh, even the Philippian jailer participated in the ministry of the gospel because after he got saved, what was the first thing that he did? He washed the wounds of the apostles so that they could get back to doing the work of the ministry. But it wasn't just that. They participated in the gospel in that when he was continuing on in his missionary journeys, they sent support to him. And so in that

way, they participated in the ministry of the gospel. As a matter of fact, the entire reason he's writing this letter is because they had sent a gift to him while he was under house arrest in Rome. And he was writing to thank them for their continued participation in the gospel. We forget that participating in the ministry of the gospel means that I can be involved in the ministry of the gospel all over the world in two ways, even if I can't be there.

I can be involved all over the world by giving financial support to ministries that are going on throughout the world, but I can also be a participant in the gospel by praying for the ministries that are going on throughout the world. And Paul said, I am so thankful for you Philippian people because you have participated with me. You have been in fellowship with me in the gospel from the first day until now. And so he thanks God for their participation in the gospel.

The second thing that he thanks God for is the confidence that he has in God. Notice what he says in verse 6. For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Now, there are occasionally verses that you come to in scripture that just sort of stand on their own and they're like great big easy chairs that you can just sit back in and you can finally find some rest on a long weary journey. For me

personally, Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 has been an easy chair that I've sat in many a time on my journey of faith. Because it is such a phenomenal verse because as Paul is thanking God for these Philippian people, he's also thanking God for the great confidence that we can have in who God is. Because notice what he says. Let's break this verse down real quick. He says, being

confident of this very thing. That word confident means persuaded, convinced, or assured. In other words, his experience in life has made him persuaded of the fact that he is just about to present to them right now. He is so confident in it, he is so assured in it, but not because he read it in a book, but because he's experienced it in his own life. Being confident of this

very thing. That he who began a good work in you. Now you should ask yourself a question, what's the good work that's being spoken of here? Well, I think it's a two-folded good work that's being spoken of. Depending on who you read, they'll present one of these two things to you, but you know how I feel about that sort of thing. Usually that means that we can probably look at both of them

and feel pretty confident, right? So what's the good work that God has begun in them? Well, of course, I think in the broad scale, or in the contextual scale, what he's talking about is their good work of being a participant with him in the gospel. The good work that God has begun in them is that they have seen the ministry of Paul, they have partnered with the ministry of Paul, and that good work that God has begun of their financially supporting him and prayerfully supporting him, God will continue that good work until the day of Christ Jesus.

But on a broader scale, on a broader context, I think he's talking about the very work of salvation itself. Because he is confident that the work that God began, the day that each of those Philippians came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, he is going to continue. Being confident of this very thing, that the good work that he has begun, notice what it says, he will perfect until the day of Christ Jesus. That word perfect means to complete, to accomplish, or to bring to an end.

To complete, to accomplish, or to bring to an end. Let me put it to you really simply. What God started, he's going to finish. Each of us as we sit in here today, God has started a work in your heart. For most of us in here, I believe that that work that God started in our heart was that work of salvation. The day that you came to Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, God started

that work in your heart. For some of you, God has started the work in your heart because he's drawing you to salvation. He's trying to bring you to that place of putting your faith in Jesus Christ. And for some of us that are saved, God has started a work of ministry in us, and he's going to complete it. Whatever work it is that you're seeing God begin in your life

right now, he's going to finish it. And it's his work from start to finish. I have found myself caught so many times on the treadmill of good works. On the treadmill of me trying to finish what God has started. Okay, Lord, now that you've started it, don't worry. I can take it from here. Isn't that kind of what we do as humanity, right? There's an entire creation theory that says

that God sort of spun it all into motion and then things just kind of took over from there. It's kind of interesting that we came up with that kind of an evolutionary creation sort of theory. You know why it's kind of interesting? Because that's what we do as humans, right? We're like, okay, God, you got it started. I've got it from here. I can take it now, Lord. And you know what I find

every time I try to take over what God's doing? I screw it up and I have to go back and be like, I broke it! And he's like, it's okay. I can fix it. I'll put it back together and I'll finish what I've started in you. As I look at my life, and I've done this multiple times throughout my walk with Jesus Christ, I look and I say, I just don't like what I see. Sometimes I don't like the failures

that I still see, the weakness that I still see, the thoughts that still come through my mind, sometimes the words that still come out of my mouth, the intents that I can feel in my heart, the pride that wells itself up, and I say, Lord, I just don't like what I see, and I'm frustrated about it. And he always reminds me of the words of a famous country song. Be patient. You're a work in progress, right? I've always

kind of, I think that's Alan Jackson, if I remember correctly. It's a pretty good old song. But it's a good reminder for us. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. And sometimes in the middle of the work, you find yourself going, is it ever going to finish? When I work construction, my boss, he's a pretty wise man, he always had this say. He said,

everybody, and it was usually about three-fourths of the way through a job, right? Because everybody's getting a little frustrated. You're frustrated as a worker because nothing's going as well as you want for it to. Your customer's a little bit frustrated because they just want it to be done and to get into their building or whatever. And everybody's just, we're a little tense,

right? And he always had this saying. He goes, everybody gets excited when the circus comes to town, but eventually elephant poop starts to stink, right? And that's the way it is in our lives. We get excited when we see God start something in us, like, oh, Lord, you're setting me free from you name the thing here. But pretty soon the elephant poop starts to stink, and you

go, Lord, when's it going to be? And he says, don't worry. I began the good work in you, and I'm going to complete it. And when's he going to complete it? In the day of Christ Jesus. For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. In other words, on topside of planet Earth, I'm never going to be a

completed work. On topside of planet Earth, you're never going to be a completed work. The day that we are a completed work is the day that we stand before our Savior, having shed this old body, having shed this weakness, this tent, and having put on that brand new house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And we hear that statement, well done, good and faithful servant.

And friends, we can rest. We can thank God, and we can be confident in him that the work that he started, he's going to finish. And so Paul says, I'm thankful for the confidence that I have in God for you. And then the third thing that he's thankful for is that they are fellow partakers of grace. Notice what it says in verse 7. For it is only right for me to feel this way about

you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. Paul said, it's only right for me to feel this way because it's almost like you're with me. You're in my heart. You are so important to me that it's like I carry you around with me. Why? Because no

matter what's gone on, both in his imprisonment, he has experienced the grace of God, and they have experienced the grace of God. It's interesting that somebody like Paul, who's such a great minister of the gospel, can talk about his imprisonment, and it can mean multiple times, right? And not for anything bad that he'd done. He was in prison when he was in Philippi. He was in prison in Jerusalem.

And now he's imprisoned in Rome. And he says, even in my imprisonment, you are fellow partakers of the grace of God with me. Not only that, but he said, you are also fellow partakers of the grace of God with me in both the defense and the confirmation of the gospel. So what does he mean when he says you're a fellow partaker of the gospel? Of the grace of God with me.

He says, we've shared the same grace. And the word grace here means strength to serve. They stood with him in God's grace. They stood with him in that strength that he had to serve. Because they were right there with him. Maybe not bodily, but physically. It reminds me of something. Do you remember that there's a verse in the book of Hebrews that says something very interesting.

It says, remember those who are suffering for their faith. As if you are imprisoned with them. Now there's something to be said for that, isn't there? Now, there are many who believe that Paul may have been the one who wrote the book of Hebrews. And it's kind of interesting that that same verbiage that he uses here in Philippians is used in Hebrews. That they are partakers

of the grace of God with him. How? Well, the same way that he's in prison praying for them, they were praying for him while he was in prison. And while he was defending the gospel. And while he was confirming the gospel. It's kind of amazing how that works when we are partakers of God's grace together. And ultimately, that's what makes a body, right? Is that we partake

of God's grace together. That strength to serve is what we partake of together. And we strengthen each other in it. And Paul says, I'm so thankful for you all. And then he says one last thing along those lines. He says, for God is my witness how I long for you all. With the affection of Christ Jesus. I would say that by the time Paul was done with that, they were well aware of just

how thankful he was for them. Now, it's kind of interesting to think about receiving this letter as the Philippian people, right? You can imagine Epaphroditus showing back up, because he was the one that brought this letter back. Probably the pastor of Philippi. You can imagine him coming back and saying, guys, I got to see Paul. I was very sick while I was there,

but I'm back to good health now. He's really thankful for the gifts. As a matter of fact, he sent me this letter to read to you. He begins to unroll the scroll, the letter to the Philippian people. And you can imagine, as Paul is, as Epaphroditus is reading this letter to the Philippian people, just like I'm standing in front of you reading it to you now, only they knew

him personally, and they knew what he had experienced with them, and they knew what he had been experiencing along the way, and they knew that he was in prison now. And the fact that he now, takes this time to say how thankful he is for them, can you imagine what that would do for the hearts of these Philippian people? How much it would strengthen the hearts of these Philippian people? How much it would encourage their hearts as he reads, I thank my God, every time I remember you.

And these aren't words from a guy that you've never met before. These are the words of a man who started the church that you attend. And it meant so much to them. Now again, I would like to remind you, to the people around you now, how much you're thankful for them. And so, in this prayer, he first of all takes time for thanksgiving. But the second thing that we see is he now

gets down to the business of prayer. Notice what it says in verse 9. He says, In this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and in all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and the praise of God.

Three things he prays for them. Number one, he prays that they would abound. That you may abound. That word abound is kind of fun. It means to exceed or to be in excess. Sometimes some translations, if they're expanded Greek translations, will say that you may super abound or abundantly abound. Picture this, if you will, to give a good picture of what this word is supposed to mean. Picture,

if you will, my water cup right here. I've had people ask before, do you really drink coffee up there? No, I wouldn't be able to talk. Picture my water cup here and I take a picture like this, right? Like right now it's abounding because it's about that full. It's abounding. It's almost full. But to super abound would be for me to keep pouring in it for it to just

overflow all over the stage, which would make people unhappy with me because I'd get water all over the place. That's the idea of super abounding. That it would be overflowing in your life. Not just that you'd be full, but that you'd overflow with the things that he's going to mention. He says, first of all, I pray that you would abound. And again, he prays that they would

abound in three things. First of all, that they would abound in love. That they would abound in love. Now you would think if anybody didn't need to hear about abounding in love, if anybody didn't need for someone to pray that they would abound more in love, it would be the Philippian people. After all, we've already talked about why he's writing this letter. They clearly are a very

loving group of people. And yet, the thing that he prays for them is that they would even more exceed, have an excess of love. Why does he pray that? Because what the world needs now is love. Love. Sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of. Right? Because if there's one thing you can never have enough of in your life, it's love. You know why?

Because the moment that you think, I'm a very loving person and I can love lots of people around you, God sends you unlovable people. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that unlovable people show up? Okay. There's no way they're watching. Okay. Okay. So, there is a coach for another team. None of you know them. They're from a town far, far away. But I've been around them

for three years now. Right? And this particular person is, we'll say, abrasive in nature. And so, and I'm an incredibly auditory human being. I won't always listen to what I'm supposed to listen to, but I can hear every conversation around me. Right? Sometimes I join in on them. That's when my wife really gets mad at me. That's either here or there. But this

particular coach is sitting behind me at a game that we're watching over the weekend. And this particular coach did not stop talking the entire game. And I was like, wow. Okay. So, there's that. Leaned over to my wife like, are you hearing all this? She goes, I work with fifth graders all the time. I can tune anything out. I'm like, okay, well, that's fair. I can't.

Right? Okay. So, that was the first night of watching basketball. So, yesterday, we were watching the game and I look across and I'm like, there's the coach. And I'm like, even across the gym, still annoying. Right? Like, how can that be? How can they be abrasive from across the gym? But they were. And then, we're watching the finals game last night that no team

that I cared about was in. But my daughter was dancing at halftime. So, we had to go watch. And literally, my wife looked over and she goes, that coach is everywhere you are right now. And I look over like, son of a gun. Right? You know why? Because I need to learn to be more loving. Because I go, I love people. I have a job where people is my job. I just love people.

They're incredibly abrasive. And then, I'm like, I love everybody but them. Right? So, why do we need to pray that no matter how much love we have, that we would super abound in love? Because love, sweet love, is the only thing that there's just too little love. Right? So, he prays that they would abound in love. And of course, what's the kind of love that's mentioned here? It's agape love.

Specifically, the kind of love that acts. The kind of love that does things sacrificially. He prays that they would abound in love. But there's a second thing he prays that they would abound in. That they would abound in knowledge. That they would abound in knowledge. The word knowledge in the Greek means experiential knowledge. It's not just knowledge that you

know up here. It's knowledge that you have because you've lived it out. You know it by experience. The kind of confidence that Paul had. And they needed knowledge because love without knowledge ends up becoming license. Right? We let anybody do what they want to do. That's what we have in our culture right now. We have people that want to show a lot of love,

but they don't want to have any knowledge. Because knowledge tells us how to use love in our lives. Knowledge tells us the most loving thing that you can do for an addict is to stop giving them things. Right? Knowledge tells us sometimes the most loving thing that you can do is to hold someone accountable. Knowledge tells us that love is, when you love someone, the most

important thing that you can do is to tell them the truth. That's why we need knowledge coupled with love. And it needs to be experiential knowledge so that you don't just have a bunch of head knowledge because head knowledge leads you only to beat people over the head with it. The kind of knowledge that he's talking about here is the kind of knowledge of experience that knows the right thing to do and then does it the right way. Does that make sense?

That they would be filled not only with love, but that they would abound in their knowledge, in their experiential knowledge of God. In their experiential knowledge of His Word and in their experiential knowledge of how to use the truth of God and His Word in the lives of people. He prays that they would superabound in love. He prays that they would superabound in knowledge. And he prays that they would

superabound in discernment. Discernment. Again, what is things that are lacking in the church for 5,000, Chuck? Right? That's kind of what's missing right now is we don't have a lot of discernment in the church, which is why 85% of what's in the church is not discernment. And the Christian bookstores is in there right now. Because there's no discernment. And anybody that uses discernment

is usually told, you're making too big of a deal out of things. You're making way too big of a deal out of that. Gosh, the Bible makes a pretty big deal out of it. Maybe we should make a big deal out of it. Right? But we need that discernment. Discernment is judgment or perception. To be able to discern spirits. To be able to discern what's going on. And so he prays that we would abound.

That these Philippian people would abound. First of all in love. Second of all in knowledge. Third of all in their discernment. Why do they need to abound in these things? Because that brings us to the second major prayer that he prays for them. That they may approve things. That they may approve things. Notice what it says in verse 10. So that you may approve the things that are

excellent in order to be sincere and blameless in the day of Christ. Again, a very interesting word. It means to test or examine. To see whether something is genuine. When I was a kid growing up, baseball cards were a big thing. I don't know if they're a big thing anymore or not. I think I actually have some that are probably worth some money somewhere. It is to me anyways. I have a Ryan

Sandberg rookie card. It's pretty amazing. Right? Nobody knows who Ryan Sandberg is. He was my favorite baseball player growing up. One of the things that you had to do is you had to authenticate. If they were ever signed, you had to authenticate the signature. You needed a certificate to say, yeah, that's really that person that signed it and not some other guy

over here who signed it, but it's not really the baseball player. You had to have a certificate of authenticity. That's the idea of this word. When it says to approve, it means to authenticate. To show that something is genuine. What does he mean by approve the things that are excellent? Well, first of all, it means to be able to avoid what is hurtful or harmful. That one's pretty basic.

That's a pretty genuine understanding of what it means when he says to approve what's excellent. The things that are harmful or hurtful, those automatically get thrown out, but there's a deeper understanding to this idea of approving what is excellent because to approve what is excellent means to discern between what is good and what is great. Does that make sense? There are so many things in our lives as Christians that are really decently benign, right?

They're maybe even kind of good. They're good things that you can be doing, but it's not the greatest thing that you could be doing. It's not the most important thing that you could be doing. It's not the greatest work that God would have for you, and sometimes the things that we need to be able to identify as what's good, there's nothing wrong with doing that, but what's great is for you to do this over here because that's where you can be the most useful. That's where you can be the

most helpful. That's what will allow you to grow the most. And we need that discernment. We need to abound in love and knowledge and discernment so that we may be able to approve what is excellent because that's God's greatest desire for us is to move past the good and move into the great. And so he says to approve that which is excellent, and then he goes on to say two

more things, that you would be sincere. Sincere. The word sincere means to be pure or unsullied. This may be the first time I've ever used the term unsullied, but man it just felt good, right? To be pure or unsullied. But my favorite part of the definition was this. To be found pure when tested by sunlight. To be found pure when tested by sunlight. You ever gone to the store and

you give them a particular bill? I don't know what all denominations, I think 20 they do this with sometimes. You give them cash and they hold it up to the light. You know why they hold it up to the light? Because there's something in there that will show yes, this is real. It's not counterfeit. You know, there's an even kind of greater understanding of this word. According to Chuck Smith

in his commentary he said that this word sincere can also be translated without wax. Without wax. What that means is this. You see, back in ancient Rome everybody was a sculptor, right? Greek especially. But even in Rome there was lots of sculptors. And perhaps they would be hired by someone to do a sculpture for them. So they'd begin carving out the sculpture

and everything's looking great and they're putting all the finishing touches on it. But then, ding, ding, ding, they knock the nose off. I don't want to start this whole thing over again. So this is what they would do. If it wasn't a very good sculptor, if he was kind of a cheap guy, he would take some wax and he would form that new nose on the front of that statue and everything would look great.

Because he could make it look exactly like the rest of the statue. And as far as all outward appearances were concerned, everything was great until it was in the sun. And the sun heated up. And we all know what a hot sun does to wax, right? It melts it. And so what they would do to make sure that their statues were real and not full of wax is they would set them in the sun

before they purchased them to make sure that there was no wax on it. And if there was no wax they would say, it's sincere, it's without wax. That's what he's praying that we will be. That we will approve that which is excellent so that we can be sincere. So that we can be people that what you see is what you get. That don't put on the right show for everybody when all

your Christian friends are around. And then when they're not around, you become like everybody else. But to be genuine, authentic, really, truly a follower of Jesus Christ. Not only that you would be sincere, but that you would be blameless. The word blameless means without offense. And again, there's two different ways to look at this phrase blameless. Obviously it doesn't mean sinless because none of us

are sinless. But the idea of blameless means first of all to have a clear conscience. A clear conscience. In other words, there's nothing between you and God. We can't make it through life without sin. Sin is a part of this flesh that we carry around with us. But when we fall into sin, we must make sure that our conscience before God is clear. And that's how we are blameless.

But you know the second part of it is this. The second part of it is that we not cause another to stumble. That's what it means to be blameless. To live a life in such a way that it doesn't stumble the people around us. Can I be honest with you? One of the things missing in the church world today is nobody thinks about whether or not they're going to stumble the people

around them. And this is just a genuine statement. I am finding more often than not most of the people in the church today don't care if their actions stumble the people around them. Because I have my rights. I'm going to do what I want to do. And I have freedom in Christ. Yeah, you have freedom in Christ. Freedom to be blameless. To not stumble the people around you. And I think

one of the weaknesses in the Western culture church is we don't think about what stumbles the people around us. And if it stumbles you, then that's your problem, not mine. Not according to Scripture. According to Scripture, if you stumble someone else, it's your problem, not theirs. After all, we're told not to put a stumbling block before the blind, right?

We are not to stumble the people that are around us. We are to live lives that are blameless. How can we live lives that are blameless? By having the knowledge of what it means to approve that which is acceptable. To choose not the good, that which is my right, but to choose the great, that which is most loving. Make sense? So number one, he prays that they would abound.

Number two, he prays that they would approve. Number three, he prays that they would be filled with the fruit of righteousness. Filled with the fruit of righteousness. The word filled literally means filled to overflowing. Similar to the word abound that we talked about earlier. Filled to overflowing. And what are they filled to overflowing with? The fruits

of righteousness. What are the fruits of righteousness? Well, in Galatians he calls them the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience. If you know the song, sing it. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Right? Love, joy, peace, patience. Anyway, that's the song, and if you don't know it, find a small child. They'll teach it to

you, and then you'll be able to memorize the fruits of the Spirit. Spirit as well. That's the fruits of righteousness. And he prays that we would be filled to overflowing with the fruits of righteousness. Well, how can we be filled to overflowing with the fruits of righteousness? Because they come through Jesus Christ. I want to point something out to you. You know what's true about fruit? Fruit

can only be born. Right? You cannot produce it. You can't make fruit in a factory. Right? There was a song, and I have no idea if there's a double entendre to this, so if there was, please forgive me. There was a song when I was in high school by the presidents of the United States of America. It was called Peaches. It said, Peaches come from a can. They were put there by a man in a

factory downtown. It's like, no, they weren't. I remember hearing that song as a teenager, and I'm like, that's not true. That's the dumbest song I've ever heard in my entire life. Still to this day, one of the dumbest songs. They're working on making dumber ones. It's one of the dumbest ones I've ever heard. Because fruit doesn't come in a can, and it's not produced in a factory.

Fruit can only be born on branches. And it comes from the root. And who is the root? Jesus Christ. You are the vine, for he is the vine. You are the branches. He prunes the branches that aren't bearing fruit. The ones that bear fruit, he wants to see them bear fruit abundantly. Right? How do we do that? We abide in the vine. Too many of us want to be the root, and not just bear

the fruit. You can't do the work yourself. It can't be something you do. We're not confident that the work that God began, you're going to finish. We're confident that the work that God began, he's going to finish. Paul says, I pray that you would be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. That your branches would hang so low because there's

so much fruit hanging off of them. Because if you're abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, and you know what happens when we not produce fruit, but when we bear fruit, you know what happens? To the glory and the praise of God. You know what the problem with works-based religion is? You name the works-based religion, I don't care if it's Mormonism, I don't care if it's Jehovah's Witness,

I don't care if it's Catholicism, you name the works-based religion, you know what the problem is? You get the credit. You get the credit because you kept the sacraments, you did the work, you did all the things, and now everybody can look at you and say, they are so devout, they are so good. You know what happens when we bear fruit as believers in Jesus Christ?

Everybody goes, I can't believe he did that. I can't believe he was able to do that. I can't believe his life. He was a loser. And now look at him. Now look at her. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. And God gets all the glory. Because I sit back and I go, man, if you knew me, you wouldn't listen to me. But because God is so gracious. Because God is so good.

Because he is so patient and kind.

He gives us that fruit to bear. As we simply abide in him. And he gets all of the glory. And he gets all of the praise. Amen? Would you all stand with me?

And so now I would like to pray for us, so if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you for this body of believers that gathers here at Calvary Chapel every Sunday morning. Lord, I thank you for the encouragement that they are to me. Lord, I thank you for the ones that come alongside me. And Lord, I thank you for the ones that just want to see your name glorified.

So Lord, I want to pray that for each of us, as Paul prayed for these Philippian believers, I pray for all of us. Lord, may we abound in our love for each other and in our love for you. May we abound in our knowledge. And may we abound in discernment. Lord, help us to approve the things that we know. Lord, help us to approve the things that we know. Lord, help us to approve the things that we know.

Lord, help us to approve the things that are excellent. Lord, to choose the great over the good. Lord, help us to be sincere and blameless in our lives. To look out for those around us. And to be authentic. And Lord, would you fill each one of us with the fruit of righteousness as we simply abide in you. And may your name be glorified by everything that takes place in this church.

By everything that takes place in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

He brought me. Just continue your mighty. Help us to trust you more every day. And help us to rest in the fact that you are faithful. Faithful to complete it. Lord, we love you and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.