Pray for Love - Philippians 1:9-11 - Skip Heitzig

hello and welcome to this message from skip HEK of Calvary Albuquerque we trust that this message helps you grow in your relationship with Christ if it does let us know email us at [email protected] and if you'd like to support this ministry financially you can give online securely at calvaryabq.org/giving without thought but as the Apostle Paul demonstrated love must be understood and developed intelligently in the message Pray For Love skip encourages us to consider how our love can become mature and god-honoring now please open your Bible to Philippians chapter 1 as he begins I'd like you

to turn in your Bibles please to the book of Philippians chapter 1 that's what we're studying in this book of Philippians Technicolor Joy Philippians chapter 1 where we get into the substance and the sum of Paul's prayer for them most people never associate prayer with pop music uh but there is an interesting country song uh that's been around for a few years um by a guy named jiren Lowenstein he goes by jiren and it's a song uh called I pray for you it's a song based upon the bitter breakup that he had with his girlfriend

and he puts an interesting Twist on prayer um he said I haven't been to church since I don't remember when things were going great till they fell apart again so I listened to the preacher he told me what to do he said you can't go hating others who have done wrong to you sometimes we get angry but we must not condemn let the good Lord do his job and you just pray for them so his chorus is I pray your breakes go out running down a hill I pray a flower pot falls from a window

sill and not knocks you in the head like I'd like to I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls I pray you're flying high when your engine stalls I pray all your dreams never come true just know wherever you are honey I pray for you I think we can do much better than that and Paul does better than that in the book of Philippians you'll notice in chapter 1 verse 4 that he mentions that he prays for them in verse three he says I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer

of mine making request for you all with joy now if you know anything about Paul you know that in many of his letters he includes his prayer for his audience when he writes the book of Ephesians he includes a prayer when he writes the book of Philippians when he writes the book of Colossians he includes a prayer when he writes the book of Thessalon Ians he includes a prayer in first Thessalonians when he writes to Timothy he includes a prayer to philimon he includes a prayer that is a part of Paul's life he prayed for

people and he did it regularly and he told them what he prayed for and I think it's safe to say that nothing really defines a person's spiritual life more so than that person's prayer life and Paul had a deep and abiding one now just an interesting note about that whenever you read Paul's prayers for people he never once prays for anything physical I'm not saying he never did it's just never recorded that he did what he prays for are things that he thought were much more important than just a general blessing for the church or

a physical ailment but what he wrote down were were the really heart issues that matter the most and in this case we find out that he prays for love in verse 9 he says and this I Pray so here's the the main request this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment that you may approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and

the praise of God now Paul has one thing that he's praying for one specific thing Above All Else and that is love that is the sum of his prayer he's praying for their love all of the other phrases beyond that in verse 9 10 and 11 support that one main thought now why would Paul pray for for their love well because that is the Hallmark of their faith right he said now abide faith hope and love and the greatest of these is love Jesus said by this all men will know you're my disciples by the

love you have for one another so he prays for the most important expression of their Christian faith and that is the expression of Love by the way Paul also mentions the idea of Love Not only here but also in those other books that I just mentioned Colossians Ephesians Thessalonians and others we're not surprised because um faith is important and hope is vital but love is the culminating um Hallmark now Dwight El Moody once said something interesting he said you know a man can be a good doctor without loving his patients or a good lawyer without

loving his clients or a good geologist without loving rocks or science but a man cannot be a good Christian without love and I'm really glad it's Mother's Day because of all the people that I think set the standard for selfless living and unselfish love it's a it's a mother at least I can say that in my family um you've heard the old saying he has a face only a mother can love that says more about a mother than a face it says it says that a mom's love is always there it's always steadfast no matter

who you are what you've done you can always count on a mother's love and I found that to be very very true in my own situation the Jews used to have a saying that God couldn't be everywhere and so he created mothers I think it's more of a statement rather than an absolute theological statement of it's it's a way of saying the way God expresses his presence is so often through the life of a Godly mother so we're so thankful today that it's Mother's Day and we can express that to you well what I want

to show you in Philippians 1: 910 and 11 in Paul's prayer are four attributes of mature love four attributes of mature love now as we go through these four attributes what I'd like you to do is to be comparing your own expressions of love to what Paul prays for theirs ought to be four attitudes four attributes of mature love the first is this our love should be plentiful look at verse 9 and notice and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more the word abound means to to superabound or to uh

exceed a fixed number or a fixed measure now it's evident that they already loved one another Paul felt their love and Paul makes note of it in this book you'll notice in verse 9 um I pray that your love may abound notice this still more and more in other words that implies they already do it he just doesn't want them to do it less he wants them to continue to do it and to do it more that your love would abound still more and more now how do you increase something that's already overflowing oh it's

pretty easy you just turn on the hose and walk away let it run this is a mistake I've made in my own yard I have inadvertently watered my neighbor yards from time to time by trying to fill a little Pond or water a an area of my grass or a a tree and I for got and 2 hours later it's like oh there's water everywhere now when Paul says I'm praying for your love to abound what is he speaking of specifically it's possible that he is praying that um their love would be the kind of

love that goes out of the boundaries of loving just the church and loving different kinds of people in the world that certainly would be in line with what Jesus was all about he said for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son a few years ago when I went to Iraq for the first time I I've told you that I brought shoe boxes with me 20,000 shoe boxes that many of you packed and we brought them into Baghdad the most striking thing about that trip is what one of the Iraqi officials

said to me he made a statement that was shocking he said up up to this point in my mind he said I always thought we always thought that it was the Christian West that hated us but I can see by this token of your love that it's the Christians that love us your simple shoe boox Expressions were like overflowing love into another culture that never experienced something like that before however I believe that Paul is referring to the specific demonstration of love to one another within the church I don't think he's speaking of loving God

I don't think he's speaking of loving God's world I think he is specifically speaking of loving God's people the church why do I say this because he writes the same thing almost in first Thessalonians CH 3:2 let me read it to you may the Lord Make Your Love increase and overflow for each other why is that important I think it's important because sometimes it's easier to love people you never see than people you see every day the easiest thing is talking about I love the world oh I love the world but the people in your

own home or in your own work space it's sometimes more difficult it's like a cartoon I once saw and the main character said oh I love the world it's just the people I can't stand it's easy to say I love people I never see but people you do see and work with and live with it's different so I think he is praying that their love for one another would overflow would abound more and more that that hose of Love would keep on running interesting one of the church historians named tertullian made mention in his writings

that when the church started growing rapidly in the Roman Empire that the government sent spies into different congregations because they were afraid that this new group of citizens these Christians would be very disloyal to the Roman government so one of the spies went into a church came back and wrote this report these Christians are very strange people they speak of one by the name of Jesus who is absent but whom they seem to be expecting at any time and my how they love him and my how they love one another interesting that an unbelieving spy

in a Christian congregation made note of the fact that they loved one another so intensely so take that little test in your mind right now and ask yourself this does your own love abound would that be a word word that describes the expression of Your Love think about your marriage is your love toward your spouse and abounding love or in your home toward your children or toward your parents or among your friends would you say that that is a good description of your own love experience in your life you're the kind of a person that

love just keeps growing and growing and abounding more and more you say is that even possible well yes it is possible it is possible because in Romans CH 5 Paul said the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit the love of God has been poured out or literally it gushes out it implies there is no limit to it at all what that means then is that we have an unlimited capacity to love if you're one of those type of people and I've met a few who say I'm just

fresh out of love I've Loved all the love out I've got no more love to give it's all gone now I say well you need a better connection because the love of God gushes out is poured out by the Holy Spirit last time I checked he never ran out so what this implies is is if God's love flows into your life it out of what flow out of your life if God flows in it must flow through to others Malcolm mugridge a British journalist once wrote the biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis or

any other disease but rather the feeling of being unwanted uncared for and deserted by everybody the greatest evil is the lack of love that terrible indifference toward one's neighbor who who lives at the roadside assaulted by exploitation corruption poverty and disease now what all of this tells me is that if I have such a capacity that the Bible tells me that I have to love people that nobody around me should ever feel love starved they should never feel love starved they should feel love saturated love soaked but not love starved because if the love of

God is poured out by his holy spirit into me then it can then be poured out through me I have to receive it so that I can give it our love then should be plentiful that's the first attribute of a mature love second our love should be perceptive now watch what he does you know Paul could have just said and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more period but he doesn't do that he says that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment now this is

important because now Paul is qualifying what overflowing love is to look like by adding these parameters of knowledge and discernment you see Paul is not naive he's not throwing out love like some cliche is tolerate anything except everything kind of a love he says no the overflowing love that I am speaking about to one another needs Banks just like a river has Banks and One bank is called knowledge and the other bank is called discernment and your love needs to flow within those Banks to be safe you see overflowing love sounds really great but it

is like a river and if that water has free flow without any direction or discretion it can kill people a few years ago I was in Honduras they had just had a flood and I was in a helicopter going over these Villages the homes were washed out schools hospitals were gone people were huddled in masses and in the jungles trying to find a place for shelter and it was all because of a a river that overflowed its banks water is a blessing but that much water that just flows wherever it wants to can destroy people's

lives and so too with love if our love is just pure emotion without discretion or Direction it can bring Devastation it needs those banks in which to flow so let's look at them let's look at them one by one the first bank is called knowledge that your love may still abound more and more in knowledge what does that mean the word eposis the Greek word for knowledge here means an expert knowledge a mature knowledge brought on by experience if you know anything about Paul's writing you know that Paul will often take love and knowledge and

combine them sometimes he'll oppose them he'll show the difference between them for example in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 he says um knowledge uh puffs up but love builds up he's contrasting love and knowledge or First Corinthians chapter 13 though I speak with a tongue of men or of angels but I have not love become like a clanging symbol sounding brass and though I can understand all Mysteries and have all knowledge but I have not love I have become nothing so he says knowledge needs love but he also says love needs knowledge for that love to

be responsible love remember when Paul spoke about a zealous group of religious Brethren of his he said they have a Zeal for God but it's not according to knowledge and he faulted them for that it's pure emotion but no knowledge now if you diminish your need for knowledge and you place feeling above knowledge like so many people do just do what in your heart man whatever you feel like doing that is the most dangerous irresponsible thing you could ever do and you would be a dangerous person to live that way why do I say that

well you can feel out of love with your spouse and feel in love with somebody who's not your spouse a parent can feel they ought to give something whatever they the child wants to their child just I'm going to give it because I feel that that's the loving thing to do well that could be the worst thing to do to give them whatever they want you may feel that love is letting another Christian do whatever he or she wants to do that's where you need knowledge the knowledge of Matthew chapter 18 where Jesus said sometimes

the most loving thing you can do is to confront another brother or sister and that's love so mature love is not sentimentality nor is an emotion it has Banks the first bank is knowledge second Peter chapter 1 he says make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge so follow me our love should be growing but our love should also be knowing knowledge is one of the banks that allows the free flow of love there's another bank I want you to notice also in verse 9 and that is discernment that your

love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment discernment means Insight mature Insight or sensitive moral perception allow me to explain we might have an affection for somebody else but that doesn't mean we have the right to express that affection any way we see fit we need to bring discernment into it see there are moral and ethical considerations that are to govern the overflowing expression of our love to people to discern something is to distinguish to make a difference and so every parent knows this that love is expressed in different ways at

different times to the same child one day a parent will give a gift to a child another day a parent will spank a child both are legitimate expressions of love another example is that of Jesus Christ sometimes he'd heal a person another day he would overturn the tables in the temple and with a whip drive out the money changers both are expressions of love but in two different contexts one day Jesus would say to the crowd you are blessed blessed are you another day he'd look at another crowd filled with Pharisees and he say you

whitewashed seers both are expressions of love from the one who is the author of Love himself now most of us know that the most frequently used Greek word for love in the New Testament is what tell me Shout It Out Agape Agape is the Greek word for love that expresses God's love for us generally love for one another is to be at that Supreme Superior that's what we aspire to Agape Love well make sure that your agapy isn't sloppy don't love with sloppy agapy sloppy agapy is is saying you love somebody but it's really a

selfish love I'm going to do something or say something because I don't want to be disliked by that person that's sloppy agapy 1 Corinthians chap 13:6 sums it up love does not rejoice in iniquity but it rejoices in the truth so our love should be abounding plentiful love but it should also be perceptive having run within the banks of knowledge and discernment now look at verse 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ you see where it begins the sentence with

the word that everything that follows is a purpose Clause it is called a purpose purpose clause in other words it means so that or in order that or Paul is saying here's the reason you need these two Riverbanks of knowledge and discernment here's why here's the purpose for it it's so that you can approve the things that are excellent now that little word approve was a word used in ancient times to test metals to approve metals to take a coin and determine how much real metal versus alloy is in it you would you would examine

it you would test it and you would test it for Purity so he uses that word approve and he means this we must carefully examine every expression of our love in the light of God's word because then it becomes a different issue no longer is it an issue of how do I feel but it becomes an issue of what does the Bible say about how I feel does the Bible say this is a legitimate expression an illegitimate expression does the bible prohibit this does it encourage this so there was a mom in Walmart with her

screaming little girl in her cart and the girl was throwing stuff and complaining and yelling and and just the volume was going up and up and and that Mom um was feeling like expressing her love with a slap to the backside right there in public but instead she said out loud calm down Ellen it'll be all right Ellen you'll be home soon Ellen and as she got up to the clerk the clerk said ma'am I've just got to congratulate you on how patient you are with little Ellen and the mom turned to her and said

I'm Ellen see there's a lady debating approving what's the proper expression of my love talking to herself through so our love should be plentiful our love should be perceptive there's a third quality a third attribute of mature love and that is our love should be pure also verse 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent and notice the next phrase that you may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ you see that second that in this sentence begins with the word that then there's a comma and there's another that okay

I'm showing you all this because that's another purpose Clause it means in order that all I have to say this Paul is praying for one thing one thing their love the expression of their love I want it to abound I want it to overflow but within the bank of knowledge and discernment so that you can approve the things that are excellent and so that it's all about the same subject this is a purpose Clause so that or in order that you will express your love in the right way in a pure way look at the

word sincere you know what that is when we say a person is sincere usually that we're paying them a compliment to us for some reason sincerity is like the highest virtue a person can have doesn't matter what they believe in along they're sincere that's what a lot of people say the word sincere in English comes from a Latin word actually two words that sound very much like our word sincere I'll say it ca ca two Latin words Cera that's where we get the word sincere Cera literally means without waack wax CA without Sarah wax saying

I'm praying that your love would abound and be within the banks of knowledge and discernment so that you can approve the things that are excellent and so that you may be without wax you're going I don't get it well in ancient times porcelain dealers and statue makers would carve their Wares and sell them and if they wanted to sell them so that the buyer would know it's real pure legitimate through and through they would say it's without wax here's a plate of porcelain or a statue of marble that is Cera it's without wax in other

words it didn't break and we added dust and wax and patched it back up it's a pure work through and through now you could tell if it was with wax you would just hold it up to the sun it'd be sun tested you'd hold it up and you could see the crack running through it and you'd feel the wax mixed with a porcelain or marble dust and you say this is a fake this thing's busted they patched it up and if you bought a statue for your husband's birthday and it's July and you have it

in the backyard and you have a garden party and you're all happy everything's good until the nose falls off and the arm falls off and then he says that is an insincere expression of love it has wax in it that's the idea of sincere so the idea means pure that you may be sincere and without offense so the idea is this don't let your love be phony don't let it be mixed don't let it have an impure motive like a little boy her uh his mom said um you know you've been a bad boy lately

you need to get on your knees and pray that God would make you a better boy he got right down on his knees bowed his head and goes oh Lord make me a better boy and Lord if you can't make me better don't worry cuz I'm having a real good time just the way I am amen sometimes our life sometimes our love sometimes our prayers can be insincere there's wax inside Romans 129 says let love be without hypocrisy that is don't just pretend to love really love best example of insincere love is Judas scariot betrays

Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and betrays him with a what a kiss an expression of Love Walks up to him in the garden Master goes over to him and kisses him Jesus even remarked and says you betray the son of man with a kiss that was in sincere impure love so let's personalize it let's say you give a compliment to somebody a word of encouragement what could be better well did you really mean what you said or are you saying that because you want something from that person now it's impure now it's insincere when

you go up and hug a person is it because you're genuinely showing Brotherly Love or you want to get physically close to that person that's an insincere expression of Love Matthew Henry said hypocrisy is to do the devil's work in God's uniform so he says I'm praying for your love that it keep on growing and overflowing but not in a destructive way but within the banks of knowledge and discernment so that you can test it and approve that it's according to God's Will and word and so that it's the real de deal it is sincere

without wax and notice what else without offense until the day of Christ in other words the best testimony is a life that is a genuine authentic Christian Life without hypocrisy when you have a hypocrite showing impure love it brings the offense Factor front and center it turns everybody off so it would be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ so let's sum it up our love should be plentiful our love should be perceptive our love should be pure there's a fourth Mark and we'll close with this and with this last verse verse 11

our love should be purposeful you say well it sounds purpose purposeful so far why do you need another purpose because Paul always has a higher purpose and I want you to see what it is verse 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God what does all that mean it simply means this is the kind of love that is the fruit of righteousness by which God is glorified that's all it means so when our love abounds but it's kept within the banks of knowledge and

discernment it's a pure love God is glorified and that is by the way the purpose of all love the purpose of marital love or boyfriend girlfriend love or friendship love isn't just so you feel better the purpose of all love as a Christian is to glorify God you know how I know that because that's the purpose of all life all of life is to glorify God I exist to glorify God I do in Revelation 4 the 24 Elders bowed down saying for thy pleasure all things were created that's why I exist 1 Corinthians chapter 10

whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all for the glory of God last time I checked love is under the category of all whatever you do all things for the glory of God loving is under the category of all things whatever you do do all for the glory of God so now we have the ultimate test to know if this expression of our love is approved or not and it's simple does it glorify Jesus Christ if it does then everyone around us is going to be loved and we're going to stick out

like a sore thumb in this world we're going to be like that early church that the Spy came in and said my how they love him and my how they love one another because people just don't do that but when we do it with the responsible kind of mature love people feel loved around us cared for invested in secure and God gets the glory so to sum it all up our love should be growing our love should be knowing and our love should be showing you ever pray for love oh yeah I pray the people

will love me all the time no I mean do you pray for your own love for them that's what Paul is say I'm praying for your love for one another do you ever pray that your love would flow out because people around you would be soaked wonderfully soaked they get around you go man I'm all wet I'm soaked that iy love so much she loves so much and it's such an a pure Godly love I feel so cared for my challenge then as we close this week is that you be a person this week you

start praying praying for your love the expressions of your love to be mature like what we just prayed for I'm praying that for you this week I made that's my commitment as I pray for you this week and I'll pray for myself this kind of prayer and here's why we need to pray for it here's why Paul prays for it because you know I just want to bring this up because sometimes people go why did he pray for that of all the things to pray for why that well you know in the physical world we

have a law called the second law of thermodynamics and the second law of Thermodynamics basically states that all matter and all energy in the universe is subject to and in a constant state of entropy that is uh continual degradation ongoing deterioration decay in the spiritual life it's like there is a form of spiritual entropy that pulls us backwards so as we go through the day and through the week we get pulled back uh to um the values of this world the ideologies of this world expressed in their music their news articles their their um messaging

along the freeway our friends we get pulled back to it the only way to counteract that spiritual entropy is to be infusing oursel with new energy and so we get together a lot and that's why the book of Hebrews says Fellowship come to church a lot especially as you see the day of Christ approaching do it more often pray more often Bible study more often you need to counteract the spiritual entropy so I'm praying for you but I'm not praying for you like jiren Lowenstein said wherever you are in your car I'm praying for you

crash I'm praying for the long haul that your love your expression toward one another would be this kind of mature love is expressed in these four ways let's pray together father I thank you for this flock that is devoted to your word and is devoted to loving one another Beyond a superficial cliche kind of love that exists in so many places the world do f filled with the language and the songs of love with absolutely no idea what it even means this is what it means this is what it means and I pray Lord that

our love would grow and overflow abound more and more but Lord with an eposis a full knowledge and a discernment that would keep it within safe Expressions one that is pure authentic real and that ultimately would bring glory to you because of it Lord a special of thanks for our moms Lord who of all all people they come the closest I think to this kind of expression and I can say that um after not having my mom for seven years now I look back to those days of nurturing and counsel and that inexhaustible love that

was hers that happy face and those words of encouragement that were real lord I just thank you for our mothers who do exemplify this and I just pray for for them to be even more Godly and more steadfast and thank you for their energy and their time and their [Music] blessing Lord I pray that you'd strengthen them so that this next year is even better and may you bless all their trips to Walmart in Jesus name amen our love for one another can be renewed by prayer let us know how this message has encouraged you

to demonstrate love according to biblical standards email us at my story calvaryabq.org and remember you can impact lives when you give a financial gift to support this ministry at calvaryabq.org/giving for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Albuquerque