[Music] howdy welcome to the breakaway podcast thanks for joining us as we study the book of Philippians for more information on break away visit breakaway ministries org we hope you enjoy the talk and stick around for more at the end [Music] tonight scripture is Philippians 1 verse 9 through 11 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 Jesus filled with the righteousness that comes through heart Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God well the vast majority of people on the planet pray surveys show that constantly 6 out of 10 Americans say that they pray every single day and so all of us say that do you pray yes the vast majority of us would say yes I pray my question tonight is about what when you pray what do you say is it usually around meals you say things like lord thank you for this food may it nourish our bodies even though you never used the word nourish anywhere else in the day and aren't even sure exactly what you're asking him to do to the food or that it wouldn't nourish you anyway I don't know I don't know just do it is that what you do do you pray for just help with circumstances god help me with this test help me get through this situation help this person like me help this person to leave me alone like what do you pray about I would guess for most of us it's about circumstances things like that an illness of a friend or something in our life that's we want to see change and that's not a bad thing but what I want to show you tonight is a prayer that is applicable across all circumstances a prayer that if we could get around praying for ourselves or praying for our friends it's the kind of thing that if God would bring forth in your life you could endure and excel in any circumstance I mean I was reading through this and thinking through the implications of it and I'm like I can't think of a better prayer to pray for you and so I almost titled this message the ultimate prayer and then I thought well there's the Lord's Prayer and it's hard to say a prayer that the Lord prayed is like number two I feel like he's going to hold the number one spot so it feels weird to call this the second most ultimate prayer in the Bible but maybe that's what it is maybe it's the absolute best prayer I could think of Paul could think of to pray for his people and that I could pray over you tonight and you could pray for yourself tonight or for your friends that's the prayer we're looking at and it has kind of a little five-step movement to it of what Paul prays over his people and what we're praying over you tonight and so I want to just walk you through the steps and Lord willing you'll see it and see the beauty of it but he starts in verse 9 and Paul says and it's my prayer that your love may abound more and more and I love that because where he starts is what he prays for his people and what we're praying for you tonight is for your love it met amazing he doesn't pray about their circumstance he says I'm praying for your love have you ever done that for a friend can you imagine what they would feel like if someone just said hey man I was just praying tonight about your affections what you care about are your capacity to feel that's what Paul prays for we pray for their love and so for the first thing that that shouts to us tonight that I hope you hear is that God cares about your affections that your affections matter to God and I say that because for me I don't know about you but I think for some of us in here tonight maybe you grew up like I did where you thought really all God cares about is what you do and that doesn't really care much about what's going on in your heart for me for years I remember there was a popular illustration that was used to describe the Christian life and it was the picture of a train and the idea of the trains they don't have they the engine of the train they would call the facts the facts of the gospel and then the second car was the car they called faith and the point was they were saying that what matters is that the facts of the gospel that you believe him you have faith and then there was a third car called feelings and they would say your feelings don't really matter to the rest of this train what matters is the facts of the gospel and that you believe them and your feelings are the caboose they're just sort of the ending and and what they were trying to say in that illustration was a good thing the point of the illustration was your feelings may go up and down in a given day you might be having a great morning and you know God loves me and then she breaks up with you and you say oh it's darkness right and what they're saying is regardless of where your feelings go God is unchanging and when you trust in him you're his that was the point of the illustration now that's a good point where I misunderstood it was I kept hearing your feelings of the caboose your feelings are at the end and what I understood it was and how you feel doesn't really matter to God and so what I did in my broken understanding as a kid was saying what God cares about is believe the right thing and do the right thing and I don't really care how you feel about it and then we would sing these songs it was popular to say love is a verb don't you ever heard that songs kind of old people would say that a lot love is a verb love is a verb and what they meant by that is love doesn't really matter about what you feel love is about what you do so I don't care if you say you love me what I care about is action so love is taking out the trash love is feeding me when I'm hungry love is picking me up when I'm stranded somewhere love is showing up when I need you to show up it's what you do right but as I hear that I go no no that's not love picking up the trash is picking up the trash coming to pick me up when I'm stranded is picking me up when I'm stranded calling me on the phone is calling me on the phone that's not love love can be a driver of those things love can be a motivation of those things those things aren't love but they're vehicles through which love can be expressed so love is expressed through what we do but love is not those things love is the motive behind what we do and the motive matters it matters to God and it matters to us we all know that the motives behind what someone does for you matters to you so ladies let's say a guy finds out that you have a favorite restaurant okay and what if he takes you to that restaurant oh my gosh your favorite restaurant Thursday night he takes you there you show up there and you're both there he initiated he called you he brought you their favorite restaurant amazing dessert this is happening and you sit there but the whole time he's just kind of doing this it's kind of looking around disengaged checking his phone and so you ask him the obvious question so what are we doing here tonight is this a special thing why did you want to bring me here tonight and what if he said I don't know I mean I just thought I was supposed to I mean you like this place and so uh I just want to make you feel good so I decided we get it over with and then I'd go do something else do you go oh that is so great no that's a bad motive and that bad motive messes up even the thing itself even the restaurant so your favorite dessert you're like I don't you want to eat this because it's tainted with hate right and you're like I can't do this because the motive matters and let me tell you something it matters to God God cares about not just the things you do he cares about what you love he cares about your heart and so Jesus is asked what's the greatest commandment he says to love God and to love people because that matters to God how you feel about him he wants to appeal to your understanding and he wants to move your affections it's interesting back in the day in America a Great Awakening broke out in the 1700s a great interest in spiritual things in our country people coming around the Bible and wanting to learn and like all great spiritual movements whenever God is really working crazy moves in next door and so some people to show that they really cared about God we're doing crazy things they were climbing trees and barking like dogs and stuff like that and people were like is that what it really means to know God like how do I am I supposed to bark like a dog to show that I love them like what do I do and and have those things now you know like if you really love God you raise your hands and worship and not just during the bridge but the chorus and if you really love even in the verses your hands are up and you're like so wait how much wouldn't win am i good and we measured by what we do but Jonathan Edwards was a pastor at the time and was just trying to study how do you know you really are doing what God wants what God desires and what he said was true religion consists in holy affections what you do but what you do driven by how you feel what's happening in your heart do you love him do you love God rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice that's in Psalm Aaron Philippians God called you to rejoice in him right Peter felt the same way Peter said though you've not seen him speaking of God you love him though you do not see him now you believe in him and you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible that's the life of the Christian that I do believe write things about him and as I believe write things about him it stirs my affections for him God cares about how you feel and so when Paul is praying for us he says I'm praying for your love I'm praying you'd love God more and I'm praying that love for God would spill out into love for people it matters but here's what's crazy about it he doesn't just pray about your heart he says I pray that your love would have bound more and more but he doesn't just say that your love would abound in intensity that you'd get super fired up that you don't even know what to do with yourself he says I pray your love would abound more and more with knowledge that's the second piece he says I pray your love would grow would overflow the banks with knowledge that is with data with facts he says I'm praying that you haven't informed love which is interesting because normally when we talk about love when we want to talk about its intensity we contrast it with thinking right which I oh it's crazy crazy love it's mad love the crazy things he'll do for love I just climbed the water tower I don't know painted her name on it come on so much right and we just talked about love as if the true expression of love is doing stuff that's nuts right and yet here Paul prays I'm praying for a love that's more informed a love that grows in its knowledge which makes sense if you think about it because love always seeks more knowledge about the beloved knowledge fuels the affections you see it even an attraction even when it's not full-blown love like what do you dudes is walk into West Campus what happens some cute girl walks by and says howdy to you you might go howdy and then go I wonder if I'll ever see her again Lord may it be and you walk that same time down that same road every single day hoping for another connection right or if you're a little more proactive she's cute she's attractive she says howdy and you go howdy drop what I'm doing and well could this Wayne go excuse me um I'm super lost can you help me find where are you going the MSC yes the MSC where is that I'm totally lost I'll follow you okay so tell me about um your life and what you're looking for in a mate right and you just seek to know her our girls you like some guy what's gonna happen if you like him you don't go oh that's weird and then live your life you start seeking him out online you start finding out what he's into you start showing up where his classes are even though you have no classes in that building and he's like what are you doing in Zachary I thought you were a communications major and you're like I just heard y'all had a great snack bar and that's about me tell me about your dreams and what you are looking for right and affection seek information they do and Paul is praying for a very natural thing he's saying I'm praying that your love for God would grow in knowledge you'd have an informed love I read a book on fire a couple years ago yes I read a book on fire a couple years ago and they were talking about forest fires and how they go really crazy I mean really burn hod and spread the biggest record-breaking forest fires it says they have three things that form a perfect triangle they call it the fire triangle you need heat the heat from the flame then you need fuels logs sticks leaves anything that'll burn and you need wind wind to blow it to stir up the coals to keep it going to make it burn hotter and when you get those three things it creates a feedback loop that just builds the fire in its intensity and can I tell you what Paul is praying for for you is that when God moves into your life and shows you Jesus Christ and how beautiful he is God likes a fire in your heart of affections for him how do you know you know Christ you believe the right things about him and you love him it stirs your affections for him and then his call his prayer is that on to the fire in the heat of our affections logs of information would be thrown that you would take knowledge data the Bible truths about God and throw it into your heart so that as you understand more things about our Savior your passion for him grows and then as you pray a Holy Spirit of God wind of God blow that as I read this word I don't want it to just be dry dusty words I want you to take it and breathe it into my soul that is the wind of God blows through the heart of my soul where I have packed in the knowledge of God that the fire would it blow up and explode and spread through my life and into all those people that I influence that into our affections the fuel of knowledge would go and let me just tell you something for some of you you're wondering if you love God at all or if he matters and let me tell you some of you are maybe stressed out in college because you grew up in church and yet you're sitting here in college and going I don't feel any affections for God I don't feel any passion for God I don't feel any desire to meet with God well there could be different things for that and there's different sermons that could address that but can I tell you one thing it might be one thing it might be is that you just haven't thrown any fuel on the fire in a long time and I want to challenge you get into the Word of God to get to know him you might have hung out in the house of God for years but never taken the time to know him that could be your problem for me I grew up with an older brother and a younger sister and I knew my little sister but I didn't hang out with her not really not that much and I remember it was weird like right after I went to college like freshman year college I remember visiting my house and my sister was in high school and I remember we were both in the kitchen and we started talking to each other and I remember thinking in my mind well I'm like saying things and you're saying things back that are interesting and makes sense and I remember it struck me as profound at the moment I'm like oh you're you're like a person I really thought that and I'm like that's so interesting cuz I just kind of saw you as sort of this just unfortunate necessity you just also live here and but we're talking and I'm like you're like a human being and then I went was that a. m. she came to him and we started to hang out an a.
m. and I got to know her in this new way not just that she had changed but I had changed I was an adult now it's called shoot and I'm sitting there talking to her and I realized as we were both in college oh not only are you a person you're actually a cool person you're actually like a cool person to hang out with and then I remember as time went on Akash I was like you're actually like one of the coolest people I know like this is weird I'm like if I have a preference I'd rather hang out with you I remember by the end of college I just remember thinking my my little sister is my best friend I love being with her I love hanging out with her I'm like that's so weird we were in the same house for years and I couldn't be bothered and some of you have maybe been hanging out in Christian environments for years but the honesty is you personally never taken the time to get to know him but you're an adult now you're in college you have the Word of God you have amazing churches and ministries on campus take the time to throw into the flickering flame of your heart fuel of the knowledge of God in its word because it's knowledge that fuels the affections that's what we need and that's what Paul prays for and yet some of you hear this and go well Ben this can't be it learn things about God so I can love God more but isn't a lot of the Bible about what we're supposed to do like aren't we supposed to do stuff when does that come in that it changed our life will Paul prays that our love would abound in knowledge and in discernment discernment discernment is the capacity to understand a situation and know how to respond to it discernment is taking information and turning it into good decisions its tact knowing how to respond so Paul prays I want your love to grow in knowledge and discernment so that you may approve what is excellent that word approve means to test or examine and then find something to be good Paul says I'm praying that God would give you information but not just information but capacity the capacity to look at things in life and to see the most excellent beautiful things and for you to discern that they really are good and they really are best and then it says so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ Jesus he's saying I'm praying that your love would get smarter and get wiser so you would see the best things to do and then do them I'm praying that you'd have an informed love and a wise love so you could have an active love that leads a beautiful life that's what he's praying for that as I understand more about God I look out at the world and I discern what's the best thing to do and I want to do those things so that when he returns that's the day of Christ I'm pure and blameless I'm doing the things he loves not out of grudging submission to him but because I want to I want to do what he loves coz I love him and he loves what I'm doing so when he shows up he loves what I'm doing and we celebrate I'm praying for a discerning love so I can do what he loves someone he sees me he's thrilled I'm thrilled and we win he's saying that's the kind of love I want for you discerning love that I can see what he loves and live my life doing that it's funny that in the movies and on TV we tend to idolize young love like that's the pinnacle the intensity of initial attraction but what's funny about that is in real life when you first love somebody even when you're first married you don't know him that well you don't and so love has capacity to grow much deeper the more you're informed about the person you love and you discern what they really like so when I first married Donna I knew I loved her I knew I picked the right woman to marry but I didn't know a lot of things about her I didn't know a lot about what she loved I bought her like one of our first gift her was like a board game that she never opened it stayed in the packaging till we gave it away right I saw the other day a watch I bought her that she doesn't ever wear because she doesn't wear watches she never wore watches and I just didn't really clue into that but now years into marriage I know we're better and I can discern better what she likes and so I was interesting when Christmas was coming up I was traveling with a college student that was dating a girl and we were talking about what we were gonna get our girls right and we were at this store and he was like maybe while we're at this store we were at a j.
