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October 16, 2019 1:00 am
Is is you believe correctly you cannot behave correctly.
So Paul is praying that we might possess the truth knowledge and that we might practice the truth. Discernment to the problem of the average Christian is that we don't know enough of the true so we don't want to apply the truth.
We know so the solution isn't just learning more. It's doing what we are learning more often. As Christians, our battle isn't usually trying to figure out what's right and what's wrong.
It's usually having the discipline to do what we know is right today.
Stephen Davies can apply that principle to love. We know that were to love one another, but it isn't always easy and we don't always succeed. Today Stevens going to take us to God's word and help us pursue real love. This is wisdom for the hearts were continuing through our series from the early verses of Philippians and Stevens calling today's lesson. All we need is real love, your Stephen with today's lesson from God. I have lived long enough to have outlived some faithful prayer warriors, people that once worshiped in here with this assembly, who said I'm praying for you and I knew the minute people with names like Brinker and Horace and Melba. The older you get, the more you realize how significant and precious. It is to know people who when they say to you going to pray for you. They mean for every believer. If you're sitting there thinking I wish I had somebody like that. Let me give you this wonderful promise that at least one person is praying for you every day with intensity and love. We have sung about him. His name is Jesus Christ. Paul would write in Romans eight that even now he stands at the right hand of God the father interceding for you. He is praying for you. He knows every need. He knows your name and he's interceding how wonderful is that but is wonderful.
In addition to that when somebody on the planet models the Savior somebody in your world may have the same cloth makes the same mistakes probably has similar needs needs the same grace says I'm praying for you every day. They put a face on interceding grace.
You can see how wonderful is that it occurs to me in this opening paragraph that Paul is putting flesh and blood behind his prayers. He's giving them a body and a face. He's putting a body and a face on the activity of Jesus Christ. First thing he does in Philippians chapter 1 as he begins his opening comments. In verse three is he tells them. Look, I'm praying for you and it's obvious he knows many of them by name thereon is prayerless is on already informed them there on his mind. Verse three is inform them there on his heart. Verse seven is effectively coming opposite what each of them by means of this letter and say I want you to know I am. I'm praying for you every day for the rest of my life and he means it, pick up the letter with me at verse eight he does something rare. Notice he says for God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. Paul is effectively making and to something he rarely did.
He wants to drive home their understanding of his intensity of his concern he he he says I'm calling God is my witness here how passionate is that the rights I yearn for you all. God is my witness, I yearn for you all with the affection that is the same affection of Christ Jesus same longing he has for you.
I have for you. I long for your best like Jesus longs for your best. That alone would be encouraging enough ordinate for them to receive this letter to hear this news is typically where prayer warrior will will will stop but not Paul mean most missionaries sent out prayer letters. My parents have done it now for 58 years so that their supporters can know how to pray for them. That's wonderful, Paul is sending this supporting church is prayerless so that they can know how he's praying for them is very unusual that for Paul. Paul is literally opening his prayer journal we showing them look this is this and this and this and this and that that that's exactly what I will longing to see happen in your life. These are the same things.
By the way that God longs to see happen and develop in your lives today, you could read this as it were.
From the very prayer list of Jesus Christ who does need a list being a mission you would find the same elements, though in his longing and affection for them. Paul implies it does any these deep longings I have for you originate in Jesus Christ. So if you want to know what Jesus might be praying for you this is it.
This is the prayer list. There are at least nine different elements on his heart for them there in Philippi and certainly on the heart of God for all of us will cover a few of them today and I want to recommend you circle or even right these prayer items into your own prayer list for family members believing friends for pastors, elders, those in the assembly teachers. Those that you know are influencers. Those who are surveying or volunteering. Pray for the entire church family and this manners, Paul is for the church in Philippi and and pray them for yourself.
If you want to know how to pray prayers for yourself that matter. Pray for these things. The first prayer request. Paul prays for with regard to the Philippian believers is their passion in life, the passion in life. Verse nine and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more the word abound in the present tense is progressing in its thought it's expressing the continual overflowing of your love this kind of love.is it like a tap, we turn on any turnoff. It isn't the kind of love that has some warm fuzzies might be here today and gone tomorrow.
It is the word agape for deep undying commitment. In other words, Paul is saying I'm praying every day for you that this kind of commitment will overflow the banks of your life and just sort of touch everybody want your life to become on Niagara Falls of rushing overflowing cascading commitment I'm going to point out here.
The fact that agape is no object.
In this text Paul isn't saying, praying that your your love for me may abound you can always expect and say that would be fine. He doesn't even say that your love for God will abound, or your love for each other or your love for your family or your love for the world or your love for the word may abound doesn't specify the object of love, which means Paul could actually be implying that all the above would be true in other was in every dimension of life that first prayer request is sorted and all of me when you go from there. If you really love God. If you really love each other if it if the overflow of your life. Is this kind of commitment I made that that just kinda cover everything. Wouldn't you then as you go through the lesson when you when you be pure and holy and blameless in looking for the day of Christ and and and fruitful and praising of God is he is he includes in his listening listening we love each other and God in the word in the world.
As Paul is going to exhort the Philippian believers often is not just kinda cover everything depends how you define love Paul is referring to the kind of overflowing commitment that takes up residence that has no back door that settles in the family or relationship or a church rose up its sleeve endures the heat of disciplines and discipleship and servant hood. Paul is very aware that if he simply tells us to effectively abound in our passionate love commitment to God and others we might come up with a variety of our own misconceptions so EV basically adds to his prayer list. Some things that take us a little deeper in defining love and life for that matter. Paul not only praise here for the believers passion in life is going to also pray for the progress in life pulses. Notice I'm praying for your love to abound more and more now notice this with knowledge you got to understand that the right kind of love.
If you gonna call it love the word used for knowledge is used without exception. In the New Testament for spiritual issues. The knowledge of God the knowledge of truth and knowledge of doctrine.
Technology comes from the study of God's word so it is knowledge that we are gathering based not on what we feel, but on what God said. In other words, Paul wants these believers to learn more about God.
Spiritual knowledge about him, about one another about truth and if they do their gonna love him deeper are we to love each other differently ardently.
It'll be much more gracious and it'll be richer and deeper. Paul is also saying to the Philippians effectively on longing for you all to develop in the knowledge of what love is not just whatever you think. Love might be what other people call love. I want you to have true knowledgeable spiritually originating from God love which would mean that love is blind. It's actually learning with its eyes open, which is why Paul naturally follows up the idea of overflowing love with the idea love being defined by biblical knowledge and this is beyond love this would this would extrapolate out into all of life, but certainly love listen no matter what your feelings tell you no matter what your culture approves or applauds no impulse. No inner feeling or passion that leads you to violate God's definition of love can be blessed by God. No matter how convinced you are that God is blessing you true love does not argue with the truth about love that comes from the creator of love towards any so-called love that denies God's word isn't Islam. God's word by the way condemned so much of what is called love today. Sexual activity that beyond love expressed between a husband and a wife for that bed is undefiled. Hebrews 13 for anything beyond that is masquerading as love, now we know that objectively we know because it is a lot that goes beyond the boundary of knowledgeable love communicated by God's word, eat it, it might be called love like in Paul's day might be called storage, which is a love strong familial Lord, family, feelings, it might be fully love of deep affection and commonality popular in Paul's day, it might be Eros. No doubt the most the most highly prized word in Paul's day, a love bound by, driven by sexual desire is were extremely popular concepts. For this idea of love, Paul uses agape here in this text is the highest form of commitment and fidelity, which then serves as a boundary for allowable sexual intimacy and family commitment and even deep affection she Paul knew that the Philippian culture would know all about Eros word never used in the New Testament. He knew that that world would know all about the concepts of fully and Stargate that have their benefits. See most people forget that the Paul would understand these expressions. In fact, most people think.
Paul lived in a day when I guess you drag women around by the hair back in the Stone Age. He would never have been the idea of a sophisticated culture like ours. Listen.
Our world is becoming more and more like the world he knew all the time. Adultery the acceptance of mistresses.
Polygamy, pornography, homosexuality and promiscuity.
One night stands between virtual strangers, all kinds of fornication. All of these sexual experiences and experiments were applauded by the Roman Empire. Paul doesn't stick his head in the sand either.
He knew his generation in the spirit of God through him would have to learn the boundaries of a kind of a love that secular writers sort of welding and little love. Aristotle considered copy to be cold and lifeless word. One of the primary reasons you have little use of agape by secular writers in Paul's day is because they would choose these other concepts with more fire and interest in personal gratification. You come to the New Testament, in the word agape is used over 300 times. It's the word used to describe God's love for the world for God so loved the world, agape John 316.
Agape is used to describe a husband's love for his wife and Christ's love for the church in Ephesians 5. Husband love agape your wives as Christ loved the church. It's the word used to describe God's love for the sinner. Romans 58 even while we were in the act of sinning, God showed his love for us. Romans 58 agape is the word used of God's love for the believer. Romans 835 what one can separate us from the love of God answer nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Romans 839 listen. The truth is left alone left without knowledge I can come up with all kinds of conceptions about love and feel incredibly passionate and convinced regarding I might even think that God is blessing at iPad couples in my office who told me Stephen we know were not married and were living in fornicating sin, but we have never felt God's blessing like we feel it now.
We pray together we read the Bible together see that their love is not according the knowledge the knowledge of God's word. Paul understood we would have to enter all nature will become the faith in Christ. We we would have to be re-taught our nature would have to relearn it would have to to reconstruct to redefine now that we been forgiven. What love is. Much of what we been forgiven of.
Because our lives revolve around relationships have been in loving the wrong way. The wonder Paul is straining forward and praying that these believers and certainly believers today am praying he effectively says with every ounce of strength I have every fiber in my being that you will progress in the knowledge that you will learn how to love and how to live according to biblical truth. Thirdly, Paul is also praying not only met her passionate life and the progress alive is also praying for the practice in life. He becomes even more specific how they can handle daily issues and pressures of life.
Biblically, Paul writes look at verse nine. One more time is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge not making up yourself. According to God's word and all discernment here is his third prayer request for us to be discerning.
There is ever a day when we need to be discerning. It is the day wasn't mean to be discerning when word used by Paul never again appears in the New Testament. It's the word I say, since it gives us our word transliterated aesthetics sensitivities sensibilities.
It's a word that broadly refers to that to the application of biblical knowledge which makes sense, then in Paul's progressing prayer list oppose praying they'll learn biblical principle and from that little practice.
The truth is, unless you believe correctly you you cannot behave correctly.
So Paul is praying that we might possess the truth knowledge and that we might practice the truth. Discernment to the problem of the average Christian is that we don't know enough of the true that we don't want to apply the truth we know. So the solution isn't just learning more. It's doing what we are learning more often. One commentator writes this word for discernment refers to a high level of biblical moral and spiritual perception, and implies the right application of God's revelation, which then produces holy living. I think perhaps the best synonym for us to have one more hook to hang your hat on with this word discernment might be the word insight insight even as this word appears one time in the New Testament it appears in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, it appears 22 times in the book of Proverbs go dig in there sometime. There 31 chapters read a chapter a day. Over the course of a month and you will be introduced over and over again to men and women in situations that are demonstrating the practicing of knowledge there demonstrating practical truth and living it out.
Living for things that count things. The last policy and what you only learn what you live. I don't want to just possess truth.
I want you to practice the truth when John Wesley went away to study at Oxford in June 1970 20 is godly mother. Susanna wrote in one of her letters to him.
Whatever weekend is your reason impairs the tenderness of your conscience obscures your sense of God or takes away the delight for spiritual things.
Whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind that thing is sin.
This was her prayer list for her son.
I'm praying that nothing will be allowed by you which would weaken your reason.
Impair the tenderness of your conscience obscures your sense of God or take away the delight for spiritual things or increase the authority of your body over your mind. Quite a prayer listed as the prayer list here or the start of it for you and for me close with this interview between Johnny Erickson totter and world magazine year ago. She's lived as a quadriplegic for 45 years now. Testimony is encouraged.
Everyone of us who know anything about it. She reflected in this interview some things I wasn't aware of, but she talked about her life before this diving accident.
She said this is a 14-year-old I embraced Jesus as my Savior. But I had confused the abundant Christian life with the Great American dream. She said I was planning to make good grades get voted captain of the hockey team go to college Mary a wonderful man and a $250,000 a year and we have 2.5 children.
It was all me focus.
What can God do for me.
I was thought that I've done God a great big favor by except in my boyfriend and I were doing things together that we knew were sinful. In April 1967 she says in this interview I came home from an immoral Friday night date and convicted I cried out.
Oh God, I am sustaining your reputation by saying I'm a Christian you doing one thing Friday night and another thing on Sunday morning. I am a hypocrite and I want you to change my life to something in my life that will jerk it right side up, because I'm making a mess of my faith. I don't want that.
I want to glorify you. She says three months later I had the diving accident which left me paralyzed from the neck down. In this interview she says immediately after the accident and for some time. I told God, you will never be trusted with another one of my prayers. But after struggling with anguish and anger wanting to die wanting to die, hating my condition. Johnny said I finally prayed one short prayer that changed my life. It was simply this.
Oh God if I can die. Show me how to live. She says that was probably the most powerful prayer I had ever prayed the prayer. Paul is praying them I would be the prayer of Christ for us to overflow in love, progress in learning, biblical truth about love and life to practice applying what work learning I can put more simply, this way Paul is fervently praying the Lord teach them how to love. Teach them what they need to know so they can know how they will love knowledge and insight kind of life that lives ultimately with prayer or love the price to listening to Stephen Davey, our Bible teacher here on wisdom for the heart were currently in a series from the book of Philippians called to the citizens of heaven. Today's lesson is entitled. All you need is real love if it would help you to be able to listen to this message again.
We've posted it to our website which is wisdom online.org there's much more to the ministry of wisdom for the heart than these lessons we have Bible study guides that you could use in a class or for personal study, we have other books and materials, please visit that website wisdom online.org the resource that were featuring this month is Stephen's commentary through the entire book of Philippians. This is the latest volume in our wisdom commentary series and it would make a great addition to your library of biblical resources. Call us at 86 648 Bible. That's 866-482-4253. Our staff can give you information over the phone and help you get this brand-new resource entitled Philippians the ministry of wisdom for the heart is made possible by the support we receive from our listeners, and we be grateful if you can make a donation.
This working to bring you the final lesson in this series tomorrow.
So join us at this same time here on wisdom for the heart