Phil 1:9-11
A Pastor’s Prayer
Every prayer is important. Every prayer should be offered with a
heart's desire and the postmark of God's glory. But I especially
enjoy studying Paul's prayers for they teach us about what both God
and Paul desired for his people.
Let's note some things from Paul's prayer.
I. \\#9\\ "that you love may abound yet more and more"
A. Paul liked the word abound. He used it 13 times in his
epistles.
B. The idea I see in this phrase is similar to what our neighbors
are experiencing with Hurricane Dorian.
1. As a hurricane spins, it sends out bands of wind and rain.
2. These bands spiral further and further out from the center
depending on how strong the storm is.
3. That is what Paul desired for the love of the Philippians.
4. That their love would reach out further and further.
C. There are three earthly targets our love needs to reach.
1. Love for the lost
2. Love for the body
a. Fulfilling Paul’s desire for these two groups is
pretty much done the same way.
(1) Regardless of whether we are loving the lost or
the saved, we do the same things.
(2) We find someone, love someone, and then do it
again.
(3) The more people we find to love, the further our
bands are reaching.
(4) The more we love the people we find, the stronger
our bands of love are.
(5) It is not hard to love people although it may be
hard for you to love people.
b. While the actions of love are the same, the goal is
different.
(1) We love the lost to win them to Christ.
(2) We love the saved to help them grow in Christ.
3. Love for our mates:
a. Love for the lost and even love for the body is very
different than love for a mate.
(1) Love should be solid, stable, steadfast, and
permanent.
1Cor 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth….
(2) Love for the lost and the saved need not be so
binding as love for a mate.
b. However for many, love for their mate does not seem to
be strong and abiding.
(1) Their love and their concept of love both seem
fickled.
(2) You can tell that even by their terminology:
(a) They "fall" in love.
(b) They experience "love at first sight."
(3) You can also tell it by how quickly they fall OUT
of love.
c. Some helps:
(1) Love is an emotion, and God gave us emotions to
help us but not to control us.
(a) If you are "falling" in love, love is
controlling you not helping you.
(b) There is no problem in being strongly
attracted to the person you want to love,
but don’t blindly fall into love because of
an attraction you feel.
(2) Love should never travel alone.
(a) Love has to ride with some compadres or else
love will fail.
(b) Love must ride with the Word of God.
(c) Love must ride with kindness.
(d) Love must ride with forgiveness.
d. If you will start with a right understanding of love,
your love for your mate can also be a love that
abounds yet more and more.
II. \\#10\\ "Approve the things that excellent"
A. The word "approve" means "to seek out and to test."
B. It implies three things:
1. Some things are better than others.
2. We should be looking for the best.
3. We should be testing to be sure we have the best.
C. Five rules for wise decisions:
1. God over man
2. Eternity over immediacy
3. Obedience over desire
4. Love over lust
5. Joy over pleasure
D. Lessons to help you in that arena:
1. God over man:
a. God’s desires our better than ours.
b. Our desires are based on carnal delights.
c. God’s desires are based on eternal benefits.
2. Eternity over immediacy:
a. God’s priorities will always be on what is best for
our eternity, never our immediacy.
b. Judas, Demas, Balaam, Demetrius, Pharaoh - All made
decisions based on the immediate and all lost out on
the eternal.
c. Peter, Paul, Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel - All
made decisions based on eternity.
3. Obedience over desire
a. Most choices are not between right and wrong or good
and evil.
b. They are between good and right. Some would say
between good and best.
c. Always take the right.
4. Concerning both "Love over lust" and "Joy over pleasure."
a. Both love and joy are spiritual qualities.
b. Both lust and pleasure are carnal qualities.
c. I could have said spiritual over carnal but I thought
the two qualities were worth breaking a part.
d. While lust and pleasure may have a place within a
married couples’ relationship, they are temporal and
when fed too much, they will always cause long term
harm.
e. Everything that is carnal must be done in moderation.
Philippians 4:5 Let your moderation be known
unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
III. \\#10\\ "That ye may be sincere and without offense"
A. To be SINCERE is "to be pure and unsullied."
1. We think of it as being an emotion as in EARNEST or
DETERMINED.
2. In the Greek, it is a "condition" or "a state of being."
a. Strong’s defined it as "being found pure or clean
when unfolded and examined by the sun’s light."
b. Over the last month or so, it seems each Sunday
morning when I go around to let my wife out of the
car, she sees something on my pants—and its always
in the most awkward places.
(1) Have you ever tried to look at your backside
without a mirror?
(2) I have not seen myself doing it but I image I
look a bit like a dog chasing its tail.
(3) The strange thing is that my wife can spot a spot
from 30 yards off when I getting out of the car
or preaching, but walking around the house, she
doesn’t see it.
(4) I expect it has something to do with the
brightness of the light.
(5) When you live in a dim environment, you can’t
see the spots of discoloration.
(6) We live in a dim and dark world that keeps us
from seeing the spots of sin in our life.
(7) Paul was praying that we would see ourselves in
the light that God is going to examine us in.
c. In (2008), the year Sarah Palin ran with John McCain
as his potential Vice President, Newsweek put her on
the cover of their magazine.
(1) I suppose she knew they were going to do it,
although I don’t really know that for certain.
(2) However, the photo they used was of her out
jogging - little make-up, hot, working out—
and they did not do any touch up on the picture.
(3) Some were not happy that this was done and a bit
of a flap erupted over it. (I trust that is
not what cost the McCain/Palin ballot the
election but you never know these days!)
d. We need to understand that when we stand before God,
there will be no touch up work. God will use a
light that sees all.
B. But Paul’s request also included that they might not have any
offense toward God, UNTIL Jesus comes.
1. To have no offense means to have no sin against them.
2. However, Paul does not say that they would have no offense
WHEN Jesus comes, but that they would have no offence
UNTIL Jesus comes.
a. The way to have no sin WHEN Jesus comes is to confess
often.
b. The way to have no sin UNTIL Jesus comes is to live
clean every moment of every day.
IV. \\#11\\ "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness"
A. The fruits of righteousness are the unique spiritual qualities
which we cannot produce in ourselves. They must be produced
by God.
B. I don’t suppose this is an unlimited list of qualities, but it
is a large list.
1. We can start it with those gifts listed as the fruits of
the Holy Spirit:
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is
no law.
a. Love - The ability to feel about people the way God
feels about them.
(1) "God is Love" - 1John 4:8, 16
(2) Love comes from God. The best we can do is to
catch a little bit of it and reflect it toward
someone else.
b. Joy - When the spirit is happy. Joy is to the spirit
what happiness is to the mind and body.
c. Peace - Lack of strife and struggle.
d. Longsuffering - The ability to suffer over a long
period of time.
e. Gentleness - To have a soft touch on others.
f. Goodness
(1) According to Jesus, only God is good.
Mark 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? there is none good but one, that
is, God.
(2) I don’t think you can define goodness with a
single quality.
(3) Goodness is a collection of gracious attributes
showered on others. (kindness, gentleness,
compassion, longsuffering, helpfulness,
thoughtfulness, and many others)
g. Faith - The ability to see the reality of God’s world.
h. Meekness - Having the power and authority to right a
wrong against you but not doing so.
i. Temperance - Self control
2. However, there are more fruits of a righteous life.
a. Prayer
b. Bible study
c. Wisdom - Seeing things from God’s prospective
d. Understanding - The ability to see the cause and
effect relationship.
e. Boldness - The courage to speak for right
f. Worship which would include adoration, praise,
thanksgiving.
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