Untitled Sermon (3)

Call To Worship Scripture:

Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

I. The Prayer (v. 9).

A. For love:

1. In knowledge.

2. In discernment.

II. The Purpose of the Prayer (vv. 10).

A. Excellence (v. 10).

1. Pure

2. Blameless

B. Production. (v.11).

1. “Filled with the fruits of righteousness.”(Good works)

2. Glory

So two weeks ago we learned about “Paul’s Specific and Great Joy in Christ and Brian discussed Pauls confidence of the Lords work in beginning and perfecting a good work in you.

As Paul’s thoughts from his prison cell drifted toward Philippi as he wrote, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all.

Paul’s deep thanksgiving for the Philippian church then evoked “Paul’s Joyful Affection,” in verses 7, 8. Though the apostle was in chains in Rome his heart wasn’t chained, and it was in his unfettered heart that Paul held every last one of the Philippians—at the very center of his being. Paul’s oath, “For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus” (v. 8) was a declaration that the very affection of Christ himself was controlling him. This affection would demonstrate his great enthusiasm and again later in 4:1 when he called them “my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown.”

Now, having the breadth of Paul’s joy and thanksgiving for the Philippians before us, along with the depth of Paul’s amazing affection, we come to Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers in verses 9–11. Here Paul builds on the mention of his joyful prayer in verse 4 and makes prayer the rising emotional climax to his introduction. Paul’s opening words—“And it is my prayer”—informed the Philippians, and us, that this is how and what Paul prayed when he prayed for them.

This brief text is both humbling and elevating. That is what it has been for me. Do we pray like this? Have we ever prayed like this? Paul tells us that there are things more important than our day-to-day needs.

He ties his prayer directly to spiritual need. That was his passion and that was his burden. Paul was compelled to pray because of the tremendous working of God’s Spirit in his heart. And may the Spirit do a similar work in our hearts today.

Let us pray.

The scripture we will be looking at today is English Standard Version (ESV)

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Lets Look at how he begins in verse 9. “And this I pray.”

First of all, I would say that prayer is a duty. In fact, in Philippians, chapter 4, verse 6, it says, “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” That’s a command which therefore That is a duty. That is a spiritual responsibility. In , it says we are to be devoted to prayer. In , we are to pray fervently for one another in terms of expressing our love, which is to be a fervent love. So there is no question that Scripture teaches us that we must pray. How are you doing in the duty of prayer?

But there’s a deeper passion than that that must go alongside that duty, The absolute deepest longings of a Spirit-filled heart supernaturally flow out in prayer.

Prayer is something that compels us from deep within and It’s generated by the Holy Spirit within us. The measure of a our spirituality –is not how well we conform to the demand to pray, but how internally compelled we are to pray, simply because our passion for others in God’s Kingdom is so strong. It’s a heart issue.

The deepest longings of your heart will come out in your prayers. So if you look at your prayers and they’re all about you, and your needs, and your problems, and your questions, and your struggles, then that’s where your heart is. And if you pray very infrequently, and very briefly, and very shallow, that means that you have a cold heart. All the calls to conform to the duty of prayer cannot overcome a cold heart. So if you do not pray, it is not simply disobedience, it is that you’re selfish and the heart is cold.

You look at the apostles in , and it says, “We will give ourselves continually to the ministry of the word and prayer” – literally, the other way around, to prayer and the ministry of the word. That was their heart passion. They were compelled to teach the Word and They were compelled to pray. This can only happen in regenerate followers of Christ.

Lets look at the nature of Pauls prayer? Look back at verses 9 to 11. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

As he prays for the deep spiritual pursuit of his people –what were the issues on his heart? we find five things for which he prays: love, excellence, integrity(pure and blameless), fruit/good works, and glory. He prays that they may pursue those things.

Love produces excellence produces integrity produces good works produces glory; they’re each one laying a foundation for the next one. Think on these as the essentials to sound spiritual health. Essentials to Christlikeness, spiritual growth and sanctification.

1. again verse 9, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.”

Lets turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 together, says, Read all of this There were many great spiritual virtues; faith was one, and hope was one, but the greatest is love. And since love is the greatest thing, we shouldn’t be surprised that this is at the front of his prayer for those who would grow in Christ to spiritual maturity.

in , he says love is the bond of unity; love is that unique bond that ties us to one another. It is the most essential factor in spiritual life, are you getting that? Because no matter what you do, no matter what you know, no matter how sacrificial you are, even if you give your body to be burned, if you have not love you are – what? Nothing – absolutely nothing!

Now, he is then asking God for this love to abound; abound means to be filled. therefore, we would say that God is the source of it, and therefore, it’s a divine love. In , “The fruit of the Spirit is love,” and everything else flows out of love – “joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control.” But it’s a gift of God. We love Him because He what? He first loved us. tells us that the Love of Christ Controls us. His love compels us. That’s a Spirit wrought passion and desire right there.

Now We’re not talking about an emotion or a feeling although It is not without feeling or emotion. But that is not its definition

This divine love that Paul is praying from and for is not the result of an emotional attraction. How do we know this? Because God didn’t love us because we were so attractive. That’s not the point at all. He’s not asking you to stir up your human love or affection, he’s not asking the Philippians to try to be more emotional or more sensitive to people. He is asking God to grant them more and more abounding love from His own resource.

Notice again in verse 9, “And this I pray, that your love may abound.” The fact that he says your love may abound indicates that they already have some love, and he’s calling for a greater maturity of that love. They have divine love, as in , “The love of God is shed abroad in your hearts.” It’s already there Christian. It’s not a question of acquiring it; it’s a question of seeing God increase it. Every believer possesses divine love.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

So please God give me a greater measure, a greater abounding of the love which is already mine.”

and 35 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Divine love is the love of will. It is the love of choice. It is the love that says, “I will love you whether you’re my friend or my enemy, I will love you whether you do good or evil, I will love you whether you can give me anything or take away everything, I will love you.” And Jesus defined it when He said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man would lay down his life for his friends.” This love chooses to love the unlovable, the unlovely, It’s not the love of a feeling; it’s the love of action.

If you go back and look at , the greatest chapter in the Bible on love, love is described as “Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, love does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Every single one of those is a verb in the Greek. Love is an action. Love is a series of actions. It is what you do, not what you feel or according to how you feel. It is the love that reaches out to meet a need of your brother and sister but also your neighbor.

And Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” so then “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus told the story about a man lying in a road with a need, and said, “That’s your neighbor. Anybody you come across with a need.” This is the love of the will. This is character that says, “No matter what you do, who you are, I will sacrificially serve for your good and your blessing.” This should be distinguishing mark of the church. Its completely so different from the world. The world’s love is totally the love of impulse and emotional attraction. It knows very little about the love of the will. Even at its most philanthropic point, it plays on the emotion.

So let your love be controlled by Scripture. You can’t say, “Well, I tried to love them but they’re so unkind to me I can’t stand them.” You’re not free to do that, because Scripture says love your enemies, so your love is controlled by the regulation of Scripture. I heard about a man who said he “Well, I’m having an affair, but this is God’s will because He gave us the love.” No. He didn’t give you that love. His love is controlled by truth, and truth says that you can’t commit adultery. That’s human love being completely out of control and emotional attraction. It has nothing to do with biblical love at all, which is totally conformed and confined by truth.

It’s a biblical discerning love, under the control of a spiritual mind, a spiritual reason; a wise, judicious love.

William Hendriksen, for example, wrote, “A person who possesses love but lacks discernment may reveal a great deal of eagerness and enthusiasm. He may donate to all kinds of causes. His motives may be worthy and his intentions honorable, yet he may be doing more harm than good.” Because he lacked discernment how many well-meaning people, trying to show their love for God, give money to people who work against the Kingdom – because they don’t discern. They haven’t learned how to apply their knowledge. We must – we must be discerning.

A heart of love, that’s what Paul wants us to have. May God help us, because the Spirit has given us love to express it to one another. all of us struggle with these things, myself included. We all tend toward that comfortable zone. We all move away from high risk, unpredictable relationships. We fear intrusion into our private lives by people who don’t know us well. We like to be very, very comfortable, and not at all have to be on guard. We don’t like to think that we might lose some control of our time and our resources because someone else had a need for them.

But that’s what God calls us to – to go beyond the wall, to love the people that we don’t necessarily find attractive, but who have needs. All those that God puts in our path, whatever might be their need, knowing that people might abuse that, but looking to God for our reward. Looking at relationships not for what we can gain from the person, but from what we can gain from the Lord by doing what’s right. My prayer for you is that you would know the kind of love that Paul desired the Philippians to know, and that you would know it in the fullest expression.

The source of discernment

Discernment is given by God See also ; ;

Discernment through God’s word See also ; ,;

Discernment through a renewed mind See also ;

Asking for discernment See also ,; [1]

A brief word on Knowledge this is mentioned here in verse 9:

Christian knowledge of God obviously is not based simply on observation or speculation, but is the result of experience in Christ. This knowledge is contrasted sharply with natural wisdom, which operates from an incorrect perspective. Paul is quick to point out that the mystery of God’s redemptive plan has been made known and there is now no room for ignorance. Knowledge, then, is the whole person standing in relationship with God through Christ.[2]

Now, let’s go on to the rest of the excellencies, the essentials of spiritual life. The second is excellence. Notice again in verse 10: “So that you may approve the things that are excellent.” Now, do you notice the sequence there? This deals with the sense of priority, and follows on the first essential, namely love. The two little words “so that” are the link and show us there’s a progression in view here. Where a person is literally dominated by the love of God, there will be a corresponding desire to seek and approve what is excellent. Why? Because that true love is controlled by the deep knowledge of the word, which enables the Christian to be completely discerning, and that leads him to a pursuit of what is excellent. “So that,” verse 10, “you may approve the things that are excellent.”

Now, the word “approve” is a very interesting and important word So it has to do with testing to verify or to prove or to determine something. And what he is saying here is that my prayer for you is that you would have the capability to evaluate and determine the things that are excellent.

The idea here is intensely practical: it is to examine or test what is before us so as to determine what is excellent or the best. Originally this was applied to determining the best, for example, among metals or livestock. Here it has to do with our lives as Christians. Markus Bockmuehl describes this as “the Spirit-bred ability to discern that which God has already marked off as essential or ‘superlative’ regarding life in Christ.” This ability includes not only distinguishing right from wrong but also the best from second best.9

Most of us have little trouble distinguishing the big issues. We know that theft and murder are wrong, and that generosity and justice are right. But in the gray area, choices involve a range of options that are not so clearly moral or clear-cut. It is here that we find difficulty in discerning the best. What confused lives so many Christians lead because they do not have the wherewithal to discern what is best.

To see falsely is worse than blindness. A man who is so blind that he cannot distinguish the ditch from the road still may be able to feel which is which. But if he sees the ditch as the road and the road as the ditch, he is in big trouble. And many today are in big trouble.

However, if God’s children overflow with love to God and others, along with a growing personal knowledge of God and Christ and practical insight, they will be able to discern and choose what is superlative—the best over the second best—the best over the good—the best in knowledge of God—the best in priorities—the best in habits—the best in pleasures—the best in pursuits—the best course of action for themselves and for their families.

you cannot pursue what is excellent unless you can assess what is excellent. Most people are like the proverbial bouncing ball, they just react – they react. They just do whatever impulse, emotion, mood tells them, or they simply react to the environment around them. They don’t control the environment, and they don’t control their response to the environment. In fact they don’t think, they just react. Most people live off their moods. They don’t control themselves, their selves control them. They don’t think at all. They can’t pursue, unhindered and undistracted, what is excellent, because they can’t think and control their thought patterns to the degree that they can assess what is excellent.

But as Christians, if we’re going to pursue what is excellent, we have to have mind over mood. You cannot be a victim of your emotions and your moods if you’re going to pursue what is excellent. In Romans, you’re familiar with twelfth chapter, and second verse, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” You’ve got to renew your mind. You have to get your thinking in order. That’s why in , Paul says, “You’ve got to look at whatever is true, whatever is honorable,” verse 8, “whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, and if there’s any excellence and anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” It starts with your mind. You’ve got to get beyond reacting to your mood and your emotion.

: “But examine everything carefully, and hold fast to what is best.” You see, Christian character at its highest level is a divinely implanted and growing love, controlled by truth and wisdom that is therefore pursuing, with its discernment what is most excellent.

What a beautiful prayer Paul prays for his beloved! May our prayers for one another be that we will be able to discern what God has marked off as best. That’s what you need, fathers. That’s what you need, mothers. That’s what you need, leaders. And that is what Paul prays for.

verse 10, “In order to be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.”

“Pure” (eilikrinēs) occurs only one other time in the New Testament (), although other words with the same root occur (i.e., ). The most common use of the term suggests that it comes from the two words “sun” (helios) and “to judge” (krinō) and that the word means to hold up to sunlight for inspection.

MacArthur illustrates what that means. A potter who was making a jar, or a bowl, or a plate, or a dish of some kind, would turn it on his wheel; and then when it was completed, he would take it and fire it, bake it, as you know. Frequently, because of some impurity in the clay, or some error in judgment in terms of the temperature, or whatever, it would come up with a crack. A cracked jar, or pot, or bowl, or dish, would be useless.

But because of the money invested in it, the unscrupulous potters would try to cover up the crack, and they would take a hard wax, and they would fill the crack with wax. And then they would cover it over with whatever they were using to coat or to paint the pot or the bowl. And so when any wise person went into the marketplace to buy a piece of pottery, they would typically hold the pottery up to the sunlight and rotate it to see if it was without wax, because the sunlight could shine through the crack and reveal the wax – which, of course, the first time anything heated was put in it, would melt, and it would be discovered as useless.

A life, then, needs to be held up to the sunlight to determine whether it’s got any flaws that are being falsely covered over by the wax of hypocrisy.

And so just as in ancient times pottery was tested by holding it up to the sun, so our life needs to be tested as well and that Nothing is covered over with the wax of hypocrisy. You’re not hiding some sin, some flaw, or selfish desire in your life, that is a current flaw in your character, but you’re covering it over, so that when the testing comes, you’re going to melt and be shown to be a cracked pot. And the Word, by the way, will accomplish this; the Word is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword and is able to discern the deep thoughts and intents of the heart. The Word is the sun, that will discern your true character. Paul says, “Look, I want you to have a life without hypocrisy,” says that. , Paul talked about the confidence that he had in his own holiness and sincerity. , he said we’re not like others who peddle the Word of God but we preach sincerely. There was genuineness and purity in his life.

Lets move to understanding the term “blameless in versey 10. “Blameless” (aproskopoi) also occurs rarely in the New Testament. The text, however, follows with a reference to the “fruit of righteousness,” a term which implies character. Paul hoped they would have a blameless life.

So what Paul is saying here is, “Look, I want you to have integrity, personal integrity, relational integrity. You don’t stumble, you don’t cause others to stumble. You don’t have cracks, and you don’t cause others to have cracks.” Now, that means you’ve got to have a no-compromise attitude. a life that is lived according to the Word of God, without any deviation, standing true to biblical conviction. We have to live by being deeply planted in the rich soil of biblical truth, so that our roots tap deep into the divine revelation, and we flourish and flourish until the day of Christ. Paul’s prayer is that the Philippians will live pure, morally transparent lives, free from stumbling—and thus stand upright and pure on that day in the dazzling presence of Christ who knows all. Oh, to pray like this for each other!

The day of Christ we studied in verse 6; it is phrase referring to the return of Christ for the believer. The day of the Lord is the return of Christ and the judgment of the unbeliever. The day of Christ is a special term referring to the reward and the assessment of a believer’s works. So we are called upon to faithfulness until the Lord Jesus comes to reward us. , says we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and to receive the things done in the body, whether they’re good or bad, to see whether our works are gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, 1 Corinthians, chapter 3. First Corinthians, chapter 4, the day when the Lord will assess the hidden things of the heart, and reveal our motive and our intent; so until Christ comes to reward us we are faithful never to compromise.

And so next is the result: good works, verse 11. “Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ.” Please notice, “Having been filled” is a perfect passive participle, and what that means is something that has happened in the past time with continuing results. And it looks at the day of Christ, which is the theme from verse 10 and then looks back and sums up the life of the person. “When you stand at the day of Christ you will have been already filled with righteousness, or the fruit of righteousness.” It viewing a completed state, or completed condition. It looks at the record of good works produced by God in a life of purity, a life of excellence, a life of love. So you have here, then, a view of the believer who arrives at the day of Christ, having already been filled with the fruits of righteousness.

Now, what do we mean by the fruit of righteousness? The fruit of our life is good works? The bible talks about two kinds of fruit. says, “Often I’ve planned to come to you and have been prevented,” and why was Paul prevented to come? “in order that I might obtain some fruit.” He wants to see some people come to Christ; this is the fruit of winning souls to Christ. In , verse 10, it says, “Now He (God) who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food,” will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” In other words, righteous deeds God is going to produce in your life because of your faithfulness to Him.

so any righteous deed is also fruit, but it’s more than deeds, it’s also attitudes. says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. Those are all attitudes. So God wants to produce in your life right attitude and right action – righteous deeds and righteous attitudes – “which comes through Jesus Christ.” They come through Jesus Christ working in you, so He gets all the glory, and all the honor, and all the credit.

In , “I am the true vine and My Father is the vine dresser.” Listen: “Every branch in Me that doesn’t bear fruit He takes away, every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bear more fruit.” Verse 4, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do” – what – “nothing.” So the idea is that fruit is the work of God produced in the life of the Christian. says that “We are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” We are to bear fruit, but that fruit is the work of Christ.

Let me give you an illustration. You remember Laurence of Arabia? Laurence of Arabia on one occasion brought some Arabs back to London, put them in a beautiful hotel in London, and they were absolutely floored. They were Bedouins (BEDOWIN); the only thing they had ever lived in was a tent. And the thing that fascinated them most were faucets, because living in a desert all their life, water was at a premium. They only had to turn a knob and all the water they wanted was there. When they were packing their bags to leave, Lawrence discovered that they had taken all the faucets off of all the sinks and put them in their bags, under the assumptive view that if they had the faucet, then they had the water too.

Now, I want to remind you that the issue in your spiritual life is simply to recognize that you’re a faucet. Unless you’re connected to the pipeline, turning you on and off will produce absolutely nothing. The power comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, and so this is the what Paul is saying here. You must realize that the fruit of righteousness comes through Jesus Christ. He produces it in you.

Paul concluded this prayer with a reference to God’s glory. Paul concludes with a doxology. All this is for “the glory and praise of God” (v. 11b). This is a fitting conclusion not only to the prayer but to the whole paragraph. The truth is, as John Piper says, “All who cast themselves on God find that they are carried into endless joy by God’s omnipotent commitment to his own glory.”

The day of Christ characterized Paul’s thoughts; the glory of God motivated Paul’s actions. He saw the entire scope of salvation as an outworking of God’s grace and as a contribution to God’s glory. The chief end of persons was the glory of God. He reminded the Philippians of their ultimate calling, to reflect God’s character in their lives. He explained the reason for their careful living: the glory of God in their lives. With this prayer for God’s glory, Paul ended the first section of the epistle.

The epistle began with appreciation for their relationship to Paul from the beginning. It called them to realize that God began a work in them and it must continue, and it reminded them of the need to prepare for the day of Christ’s appearing. Paul reveled in the thought of God’s glory.

Later in Philippians we read, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (2:10). And then there will be the climactic doxology at the letter’s end: “To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen” (4:20). Such elation! Such a specific, great, confident, joy!

This is the substance of real prayers, and this is how and what Paul prayed.

Certainly we must pray for our jobs and our finances and our health and our children’s grades and friendships. But if that is it, we have missed it. We need love of Christ to overflow in us and through us to others. We need to have our love ride and abound upon an increasing knowledge of God as revealed in Christ Jesus—through His word and the more we know him, the more we will love him.

We need to grow in all discernment and We need to be able to weigh the choices before us and choose what is excellent, the best. We need to be ready for the day of Christ. We need to be transparently pure and stand upright before Christ in that day. And as we stand, our lives need to be hung heavy with the fruit of the righteousness that comes through Jesus. And lastly We need our lives to be a doxology to the glory and praise of God as part of the endless, joyous commitment to God’s glory.

[1]

[2] Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Knowledge. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 1292). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.