We have a board that we post the different reports on in front of the Sanctuary, such as attendance last week and last week's offereing.
Wouldn't it be cool if we had a way to post abounding love?We have increased by seventy percent in love over last week.
If we could measure love the chart would tell us so much, because love is the key to building the kingdom.
Paul is telling the Philippian believers to abound in Christian love. (Philippians 1:9)
Today I thought we would begin a journey through Philippians and see what the letter of Paul said to the Church at Philippi and what it has to say to you and me.
Look at
v. 3 Paul had the Church backing him: Paul knew that he did not stand alone in the world and he expressed his thankfulness for those who loved and supported him...
He was not alone in sharing Christ. He belonged to a great family, a family of believers who were living for God and sharing Christ with a lost and needful world.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians he was in prison in Rome which was a great distance from the Philippian believers. Paul was operating on the memory of their time together.
While sitting there in prison, remembering their love, their care and support, his heart swelled up with thanksgiving for them, and he thanked God for them.
This is an awesome lesson for us! If Paul thanked God for believers who were so far away from him, how much more should we thank God for each other?
We have the love and care and support of each other week by week and day by day, and we can call upon each other for help any hour of any day. Yet how often do we thank God for each other?
We are not alone in the world. God is building a body of people who are committed to live for the Lord Jesus Christ and to carry His gospel of salvation and love and care to a world that so desperately needs to hear the good news.
Col.1:12 "giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light."
Co1.3:15 “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful”
v. 4 You Are In My Prayers: Paul says that he always prays for the church. The idea is that he prayed all throughout the day for them. They were constantly on his mind and in his prayers.
While we were on vacation I thought about each of you, daily…
But am I to focus on Elim Bible only?
As Matthew Henry says, Paul prayed by name for all the churches he knew, and he had seasons of prayer for each church (Matthew Henry's Commentary, Vo1.6. Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, no date listed, p.724.
Here is a powerful lesson in prayer! What if we decided:
To pray by name for all the churches we know, and not for ourselves, only.
To take blocks of time (seasons of prayers) to pray for each of those churches.
To always-all day long-pray for the churches around us.
I pray for you each day but how often do I pray for those around us, who are serving the same Jesus we are?
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Jn.17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;”
**Several verse you can write down where Paul is thanking God for the churches
Rom 1:9 * Eph 1: 16 * Eph 3: 14 * Col 1: 3 * Col 4: 12 * 1Thess 1: 2
v. 4 You Bring Me Great Joy: Think about this; Paul is in prison, yet his heart is filled with joy. Joy, as used here, (chara) means an inner gladness; a deep pleasure, assurance and confidence. It is a cheerful heart that leads to a rejoicing behavior.
The joy of the Lord is not the same as the joy of the world. The joy of the world is more of a temporary pleasure than true joy. The world's joy is always nagged by some incompleteness, some lack, some unfulfilling thing, some missing ingredient. There is never completeness--nor a complete sense of assurance, confidence, and satisfaction.
There is always, the haunting awareness, that something can go wrong at any moment: circumstances can change that will disturb our earthly joy. Sickness, death, financial loss, war are just a few things that can steal our earthly joy.
There are three things I want to share with you about the believer's joy.
1. The believer’s joy is divine.
It is possessed and given only by God. Its roots are not in earthly or material things or cheap
triumphs. It is the joy of the Holy Spirit, a joy based in the Lord. It is His very own joy because God is a joyful God and when His Spirit enters the believer His joy enters as well…
Jn.15:11 “These things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
2. Joy does not depend on circumstances or happiness. Jesus didn’t say the His joy remains in us and that we be happy. Paul was not happy about being in prison because he had so much to do. (Richard in Africa)
Happiness depends on my surrounding or put another way, what happens to me but the joy that God implants in the believer's heart overrides all that happens in my surroundings, even the matters of life and death.
Joy springs from faith
v. 5 I’m Thankful for the Fellowship: there are two significant points I want you to see here.
1. The source of fellowship is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel of Christ is still the greatest story ever told and it is the news that Jesus has died for our sins, risen again, and conquered death so that we might live with God eternally.
All true believers have fellowship, a spiritual bond, because ...they have experienced the same salvation, the salvation of God and they have embraced the same faith.
But listen, I’m talking about genuine believers--believers who have totally committed their lives to the gospel of Christ. Those who live and proclaim the gospel and bear witness to what the Lord has done for them and can do for anyone else.
1John 1: 7 “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
v. 6: Paul’s Assurance of Salvation: Paul was confident that God will complete what He started in believers. Confidence and assurance are just two traits of genuine believers.
Believers know God, know Him personally. God's Spirit actually lives within the heart and body of the believer
According to Romans 8: 16, 17 The Spirit of God actually bears witness with the spirit of the believer, that he is going to be redeemed and presented perfect before God. In fact, the presence of the Holy Spirit within the believer's body is the very guarantee of the believer's salvation “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Everybody wants to go to heaven but few are willing to make the sacrifice…
1. You and I, as true believers can have absolute confidence in the work of salvation or redemption which God has begun in us. We can have confidence because of, the presence of God's Spirit who dwells within each and every believer.
2. The work begun by God is a good work. No matter what kind of life a person WAS living, once God converts him/her, the new but true, believer begins to live a good life: a life of... righteousness, purity, and holiness. love, joy, and peace, faith, humility, and control.
3. The good work is incomplete. As long as the believer lives on this earth, there is always work for God to do. God is always working in the life of the believer to mature him/her more and more. The good work is to be completed when Jesus Christ returns to this earth.
At that time, the believer will be transformed into a perfect person and given a perfect body.
vs.7-8 We Are in a Partnership in the same Ministry: Look how tight the bond was between Paul and the church.
1. They were partners in heart.
Paul loved them as he loved himself and they constantly filled his thoughts.
This is how I feel about each of you…
2. They were partners in Paul’s suffering.
This means ... that they were sympathizing with Paul in his imprisonment. They were sending hope to Paul while he was in prison. They had been or were themselves now suffering because of the gospel just as Paul was. The bond between Paul and the Philippians was so close that their hearts went out to each other. What one experienced, the other felt, even the sufferings of each other, much like identical twins.
That’s what I long to have here. We become so close that when one hurts we all feel their pain and when one rejoices we shout with them and for them.
3. They were partners in the gospel.
The Philippians had not given up the gospel, nor had they become silent or complacent in sharing the gospel.
They were actively defending and proclaiming the truth of the gospel. The church and its members were busy for Christ, actively bearing witness to the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They were taking the great commission as given by the Lord seriously.
Mt.28:19-20 “19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”
4. They were partners in the grace of God.
God was pouring the richest blessings upon both Paul and the church. Why?
What was it that was causing God to so richly bless these two? It was their faithfulness: they were bearing the marks of mature believers.
2 Tim.2:1 “1You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
5. They were partners with Christ.
There is a great need in the church today for partnership among its members.
Believers desperately need to become partners with each other and in the ministry of God:
Partners in heart * partners in suffering * partners in proclaiming and defending the gospel * partners in the grace of God * partners with the Lord Jesus Christ
John 13: 34, 35 “34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
When you and I become true partners with Jesus and surrender to His authority, we will begin to love each other more completely and see the blessings of God poured out on us and Elim Bible.
vs. 9-10 Paul’s desire was for Love to abound or grow in the Church:
Love in the Bible never focuses upon good feelings. Feelings may and usually do come to the person who truly loves another person, but feelings are never the focus--not with true love.
So what is the focus?
The focus of love is knowledge. If we truly love someone, we want to know that person. In fact, we want to know all we can about the person.
Paul wants the believer's love to grow more and more. We need to know more about Christ and each other; we need to gather more understanding, more and more discernment, more intelligence about each other. The more we know about Christ and each other, the more our love for each other will grow.
There are three reasons why we need a love that grows more and more.
1. A growing love is needed to approve things that are excellent.
It is not enough just to know what is right and wrong. It is not enough just to do what is right.
Sometimes the choice is not between good or bad sometimes it is between the good and the excellent, the acceptable and the best.
Only a growing love will stir us to choose the excellent and the best.
The more we love the Lord, the more we will choose the excellent or best for Him.
The more we love each other, the more we will choose the excellent or best for each other.
A growing love will not want to do anything that would even come close to causing a person to stumble.
2. A growing love is needed to be sincere and pure.
The word sincere in verse 10 means to sift through a sieve in order to make pure.
Only a growing love will keep our eyes focused upon Christ. If we do not love Him, we will not look to Him.
If we love Him, we will keep our eyes fastened upon Him, longing to see and be with Him.
Only love-true love--will keep us pure waiting for His return.
A growing love is needed to keep us from causing others to stumble.
We must always guard against being an offense or a stumbling block to others.
We must be willing to choose the best and the excellent for the sake of others.
