A Love that Grows and Flows

Cole Edwards • May 12, 2022

Notes from Pastor Shu's message on Philippians 2:8-11.


We are all familiar with the story of the genie in a bottle. It’s this crazy story, where you find a lamp, a genie comes out and you get three wishes. And because we’re familiar with the story, we understand that there is pressure to make sure that you wish for the right thing. 


Now, of course, God is not a genie. He’s not at our beck and call like a genie, but God has given us prayer which the Bible describes with amazing language. James says “You have not, because you ask not.” One thing Jesus said of about prayer was “ask and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be open to you.”


The Bible makes clear that God really wants us to pray and that He really wants to answer our prayers. But when it comes down to it, what do we really pray for?


Typically we pray concerning that which is in front of us, the temporal, the physical, the tangible. We pray for safety, we pray for health, we pray for guidance. We pray for things we need, things we want, things that we think we deserve. To be clear, that’s not wrong, because God wants us to present all our requests to Him. But we see Paul pray differently.

Paul loves to pray for his people, and we see him pray for his people in Philippi in verses 9-11. But when Paul prays it’s not for the temporal or the physical, the here and now. Instead, he prays concerning the ultimate things. Paul prays that he wants you to grow in your knowledge of God, to understand how wide and deep and high God’s love is. 


And we can learn from how Paul prays for his people. If you feel pressure to pray the right things for your people, for those in your life, for your family, for your community group and if you don’t know what to pray, just open up here in Philippians 1 and pray verses 9 through 11. 


So we are going to look closely at this prayer. But first, we need to pause at verse 8, "For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus."


Don’t forget, Paul is writing this letter from prison. He’s in chains. He planted the church in Philippi. And we saw last week all the joy, love, and affection he had for this church plant. Verse 8 connects what was discussed last week with this prayer. 


And Paul says, “I yearn for you”. He has this longing for them. Because he is imprisoned, he can’t be in Philippi, but he has a great desire to be present with his people. That is how it ought to be. It ought to feel that when we are not with this gathering of God’s people that we greatly long for it. 


We understand that sometimes you have to be away from meeting with us here (the church), but when you have to be away, we want to see that you have a longing, a yearning, to get back with your people. These are your people. We, here, are your people. And we should miss this when we are away. 


The longing that Paul describes begins to make sense when you realize that you actually need people in your life. Not only do you need God’s people in your life, but someone else needs you here. We need each other.


Paul’s yearning informs his prayer. He treasures these relationships, these are his people in Philippi and so he is not going to simply pray for them, he’s going to pray the best for them. So let’s walk through his prayer.


Paul prays that we will abound in love, with knowledge and with all discernment so that we will approve what is excellent so that our lives will bring glory to God.



Paul prays that we will abound in love.


Look at verse 9, "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment."


He is praying for their love to grow. Out of all the things that he could wish for, out of all the temporal things he could pray for, Paul prays for their love to abound. He is praying for a love for God and love for each other. Paul has a high view of love here. He is not simply referring to a feeling, receiving kind of love.  Paul has in view a love that resembles Christ’s love.


“So when Paul prays that God will give his friends the heart to go on loving and to grow in loving, “abounding more and more,” he is talking not about our getting, nor even about our sharing, but about our giving, and then giving even more. This capacity to love is God’s gift, but it is a costly gift to receive. It involves investing your heart and hands in “meeting others’ true needs, whether or not they respond with emotional payback.”

— Dennis E. Johnson, Philippians


Paul is praying for us to have an unconditional love. Paul is praying for a love that is given even if nothing comes back, even if there’s no thank you, even if it’s not received. It’s a Christ-like love. That is the ultimate aim of Paul’s prayer: I want your love to abound.



Paul then gives specific ways that this plays out; that our love grows more and more with knowledge and with all discernment...


—with knowledge


Our knowledge grows in understanding who God is and what He has done for us. Paul is praying that we will continue to get to know God more and more. The more you get to know God, and see how much He has done for you, His qualities, and His character, then you begin love God more and more. We respond in love to God when we better understand Him.


But loving God wasn’t our idea. We love Him because He first loved us. We didn’t know Him. But the more you do get to know God the more you’ll find that you do love Him. But flip it on the other side. God loves us and He knows us. God sees everything about us, and He loves us anyway. He pursued us, even when we were in revolt against Him. He pursued us in that moment. God loves us even knowing everything we’ve done.


Mothers are maybe the best picture we have of this kind of unconditional love. Think of a mother holding her newborn baby and she thinks that baby is perfect. But then that baby grows and starts to interact with others, and you realize that baby is wicked. They all are. They’re professional sinners. They didn’t have to taught to rebel or to disobey. And moms see all that develop and they just keep on loving anyway. 


Mothers are a picture of what it looks like when someone knows everything about you and loves you anyway. That is why we celebrate them today. Mom loves you anyway. 


And that is the picture of God’s love for us. He knows everything about us, and He loves us anyway.


"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." - 1 John 3:16


We rebelled against Him, we turned our backs on Him, and God loves us anyway. When we get even a glimpse of God’s love, it starts producing in us a love for God that will then spill into others. We’ll sacrifice and give because God sacrificed and gave for us. God’s love is the motivation. 


That is the knowledge that Paul is praying for us to obtain, that we will abound more and more in our understanding of who God is and how much He loves us. And it will produce more and more love for Him and others. 


But Paul is praying for discernment along with knowledge.



—with all discernment


Discernment is necessary so you will know how to actually show love to others. Discernment informs how to meet needs, how to speak truth in love, how to walk in love and accountability, how to sit with those who are suffering. Paul prays that we grow in your knowledge of God’s love AND in our ability to show it.


Paul prays, that we will abound in love and then shifts his attention showing happens when we do.


[Phl 1:10 ESV] 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,



...so that we will approve what is excellent


When we abound in love we will test and see that God’s way is best – that it is excellent. You see how much He loves you, and you begin to trust, follow, submit, and surrender to Him. In doing so you discover that God’s way is what you needed all along. He’s praying for you to understand what is excellent and to follow that path.


We understand the difference between good and bad choices. But the hard choices are the ones where you must decide between what is good and what is best. That is why Paul is praying that you find the excellent path. All paths other than God’s paths are dead ends. Surrender and pursue Him, and you find meaning and purpose when you are on God’s excellent path. 


We gather on Sundays, in part, to remember how good God is to us so that we will stay on the path that He wants for us. Just like we sang today: All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so, so good. So I will sing of the goodness of God. 


I need to come here and hear the people of God sing that truth. Because sometimes I don’t feel it. I need to be reminded that all my life God has been faithful. All my life He has been so so good. And when I’m reminded of that and I understand how much He loves me, in response I say: my life is laid down, I surrender now, I give you everything. 


Why? Because God’s goodness is running after me. Despite everything I have done. He is running after us with His goodness, and grace, and love, and He is pulling us back to Him and His path. And I need that reminder every single week. Every single day. When I’m not reminded, I drift away and I think something else will give me the satisfaction I’m looking for. I forget God’s goodness, His love, His greatness, His faithfulness and I drift away. We all do that. That is why we need each other. I need you to remind me that God has always been faithful.


That is what Paul is talking about here, that you will approve what is excellent. You’ll test this out. You’ll trust God a little bit more, see how much He loves you, and in surrendering your life you’ll approve that this is really the best way. This is how life is supposed to be lived. You’ll see that this is where you find purpose, satisfaction, and joy. 


We didn’t know for sure at first, but now when we trust God, we can know for certain that we find in Him is best. And we trust Him when we know how much He loves us. 


Paul then gives three ways that this plays out in our lives. Verse 10, "so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."



—be filled with the fruit of righteousness

This is the goal for us. Paul is praying the ultimate aim over us because this is what he wants to see in us. Paul wants us to be pure, to be blameless, he wants us to be filled with the fruit of righteousness.


And though this can seem discouraging , here is why it shouldn’t be. First, we are all on this journey together. It doesn’t matter where you are on the journey, you have a place here, with these people, where we can be in genuine life together. In Philippians 3, Paul says, “not that I’ve already attained this” but he is pressing forward to the goal. Paul hadn’t figured this all out, but we are all in it together. 


Second, you shouldn’t be discouraged because it’s not even up to you. Verse 11 indicates that it is the work of Jesus in us that makes us pure, blameless and filled with the fruit of righteousness. Our job is to trust Him more and more. The more we learn about Him, the more we see His love, the more we trust Him, and His power works through us to accomplish these things in our lives.


Philippians 1:6, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."


It’s Jesus’ work in our lives. He’s going to finish it. So don’t be discouraged. Jesus is going to accomplish this work. We need not be discouraged because it is in God’s hands.


“Are we aware that what appears a hopeless goal is in reality a guaranteed outcome?” 

—J. Alec Motyer, The Message of Philippians


Pure? Blameless? Filled with the fruit of righteousness? It may seem hopeless, but what we see here is that this is a guaranteed outcome because of Jesus’ work in our lives. In fact, it is already who we are in Christ, and what Christianity is doing is calling us to be who we already are. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Father sees us as pure, blameless, and filled with the fruit of righteousness. Christianity is just calling us to be who we already are. 


...so that our lives will bring glory to God


Ultimately, how we are following Him and trusting Him is meant to give God the glory.


The more we see how much He loves us, it produces love in us for Him and for others. Then we begin to, with knowledge and discernment, show that love to each other, and when the world sees this love, God gets the glory. God gets the glory because it is His work. The whole world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples by how we love each other. And because of how we love each other, they’re going to know that we belong to God, and they’ll want to be with God, they’ll want that love too. 


Paul is praying for, it is his desire, that we would abound in love. Paul is praying for us to abound in love so that we will approve what is excellent. In approving what is excellent we will bring glory and praise to our God. Let’s be the people who do that.

Freed to Serve

April 28, 2025
Notes from Scott Sutton's sermon on Sunday, April 27, 2025. Sermon text: 1 Peter 2:11-17 This is the beginning of a section addressing how God's people now function in this world. It begins with aliens and exiles and continues with servants, wives, husbands, and finally, all of you. 1.) Our identity defines our actions. We are sojourners and exiles (temporary, passing through, not at home) We have a heavenly citizenship Actions We abstain from the passions of the flesh Keep conduct among the Gentiles honorable (our conduct is for the benefit of other people) Honorable conduct wins souls… sojourners, exiles, and soul winners “Peter’s point is that believers’ behavior creates a context in which people will listen to God’s word. He is not teaching that ‘good deeds’ in themselves convert unbelievers, but they establish an environment for the Gospel-word to do so.” -Barnett 2.) Our identity defines our expectations (Unbelievers will respond to honorable conduct in 1 of 2 ways) Some will speak evil against us as though we are evildoers Some will see our good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation 3.) Our identity defines our view of authority (Does anyone here ever just want to do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it? That’s why laws exist) Be subject to every human institution (for the Lord's sake) This includes governors and emperors (no distinction between good/bad) The will of God... by doing good, we silence the ignorance of foolish people 4.) Our identity defines our view of freedom Don't use freedom as a cover-up for evil We are freed to serve God Honor, Love, and Fear Discipleship Questions: 1.)Why is it so important to understand our identity before talking about our behavior? 2.) How might this reality impact your parenting? For real, what are 3 ways that you can apply that this week? 3.) How is good conduct a form of evangelism? 4.) What do these verses say that we can expect from others? 5.) How can we honor a government that isn't always honorable? Seriously, what are 5 things we should immediately stop doing and 5 things we should immediately start doing? 6.) What are some tangible ways to honor others? Love the brotherhood? Fear God? Honor the Emperor? 7.) Should we fear the Emperor?

Cornerstone

April 22, 2025
Notes from Ky Martin's sermon on Sunday, April 20, 2025. Sermon text: 1 Peter 2:4-10 Everyone must accept or reject Jesus. He is the cornerstone. We choose to accept Him as the foundation of our lives or toss the truth aside. When we come to Jesus… We become part of His People 1 Pe 2:4-5 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. The cornerstone is The New Temple. From this we learn that following Christ entails joining his community, the church…The freelance Christian, who follows Jesus but is too good, too busy, or too self-sufficient for the church, is a walking contradiction. -Daniel M. Doriani We join a royal, holy, priesthood 1 Pet. 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Because of who Jesus makes us. We receive God’s mercy Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms….Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means undergoing a kind of death. Acts 17:30-31 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Discipleship Questions: Why is it impossible to be neutral about Jesus? Why do you believe that Jesus truly is the Son of God? Do you ever have doubts about this? If yes, what are they? According to 1 Peter 2:9, who are we after we come to Christ? Why does Paul say (in 1 Corinthians) that if Christ is not risen, our faith is in vain?

Born Again

April 16, 2025
Notes from Scott Sutton's sermon on Sunday, April 13, 2025. Sermon text: 1 Peter 2:2-3 Why do our souls ache for certainty? We are so eager for certainty that we will look for it in all the wrong places. - Certainty in our Finances [show slide from news] - Certainty in our Jobs [Acts 17:24-27] - Certainty in our Health [Covid] - Certainty in our Abilities [Ecclesiastes 3:11 “God has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”] “Things that have never happened before are happening every day.” -Morgan Housel In these verses, God gives us what our souls ache for! 1.) You must be born again of imperishable seed - We have all been born of perishable seed o Impure souls o Disobedient to truth o Unloving insincerity toward others o Lack of loving effort o Impure hearts - We are withering grass and falling flowers - The imperishable seed is the living and abiding Word of God o Does not wither o Does not fall o Does not let us down o It remains forever o It MUST BE PREACHED! But still, how can we be certain that we have been born again? 2.) If you are born again, hope will be seen in your relationships When your relationship with God changes, God changes your relationships! - Sincere brotherly love - Love earnestly - Put away… o Malice o Deceit o Hypocrisy o Envy o All Slander 3.) If you are born again, hope will be seen in your appetite for God’s Word - Like newborn infants - Long for the pure spiritual milk Discipleship Questions: 1.) Where are some unhealthy places where you look for certainty? 2.) Why do you do that? 3.) What were some evidences of your perishable seed before you came to Christ? Any of that still lingering that needs to be repented from? 4.) Why does Peter call the Word of God the imperishable seed? 5.) In light of the text, how would you describe being "born again" to a 5-year-old? 6.) How has imperishable hope proven itself in your relationships? OR How might it if you lean into loving others earnestly? 7.) Why does Peter tell us that hope will be seen in our appetite for God's Word?
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