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.

Arm Yourselves

June 11, 2025
Notes from Ky Martin's sermon on Sunday, June 8, 2025. Sermon text: 1 Peter 4:1-6 Prepare to suffer Is. 50:6-8a I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. 7 But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. 8 He who vindicates me is near. The martial language indicates that discipline and grit are needed to live the Christian life, particularly in view of the suffering believers encounter. -Thomas R. Schreiner Some people won’t like you if you follow Jesus When a culture abandons biblical standards, when extramarital sex, cohabitation, and birth outside of marriage become normal, people attack the church for its moral snobbery and judgmentalism. Peter warns us that if we do take a stand, we need to expect slander, not applause. -Daniel M. Dorian This is one of the hardest things a new Christian has to face. Your friends liked you because you shared in “the same flood of debauchery.” It seemed great fun at times, but then you came to embrace Christ… But your friends have not… They will be surprised when you say “No.” -Juan Sanchez. Keep an eternal perspective Our outcome is glorious Suffering is good for us Let’s remember that suffering accomplishes God’s purposes. It exposes what or whom we are trusting (1 Peter 1:6–7). - Juan Sanchez Ecc. 7:2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Discipleship Questions: Verse 1 tell us to arm ourselves by thinking as Christ did about suffering. How did Christ arm himself for and against sufferings? What does it look like for us to do that? Have you ever lost friendships (or had them change) because you were following Jesus? Do you fear that we (or our kids) will experience greater persecution in the future? If yes, how should we handle that fear?

I Believe That We Will Win

June 3, 2025
Notes from Lance Shumake's sermon on Sunday, June 1, 2025. Sermon text: 1 Peter 3:18-22 Jesus suffered and died in order to bring us to God Jesus conquered death by his resurrection “A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.” —Martin Luther Problem #1 - he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison —Jesus preached through Noah to those who lived at that time (1 Peter 1:10–12) —Jesus proclaimed His victory to evil angels (see Genesis 6:1-4) Problem #2 - baptism now saves you —Scripture is clear - we are saved by grace not works —baptism pictures our salvation from God’s judgment through the resurrection of Christ “The waters of baptism, like the waters of the flood, demonstrate that destruction is at hand, but believers are rescued from these waters in that they are baptized with Christ, who has also emerged from the waters of death through his resurrection. Just as Noah was delivered through the stormy waters of the flood, believers have been saved through the stormy waters of baptism by virtue of Christ’s triumph over death.” —Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude —in baptism we are appealing to God for a good conscience "This appeal is an act of the heart looking away from itself and from all human instruments and calling on God, appealing to God, for grace to save.” —John Piper —in baptism we are pledging to God to live in a manner worthy of the gospel Jesus ascended to heaven and now reigns over everything “We can face suffering as Christians with confidence rather than panic, and hope rather than despair, because the road marked with Christian suffering is, no matter what its twists and turns are, the road to vindication and glory. The God who vindicated Jesus will vindicate you, and he will sustain your faith until that day.” –Juan R. Sanchez, 1 Peter For You Discipleship Questions: How does Jesus’ death and resurrection encourage us when we suffer? Why did we need Jesus to suffer and die to bring us to God? How does Jesus’ victory over death give us eternal hope? What are your thoughts regarding some of the problems in this passage? How does what Peter says about baptism elevate the importance of baptism? When were you baptized and how does this passage inform your understanding of baptism? How does knowing our victory is secured help us with all the things this life throws at us?

Who Can Be Against Us?

May 27, 2025
Notes from Ky Martin's sermon on Sunday, May 25, 2025. Sermon text: 1 Peter 3:13-17 Nobody can (truly) hurt Christians Psalm 118:6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? Rom. 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? The train of thought is as follows: “No one will be able to harm believers on the future day if they are zealous for good” (v. 13). Indeed, even present suffering is not a sign of punishment but of blessing both now and especially in the future, on the day when God rewards his people with eternal life. -Thomas R. Schreiner Honoring Christ Erases Fear Share your faith with strength and gentleness Embrace balance Be prepared to share The truth of the gospel is a public truth that can be defended in the public arena. This does not mean, of course, that every Christian is to be a highly skilled apologist for the faith. It does mean that every believer should grasp the essentials of the faith and should have the ability to explain to others why they think the Christian faith is true. -Thomas R. Schreiner Be prepared to suffer “I’ve spent a number of years in India and Africa where I found much righteous endeavor undertaken by Christians of all denominations; but I never, as it happens, came across a hospital or orphanage run by the Fabian Society [a British socialist organization], or a humanist leper colony.” -Malcolm Muggeridge Be bold! We will likely suffer as Christians in this world, but that suffering is slight and temporary compared to the eternal inheritance that awaits us. The worst thing that can happen to us is that we die and receive our promised inheritance. Can you imagine how emboldened Christians would be if we only believed what Peter is saying? -Juan R. Sanchez Discipleship Questions: Does the fact that nobody can (truly) harm us comfort you? What would change if we lived like we really believe that? Are you a more confident person as someone who knows Christ? Does your security in Christ embolden you to take some risks in life, knowing that the worst that could happen is death? How equipped / prepared are you to give a reason for the hope that you have? What would grow your confidence and competence in that? Have you considered joining Michael Clark one day for evangelism at the harbor? Well….you should….
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