Title: A Prayer for Spiritual Growth
Scripture: Philippians 1:9-11
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
I want to start today's sermon by asking a question of all believers. What is it that you typically pray for? What do you pray for? Because the assumption is that all Christians pray because the Bible commands us in 1 Thessalonians 5 17 to pray without ceasing. Now pray without ceasing doesn't mean that you pray every second of every moment of every day and don't stop and become a monk but rather it's that prayer becomes a regular rhythm of your life that every day that you're living every day that you encounter a decision something you're doing something you experience that your heart is just constantly affixed toward the face of God that you're always in communion with him through prayer.
So when you do pray however what do you pray for? And I was thinking about the prayer requests that come through our prayer ministry on a regular basis and if you look at the prayer chain the large majority of our prayer requests that we see are usually for others for physical healing from sickness and injury. That's a large number of our prayer requests. Other kinds of prayer requests are usually for some kind of blessing.
We pray to God that we would be able to cover our bills. We pray that we might secure a job. We pray to find a spouse.
We pray for safety and when we travel the ever elusive meaning of traveling mercies. I don't actually know what traveling mercies mean but we say it all the time and we want that don't we? Let me ask you the question though. When was the last time that you prayed for spiritual growth? I asked the Lord that I might grow.
When was the last time that you prayed for that either for yourself or for somebody else? My hunch is that we don't often pray for things like that. Well why? Why don't we pray for those kinds of things? I think it's hard to say. Perhaps we don't pray for other spiritual growth because either we don't want to be presumptuous that they need our prayers for them to grow or maybe that we don't often think about others' spiritual growth at all.
We tend to grumble to the Lord saying well why aren't they more mature rather than saying Lord help them to be more godly. As to why we don't pray for spiritual maturity for ourselves, my hunch is that we don't pray, we don't ask the Lord that we might grow because we're too scared of what God's going to do to help us to grow. I really think that's what it is because we know that if God grows us it's going to hurt and we don't want to invite the pain into our lives.
Of course when we consider the truth of Philippians 1-6 we know that God will perfect the good work He began in us regardless of how much we nervously demur. God is going to believers and so if you're in Christ you can be assured of one thing for sure He will grow you and it will be painful, it will be often, but the joy that results from spiritual growth will be worth it. But I think the bigger question for us to consider when we think about prayer is well what should we be praying for? What should we pray for? Because when we look at the pattern of scripture the majority of the prayers in the Bible are not for more money, not for a better job, not really healing from sickness, not traveling mercies.
Now that's not to say that these things praying for these things are bad or wrong. We should actually bring all of our requests before the Lord great and small. Sometimes I'll talk to somebody and they'll say well I feel silly asking for prayer for this because it's a very small thing and I usually will try to kind of blow that up and say actually God cares about everything.
Anything that's concerning to you concerns Him. I think about this when small children will ask for prayer for them that small thing we think is a small thing is a huge thing in their life. God cares about all your prayer requests.
But over and over again in the Bible we see that these earnest prayers are over spiritual matters. That's the large majority of the kind of prayers that we see in the Bible. Prayers of confession and repentance.
Prayers for gospel opportunity. Prayers for praise and worship and then also prayers for spiritual growth. And at the end of his greeting up to the Philippians Paul offers just that.
He offers a prayer for spiritual growth and so if you haven't already turned over to Philippians chapter one I would invite you to join me. Philippians chapter one the apostle Paul we know from the last couple of weeks of our time together that Paul is imprisoned in Rome and he pens this letter to the church in Philippi. A church that he loves dearly.
He really enjoys these people. He loves them sincerely and he prays. If you look at the entire course of the letter he speaks often of all of the saints in Philippi.
He does single out some for certain things but he has a sense in his heart of all the saints there. I am praying for all of these people. In this opening greeting he tells him he's praying for them with joy and with thanksgiving.
He says in verse three, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all in view of your participation in the gospel from this day until now or excuse me from the first day until now. He says it's because of their participation in the gospel that he is confident verse six that God will perfect the sanctifying work that he began in them. Of course Paul is not just confident because of theological reasons even though he is but he's also confident because of relational reasons.
Verse seven and eight it is only right for me to feel this way about you all because I have you in my heart both since both of my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel you all are partakers of grace with me for God is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. He loves this church. He loves this church partly because they have love for him but also he says because they're part of him.
They're united together in Christ and so he loves them with the love and with the affection of Christ but this does not lead him toward sentimentality but rather to action because at the tail end of this elongated greeting verses nine through eleven he shares with the Philippian believers a prayer request that is continuously on his mind and on his heart and so we're going to finish up just the greeting today with Paul's prayer for them starting in verse nine he says, and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Now and looking at this prayer request I believe it's helpful if we think about other kinds of prayer requests that he's made for other churches just keeping in your mind here we think about the the prayer requests he made on behalf of the Ephesian church just going to read these verses so you don't have to turn here but he says in chapter one of Ephesians for this reason I too having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which exists among you and your love for all the saints I do not cease in giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Paul says I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling which are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come amazing prayer not just for them but also a prayer in declaration of the glory of Christ but this is a prayer for wisdom a prayer for revelation as a prayer for spiritual enlightenment ultimately that they would know Christ more or even when we consider Paul's prayer for the Colossians in chapter 1 verse 9 he says for this reason also since the day we heard of it I have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience joyously giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light again a marvelous prayer for knowledge and understanding and fruitfulness and power and steadfastness and thanksgiving this is a marvelous prayer I mean do we pray that way do our prayers sound like this and you might say well my prayers don't sound like this because I need a thesaurus for some of these words well here's the thing here's an idea just to share with you when you pray open up your bible find one of these prayers in the in the scriptures there's many many many prayers in the bible sit with the prayer in front of you and as you pray pray these prayers back to the lord turn the phrases over in your mind and heart train your mind train your voice train your eyes to think in biblical category in the way that you pray and soon your prayers will begin to reflect the language of scripture memorize these prayers they're very helpful but anyway these prayers they're they're very similar to the one that paul is offering here for the sake of the philippians the philippian prayer falls into the same category it's beautiful it's earnest it's thoughtful now here's there's a few moving parts to this prayer and so to do this I want to unpack the pieces of this prayer I want to just work through these these parts with you here and I want to note specifically here how spiritual fruit actually does come about we're going to talk about that and also how to pray for spiritual fruit as well and so let's look at this together verse nine paul says and this I pray now this is a continuation from the thought in verse four regarding his unceasing prayer joyous prayer and prayer of remembrance for the sake of the philippians so he's continuing in this this desire to pray for them but he prays for them he says that your love may abound still more and more now this one phrase this is paul's central concern for them this unabounding love this word for love is agape there are many words in the greek language for love we know at least of four of the key words designated as love but this word agape this is a very unique love it's a selfless love it's a compassionate love it's actually a god-like love i think it's important to note that he's not praying for god to give them a love that they don't possess it's not that they don't have love they actually do have love in fact inherent in salvation is god's love for the sinful world whereby he sends his only begotten son john 3 16 we know that god gives us that love it's in love ephesians 1 4 that he predestined us to adoption as sons through jesus christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will you could just go verse by verse by verse by verse and we see that god predestined us he called us he regenerated us he justified us he adopted us these are all acts of divine love he didn't owe us any of these gifts he gave these gifts because of his love for us in fact in justifying us justified refers to god declaring us to be righteous in his sight even though we're not he justifies us romans 5 1 and because of this we have peace with god romans 5 says which produces in us a chastening a perseverance a proven character a hope the things that john newton was praying for and seeing in his hymn but verse 5 in romans 5 he says this the hope that god gives us it does not disappoint because the love of god has been poured out within our hearts through the holy spirit who was given to us it's as though god took the full measure of his divine love and poured it into our hearts and filled us to overflow with his own love it's remarkable and so christians are those whom god has forgiven us of our sins and he has set his love upon us and by doing so he compels us by the same holy spirit who indwells in our hearts to love others as ourselves and so it's out of this overflow from god that we are able to love other people our love for others comes from the love that god has poured out within our hearts in fact that's paul's prayer for the church in first thessalonians 3 12 he says that the lord causes you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people just as we also do for you that's his prayer for the thessalonian church you already have god's love poured out on you i'm going to ask the lord to cause you to increase and abound in love now paul doesn't delineate between whether he means a love for god in philippians 1 9 or love for others he just says i'm praying that your love would abound which is it as he praying for love for god to abound or love for others to abound i think both are implied because over and over we see these things connected furthermore 1 john 4 20 says that you can't actually divide these things you can't say that you love god and then not love other people as well there's the old i've heard i know you've heard this saying in many different forms it's it's famous so i i love god but i just can't stand as people it's incongruent i love god but i hate the church then you don't love god you don't because our the evidence for our love for god and his love for us is meted out in how we love other people but paul prays that the philippians love may abound still more and more this word for abound in the greek is paris oh which is denotes abundance or richness or prosperity or overflow essentially paul's saying i want you to be bursting at the seams with love love for god and love for other people as well bursting overflowing well how do we do that that's it that's paul that's a great prayer i would love to do that how do i do it do i just sort of drum it up do we produce this abounding love on our own but paul tells us that actually comes about in real knowledge and all discernment now to be very clear god is the one who causes love to abound he's the one who motivates that in our hearts the more that we grow to love god the more that begins to find its way into our relationships with other people as well so god is the one who causes love to abound but he doesn't do so by tugging at your heartstrings he doesn't do so by stirring up emotionalism we look for that culturally that's that's something we value it's all about our feelings we talked about that i think it was last week a week before we're a culture that's just addicted to emotionalism this makes me feel good and we chase the feelings but that's not how the bible phrases all of these things god causes love to abound through spiritual knowledge spiritual knowledge he uses two words here in the verse the first word he uses is epignosis epignosis it's oftentimes translated translated as knowledge or even recognition there's a prefix at the beginning of it epi which is an intensifier and then gnosis is the word for knowledge and so the nasby the new american standard version which is what we're reading today this renders this as real knowledge other renderings are intensified knowledge intimate knowledge deep knowledge knowledge to the to the highest degree but he also mentions this word for discernment greek is is thesis which is insider experience it's essentially practical understanding so not just the head knowledge but how it all fits together practical understanding of how these things come together well the question for us to consider then is all right how does knowledge and understanding impact our ability to love because love is supposed to be a feeling thing right well if biblical love is really driven by compassion and mercy and selflessness and obedience here's the thing it must be informed by truth it's informed by truth let me give you an example because i was chewing on this this week and i i think this makes sense i think this is right example is this a man walks up to you off the street you don't know who this person is they're a total stranger they walk up to you and they tell you i love you how do you respond well probably a little bit of skepticism maybe some trepidation maybe you're looking around either for candid camera or you're looking for someone to jump out and take your wallet or something right there's there's some nervousness there i don't know if i believe you quite yet but then you obtain some knowledge this man says i love you and you learn you learn that he's been trying to find you for 20 years and then you learn in conversation that he's actually your long lost older brother separated from you when you were a toddler and then you learn that he's got a picture of you in his wallet that's been there for the whole time and then you learn from family members that this man is actually very gracious very generous kind loving he's the kind of person you want to know and then you learn that this kind generous loving older brother that you've never met has paid for all your hospital bills that time that you were sick in the hospital and couldn't figure out how to pay and you learn all this just after meeting him how do you feel now do you love him in return now that he said that yes you would right you would begin to experience the emotions and the feelings based on knowledge but imagine that we're talking about not your brother but your heavenly father who created you who gave you life who sent his only begotten son into the world to give his life for you to hang on a cross to forgive your sins and then adopted you into his family he's given you eternal life he adopts you and then treats you as one of his own children and blesses you with all the heavenly riches in christ imagine that you know that now about the father does that knowledge then lead you into love it most certainly does your knowledge and your understanding they begin to inform your love and actually motivate your love that's why when we talk about relationships we talk about marriage the longer that you get to know them and your hearts are bound together and your knowledge and your intimacy grow your love should grow as well or when you get to know your kids your kids are their own person they're not just cookie cutter beings that come out of the womb i mean they have their own personalities the more you know them the more you begin to love them more and more every day and so again knowledge and understanding inform and motivate love let me give you another example from ephesians 4 32 if you knew that jesus christ had been kind to you and was tender-hearted toward you and if you knew that he did in fact forgive you all of your sins every single one past present future if you knew that and didn't just forgive you and hold it over your head and be mean to you but forgave you and it was the kindness of god that led you to repentance if you knew all of this would that influence how you then love others would that influence how you then treat other people in kindness and tenderness and forgiveness because that's what the verse says be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving each other why knowledge because god in christ jesus has forgiven you the knowledge of what god has done for you motivates action it motivates love again knowledge and understanding they inform and motivate our love for others and our love for god but they also serve another purpose as well not only do they motivate and inform and spur on love but they also regulate how we live they regulate how we live as we abound in love and in real knowledge and all discernment it forms another aspect of our christian walk look at verse 10 verse 10 there's something that's called an ina clause the so that this so that repeats oftentimes throughout scripture and the word so that informs it brings a result an action that's going to or a conclusion that's going to come out of the previous sentence so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of christ let's break this down here this first part of verse 10 contains an interesting phrase so all this abounding in love in verse 9 it says here so that you may approve the things that are excellent this word in the greek for approve is ducky mudso which refers to examining or testing it's the same word that people would use in that time for for testing metals you test the the strength and the composition of metals it's an evaluation of something to test and see if it's genuine or worthy and so there's an evaluation happening there's an approval that you're trying to get to here but what exactly are we examining we're examining the things that are he says excellent diafero in the greek it's in the context referring to something that matters or makes a difference one translation refers to the phrase this way so that you may choose what is vital or the new american or the new international version niv renders this so that you may discern what is best what's the issue at stake here there's a lot of things that compete for our time and energy right there's a lot of things we could be doing in fact everybody today is busy have you ever met a person who wasn't busy you say how are you what are you up to this week i got nothing going on when's the last time you met someone that that was happening right everybody's so busy my six-year-old is busy everybody's busy right there's so much to do well we ask the question well what are the things that we should be doing we're always busy right what what are we busy doing ever ever have this experience where you sit down at the end of your day and you are busy all day long and then when you tally it up you're like what did i do today and you know you were doing things but at the end of the day you cannot reconcile what did i actually do those days happen to us don't they and so christians when we think about our lives when we think about what we're supposed to be busy doing we ought to do the things that are good and the things that are right because obviously god does not want us to do the things that are bad or things that are wrong so we ought to be doing things that are good or right but oftentimes i think the real heart of the matter is not choosing between what is right and wrong good or bad oftentimes it's between choosing what is good better or best because there's lots of things that we want to do and things that might actually be worthy of something let me give you an example it's a good thing to share bible verses on facebook that's not a bad thing right in terms of morally that's a good thing to do but it's better it's better to talk to your friends about what those verses actually mean you see the difference you could spend all day long posting on facebook what were you what were you doing all day off six hours i spent posting verses on facebook that's great but if you said i actually talked to three different people today about jesus that's a lot better again it's not that that one's wrong one's right but thinking about the quality of what we're doing because here's the danger the danger comes when we begin filling our time with things that are of relative little eternal value and yet convincing ourselves that it's the best thing we're very busy doing things that may or may not have actual significance in our lives or to god and the bible actually warns us about this very thing turn over to first corinthians chapter three first corinthians chapter three in first corinthians three paul is he's talking about the nature of his ministry and he he shares the danger of spiritual stagnation he's warning this church the church in corinth they had a lot of problems i mean they were really having a hard time and so paul when he writes the letter i mean he's rebuking them on one side of it but he's also trying to encourage them and teach them on the other side of it too he really does write this letter with a spirit of love he cares for these people but in verse one of chapter three he rebukes the corinthians for their lack of maturity he actually calls them infants in christ you guys think you're mature but you're really not you're infants you're babes in christ they want only milk they don't want any spiritual meat from him they only want milk and he also tells them that you're jealous you're fleshly and you're squabbling with one another over silly things and essentially the substance of this squabble is they're fighting over who gets more glory and prestige in ministry and he says well i'm i belong to the to the paul group i was baptized by this person or that person or i'm with this theological tribe or this one i'm of apollo so i'm a cephas i'm all these different people and they're trying to jockey for position and stature and paul's not having any of it okay so he tells them in chapter 3 verse 10 he says this according to the grace of god which was given to me like a wise master builder i laid a foundation and another is building on it but listen to this each man must be careful how he builds on it for no one can lay a foundation other than the one which has been later is laid which is jesus christ now if any man builds on the foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay straw each man's work will become evident for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work if any man's work which he has built on it remains he will receive a reward if any man's work is burned up he will suffer a loss but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire and so the truth of the matter is is that all of us as believers all of us are engaged in ministry of some kind ministry does not just relegated to pastoral church ministry we're all doing ministry of some kind all christians are called to do the work of the lord all of us are called to build on the foundation that the lord has laid and so the question is well with what are you building there are some works of ministry which the lord regards as gold silver precious stones so there are valuable things we can do to build on the work on the foundation that christ has laid for us we can add value to the kingdom but then there's other things like wood hay and straw and you might say well i like wood wood's a nice a nice uh thing to build with yeah except when you put it in fire right because that's the analogy later on ultimately wood hay and straw these are things without lasting value these are things that when we when the lord ignites all of this these get burned up in the end and in the end on that day verse 13 the day of judgment philippians calls this the day of christ god is going to throw everything everything into his furnace in order to test the work again verse 14 15 if any man's work he has built on it remains if after the ashes have all burned down and there's gold and silver and precious stones in the pile of ashes the lord dusts them off and says these are good but if in the end your work is burned up you're going to suffer loss you mean everything i've tried to do for the kingdom is just burned up in the end it's all gone yes you'll suffer loss now paul's very careful it doesn't mean that you're not saved it just means is that the things that you were doing were not fruitful again this is not loss of salvation but this is how you use your time as a believer the question is are you engaged in the works that will endure to the end are you discerning testing examining in order to approve the things that are of excellent value when was the last time you sat down and thought about what you're doing with your life the decisions that you make the pursuits that you're engaged in the conversations that you have the things that you watch the hobbies that you have everything in your life now is it possible you could drive yourself crazy doing that and some people have but i think a long hard look at what am i doing am i giving my life to serve the lord let me just tell you a secret you don't have to be in full-time ministry to do it you can give your life for christ day in day out in fact that's what he wants you to do work your job but work it to the glory of god raise your kids but raise them to the glory of god engage in your marriage but love your spouse to the glory of god you can do things that bring god honor and glory ephesians 5 16 calls us to make the most use of our time why because the days are evil in other words the days are just flying by aren't they it's september already where'd the summer go i don't know but the days they just fly by and every day that goes by and you watch what's happening in the world you're like man it is so wicked out there and it's easy to fixate on the thing that's wicked and lament that without thinking about what am i doing with the day am i setting my mind in my heart philippians 4 8 on what is good right beautiful true praiseworthy of value am i focused on doing the things that are good and pleasing to the lord and advancing his kingdom are you busy for god or are you just twiddling your thumbs for yourself what are you doing how do you spend your time are you doing things that are of the utmost importance the things that god has called you to do and again i think a danger is that it's easy for us to convince ourselves that what we're doing is what god wants us to do because we want to do it i'm doing the work that god gave me well how do you know well because i really like it maybe that's true but maybe it's not maybe what you're doing is fleshly maybe what you're doing is self-serving maybe what you're doing is in the name of ministry but it's really because you want glory there's always a danger and so the question is have you stopped the lord have you asked him it's important lord what do you want me to do should i be doing this direct me lord guide me are you doing what you're doing in real knowledge and all discernment out of an abounding love for god and others philippians 1 10 says that doing and approving what is excellent produces a desirable outcome what is the desirable outcome look at the verse paul says we do all of this in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of christ the phrase here the day of christ we've already seen this once it appears in verse 6 it's going to appear several other places as well but it's speaking of the day when christ returns to the earth to judge the wicked and to reward the righteous he's coming again revelation 19 tells us all about it he's coming again and when he gets here he's going to judge the wicked and he's going to reward the righteous those who love him and believe in him and trusted him for eternal life but verse 6 says that god continues to sanctify and perfect his people which is going to do until the return of christ and then similarly verse 10 god's people are compelled to maintain a quality of character as believers now again there's a lot of things that we're called to do and be i mean you go through the whole new testament there's lots and lots of commands and exhortations and qualifications and there's lots about christian character in the bible and so you can't just pick out one thing and say okay i'm going to do only this and then none of the rest of it we look at this holistically right however in the context here paul says that our abounding love which grows to knowledge and discernment is to result in a life that is marked by sincerity and blamelessness sincerity and blamelessness this first word is sincere that you may be sincere we get this the english word sincere literally comes from the old phrase without wax in other words it's pure it's without fillers that you're they're not adding wax to fill out an object of something else this is a genuine article a pure thing and so the emphasis with sincerity is on purity and devotion when you think about the the context of what you're doing in your life are you doing things from sincerity are your motives sincere are they pure is your allegiance to christ undivided unmixed with anything else well i want to do this because it's it's good for the kingdom and it's good for me we think that way we're very dichotomous and i'll be the first to tell you i struggle with the very same thing this is good for the kingdom but is it also good for me you got to examine that and really push away at the selfishness and really focus on is this what the lord wants me to do is this good for the kingdom is this what he wants is god glorified by this and paul talks about this very thing he uses the exact same word when talking about preachers who peddle the word of god for greed and fame and that exists even to this day paul dealt with it in his day it exists even today 2 corinthians 2 17 but paul says that he and his companions they engage in ministry preaching he says from sincerity as from god we speak in christ in the sight of god i was just having a before church about the reality that there are pastors and ministry leaders that see the church their home church as merely a stepping stone to a better ministry now i'm not saying there's there's nothing wrong with changing churches and the lord moving you around and that happens sometimes but there is the underbelly of professional ministry where someone gets into a small church his star grows he goes to a bigger church and a bigger church and a bigger church next to you know he's on the top of the world big huge platform not because god put him there but because he advanced what are the motives behind that again that's not always wrong but you have to ask the question why am i here do i see ministry is just a way to advance myself like a career or his ministry is the church ultimately for the people of god for the glory of god from sincerity paul ministered from sincerity what are our motives in the christian life and ministry and how we serve why do you serve there are those who serve they love to serve in obscurity in the back they don't want anybody seeing them i tell you i love when i know about those kinds of i know more than you think i know but when i when i hear about people who are serving quietly no one will ever know what they're doing that's that's precious in god's sight but ask yourself am i serving in this more visible thing because i want people to see me doing it that's very tricky on the heart isn't it examine yourself are your motives pure are they sincere or are we hoping to cash in for ourselves our love ought to abound in sincerity but also he says in blamelessness apros skopos in the greek it's without offense without causing stumbling we can't abound in love if we're doing so at the expense of others to their hurt romans 13 10 love does no wrong to a neighbor romans 14 13 determine he says believer is determined in yourselves not to put a stumbling block or an obstacle in a brother's way or remember the warnings of jesus in matthew 18 about the damning dangers of causing others to stumble he goes if you're going to cause one of my little ones to stumble it's better for you to be drowned than to cause them to stumble in their faith in fact much of the christian life is learning how to love others and not hurt them unnecessarily ever think about that i need to love people without hurting them it's challenging sometimes isn't it but consider what paul says later just dart your eyes over the page at philippians chapter 2 paul addresses this very thing he says therefore if there is any encouragement in christ if there is any consolation of love if there is any fellowship of the spirit if there's any affection and compassion make my joy complete by being of the same mind maintaining the same love united in spirit intent on one purpose and you might pause and say all right paul how do i do that look at verse three do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves do not merely look out for your own personal interests but also for the interest of others and just in case you want a model of who did that the best perfectly verse five to verse 11 says jesus did jesus is the epitome of humility and self-sacrifice and so if jesus was willing to humble himself to the point of death for you then you can humble yourself a little bit for the benefit of others so that's the challenge i want to be sincere in my love but i also want to be blameless i don't want to cause anybody else to stumble i don't want to hurt people again this is a picture of humility sincerity blamelessness and that should characterize our christian lives to be abounding in love bursting at the seams increasing in knowledge and spiritual understanding discerning how to best use our time walking in sincerity not causing others to stumble along the way well then you might say well that's that seems like a lot how long do i have to do this the answer until the day of christ we're going to do this to the very end believers now we might be tempted to be nervous about this we have to live the rest of our lives this way but the question is what if i don't have what it takes to be faithful to the end but as paul prays for the philippian spiritual progress he reminds them look at the encouragement in verse 11 he is reminding them that they already have been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through jesus christ you don't have to do this on your own in fact you can't do this on your own you have already been filled in this concept the fruit of righteousness this is actually an old testament concept altogether proverbs 11 30 talks about the fruit of the righteous being a tree of life amos 6 12 warns against poisoning justice and turning the fruit of righteousness into wormwood but what does paul mean here the word righteousness is dikaiosune it's refers to many uses but the righteousness of christ is how we're justified we receive his perfect righteousness credited to us by faith and whereby he actually takes on our sinfulness and wraps him wraps it around himself on the cross and dies with our wretchedness on him while we receive the benefit of his righteousness so that's what's called imputed or credited righteousness in justification this is salvation another word for that is legal or forensic and so that's i don't think that's the kind of righteousness the fruit of righteousness that paul's talking about here rather that's more of an ethical meaning what am i talking about in other words it's the righteous fruit that proceeds from within the heart of the believer who was already in christ so christ saves you he places his righteousness on your account you receive the benefits of his righteousness and yet in doing so you are regenerated you're transformed from the inside out and as you begin to grow in christ likeness the fruit of righteousness begins to pour out of you this fruit of righteousness we see this in galatians 5 don't we the fruit of the spirit what's the very first thing he says love fruit of the spirit is love and joy peace patience and kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control this is all the fruit of the spirit but again we don't just conjure this up i don't get up in the morning have a cup of coffee and go i have to go be godly today it doesn't work that way he's producing this in you there's fruit that is budding and growing inside of you because of the spirit's work in you and furthermore this fruit of righteousness is nothing you can take credit for you can't walk around and say well look how much fruit i've got you didn't grow it god did well it comes through christ all of this is in christ remember john 15 where jesus says i am the vine you are the branches you're the branches i'm the vine he says apart from me you can bear nothing but in me you can bear fruit and so our job is to remain in him close to him obeying him abiding in him so that we can bear fruit recognizing when we do bear fruit it's coming from the rich spiritual sap that is christ it's his blood flowing through us spiritually speaking all of this is through christ but it's also for christ to be more specific paul says it is to the glory and praise of god and so this is where paul's whole prayer is driving toward this marvelous conclusion so yes he's praying for their love to abound yes he's praying for them to grow in knowledge and understanding yes he's praying for them to live their christian lives to the fullest making the best use of their time living above reproach but ultimately paul's prayer is for believers to live in such a way that god is glorified and praised didn't jesus say in matthew 15 16 that we are to live in such a way as shining lights whereby others would see our good works and glorify the father who's in heaven isn't that the goal consider this and this is rhetorical this is not a condemnation but ponder this thought ponder this when other people look at my life and they see the things that i'm doing do they give glory and praise to god or do they praise me or do they deride me because my life is wicked ask yourself the question does my life bring glory to god paul's prayer is that it would in fact paul's prayer our prayer ought to be for love and fruitfulness of others when you pray for other people pray these kinds of things for them it's good to pray for their spiritual healing and their well-being and their financial situation and their relationships and all those things but pray like paul prays where we grow in love for god and others where we grow in wisdom and knowledge and understanding and discernment we grow in our focus on doing the best things again not just the good things or the better things but the best things for god we grow to be sincere and devoted and upright where we're fruitful in christ pray that others and for yourself that their lives would be praiseworthy and glorifying to the lord that's how paul prays for the churches that's what he's looking for and i think he's in the spirit in this way god desires that we would also pray for one another in such a way a prayer for spiritual growth let's pray together heavenly father thank you for your word lord even in the introduction to a letter we see so much spiritual truth here we are trained and instructed and made wise to spiritual things and lord through this we can see a model for the kinds of things that you want us to ask for and lord again i believe that it's right for us to bring all these things all concerns to you you'll never turn us away you're our good heavenly father and yet lord i pray that you would help us to seek the best things and lord as we consider just even the content for today father in heaven i pray that you would cause believers in this church their love to abound still more and more that they would love you supremely and they would have love for one another and lord i pray that you would grant them spiritual understanding and wisdom that you would cause their minds and their hearts to seek to know that they wouldn't just be satisfied with yesterday's bible lesson or last year's book but rather that they would seek earnestly to know you more and more and to understand their faith and lord we also pray that you would cause them to abound and do the things that are most excellent lord that we would be a church committed to doing the best things that we would ascertain the most fruitful ways to engage in ministry lord you know there are so many things that we could do as a church but we're always needing to ask you what do you want us to do with our time and energy lord i pray that you would give us wisdom to know what to do lord help your people to be sincere help them to be blameless on their motives we would not seek ourselves but we would seek your glory and lord we know that you filled us with the fruit of righteousness which comes only in christ but i pray that in that fruitfulness that your people would live lives in such a way that you would be praised and you'd be glorified and so father i pray on behalf of all of your people that you would glorify yourself through us we pray all these things to the praise of your glorious name amen