2019-8-21 Wed Bible Study Lesson 2

00:00:00.000 | (audience chattering)

00:00:03.160 | - Hello, hello, okay.

00:00:07.660 | All right, apologies for if you guys didn't get to finish

00:00:11.980 | talking about the passage.

00:00:14.240 | Let's all take a moment to go before the Lord

00:00:16.440 | and ask him to bless our review of the passage.

00:00:20.560 | Heavenly Father, we again want to express our gratitude.

00:00:26.680 | We thank you so much, God,

00:00:28.120 | and we really do pray that as we continue to discuss

00:00:32.680 | and study your word, help us, Father God, to grow.

00:00:36.460 | Lord, I pray that we would, yes,

00:00:38.800 | grow in knowledge and truth,

00:00:40.540 | but I pray that we would not be those

00:00:42.560 | who are ever growing in simple propositions

00:00:46.500 | and yet not maturing.

00:00:48.340 | I pray, God, that the maturity of our thought,

00:00:51.880 | maturity of our even feelings,

00:00:55.140 | and of course, Lord God,

00:00:56.320 | the maturity of our obedience to you would be growing.

00:01:00.000 | And God, that as you are guiding us along

00:01:03.120 | in being sanctified,

00:01:04.720 | being conformed to the image of your son,

00:01:07.200 | I ask, God, that you continue to bless our path.

00:01:09.600 | We thank you in Christ's name, amen.

00:01:11.520 | Okay, so what I like to do is just begin

00:01:15.320 | by reading our passage.

00:01:16.780 | And so starting from verse three, I'll begin,

00:01:22.240 | and it says, "I thank my God

00:01:23.840 | "in all my remembrance of you,

00:01:26.240 | "always offering prayer with joy

00:01:28.140 | "in my every prayer for you all,

00:01:31.660 | "in view of your participation in the gospel

00:01:33.940 | "from the first day until now.

00:01:36.120 | "For I am confident of this very thing,

00:01:38.220 | "that he who began a good work in you

00:01:40.700 | "will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

00:01:43.920 | "For it is only right for me to feel this way

00:01:45.980 | "about you all, because I have you in my heart.

00:01:49.400 | "Since both in my imprisonment and in the defense

00:01:51.760 | "and confirmation of the gospel,

00:01:53.120 | "you are all partakers of grace with me.

00:01:56.520 | "For God is my witness, how I long for you,

00:01:59.420 | "how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

00:02:04.040 | "And this I pray, that your love may abound

00:02:06.840 | "still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,

00:02:10.260 | "so that you may approve the things that are excellent

00:02:12.960 | "in order to be sincere and blameless

00:02:14.900 | "until the day of Christ,

00:02:16.500 | "having been filled with the fruit of righteousness,

00:02:18.880 | "which comes through Jesus Christ,

00:02:21.160 | "to the glory and praise of God, amen."

00:02:25.040 | Now, I wanna make mention again that because

00:02:28.160 | the purpose of me going over the passage

00:02:30.800 | is to really highlight for you

00:02:32.760 | what are the essential portions,

00:02:35.340 | or I guess the major themes of the passage.

00:02:37.760 | We're not gonna be able to cover every segment,

00:02:40.600 | but those observations are things for you to discuss,

00:02:42.960 | so I hope you guys had a good time

00:02:44.680 | of discussing with each other.

00:02:46.640 | What I'd like to do first is take a moment

00:02:48.600 | to really feel the thrust of this beginning paragraph.

00:02:53.600 | And typically, as Apostle Paul is addressing the church,

00:02:57.040 | he describes and expresses his heart.

00:02:59.960 | And so in this very first section,

00:03:02.720 | I put a line in the paragraph

00:03:05.400 | and started to outline, or I guess break down,

00:03:08.360 | the passage into two segments.

00:03:10.500 | The first segment being verses three through eight.

00:03:14.160 | And what I'm gonna do here is every aspect

00:03:17.160 | of what Apostle Paul feels in his heart,

00:03:20.480 | in every aspect of his attitude towards his church,

00:03:23.880 | I wanna make sure to highlight because clearly,

00:03:26.400 | he is expressing very vulnerably and openly

00:03:30.440 | how he feels about this church.

00:03:32.520 | So as I read this, I'm gonna highlight as I go.

00:03:37.200 | Apostle Paul says this.

00:03:39.000 | "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you."

00:03:43.040 | So clearly, he is having this,

00:03:46.440 | you know, I guess you can call it a nostalgic moment.

00:03:49.440 | But he is, again, either chained to a guard

00:03:52.080 | or he is in prison.

00:03:54.400 | And as he's thinking about them,

00:03:56.760 | he is incredibly grateful, right?

00:03:58.960 | He is very thankful.

00:04:00.280 | And then he says, "Always offering prayer with joy."

00:04:03.640 | So he is prayerful and joyful.

00:04:06.680 | "In my every prayer for you all,

00:04:08.760 | "in view of your participation in the gospel

00:04:10.800 | "from the first day until now."

00:04:12.920 | And then he says, "For I am confident."

00:04:15.860 | So Apostle Paul in his attitude has a great confidence

00:04:18.720 | of this very thing.

00:04:20.200 | What is that?

00:04:21.040 | "That he who began a good work in you

00:04:23.200 | "will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

00:04:26.780 | "For it is only right for me to feel this way about you."

00:04:30.640 | So what he expresses is this feeling he has

00:04:33.340 | and what that is is I have you in my heart.

00:04:36.440 | "Since both in my imprisonment,

00:04:38.000 | "in the defense and confirmation of the gospel,

00:04:40.600 | "you are all partakers of grace with me.

00:04:43.640 | "For God is my witness how I long for you."

00:04:46.780 | So there he expresses his heart again,

00:04:49.060 | "With the affection of Jesus Christ."

00:04:52.900 | All right, now as we think about this then,

00:04:57.900 | what I highlighted is Apostle Paul's

00:05:01.000 | heart towards the church.

00:05:02.620 | And that's the first observation

00:05:04.160 | I wanna basically highlight to you.

00:05:06.580 | I'm gonna take a moment to write that down.

00:05:12.540 | Okay, so as we think about this though,

00:05:15.960 | I wanna highlight several aspects of what I notice here.

00:05:19.920 | Just so that we can really learn and glean

00:05:22.260 | from Apostle Paul's mentality,

00:05:24.420 | so that we would also follow in the same mentality.

00:05:27.780 | As I observe this, there is definitely this gratitude,

00:05:32.660 | there is a joy, there is a confidence,

00:05:35.820 | but what he highlights, right,

00:05:37.740 | is his feeling towards them.

00:05:39.460 | And he says, "I have you in my heart.

00:05:41.460 | "I long for you all with the affection of Christ."

00:05:44.580 | So there are a couple things I wanna highlight here, okay,

00:05:47.500 | are these.

00:05:48.360 | I wanna highlight those things.

00:05:51.860 | Now, we could actually spend a lot of time

00:05:54.180 | talking about all of those,

00:05:56.060 | whether it be the feelings of gratitude

00:05:57.940 | or the devotion in prayer, how, you know,

00:06:00.220 | we think about are there people in your life

00:06:02.780 | where you care for them so much

00:06:04.480 | that in terms of everyday prayer,

00:06:07.420 | like those are the individuals that come to mind, right?

00:06:10.240 | The people you love the most,

00:06:12.060 | most often it's probably your family members,

00:06:14.400 | maybe family members who aren't saved or whatnot,

00:06:16.780 | that you pray for often,

00:06:18.300 | that you pray for whenever you get a chance,

00:06:19.900 | when you think about someone to lift up to the Lord,

00:06:21.700 | that's who you go to, right?

00:06:23.420 | Now, as I think about that then,

00:06:26.240 | here's what I would like to say.

00:06:28.060 | Couple things.

00:06:28.900 | One, Apostle Paul has these interesting terminology

00:06:32.780 | where he says, "I long for you," right?

00:06:35.740 | He says, "I long for you."

00:06:37.680 | Now, I kind of mentioned to our group

00:06:40.420 | that's not normal dude talk, right?

00:06:42.860 | When a guy is writing to people,

00:06:44.180 | he doesn't say it like, "I long for you," okay?

00:06:47.020 | Now, it is exactly as that sounds.

00:06:49.580 | In other passages, for example,

00:06:51.820 | within the same book, chapter four, verse one,

00:06:54.280 | Apostle Paul says, "My brethren,

00:06:56.300 | "whom I long to see my joy and crown," right?

00:07:01.140 | He is literally talking about

00:07:03.460 | a strong longing to see somebody.

00:07:05.620 | He misses them, he wants to be in their presence.

00:07:08.800 | That's a really emphatic way of talking about

00:07:10.780 | how he feels about this church.

00:07:13.980 | What's more, he gets really descriptive.

00:07:17.520 | I would like to say he gets super emotional.

00:07:20.140 | Why am I saying that?

00:07:21.700 | Because there's an interesting terminology he uses.

00:07:24.360 | Not only does he say, "I long for you,"

00:07:26.240 | he says, "with the affection of Jesus Christ," okay?

00:07:30.200 | As you guys know, the Greek language

00:07:32.960 | is much more descriptive and also expansive

00:07:35.920 | than the English language.

00:07:37.220 | It has thousands more vocabularies,

00:07:39.400 | so there's different ways of articulating the same thought.

00:07:42.880 | What's very interesting is this idea of affection

00:07:46.040 | literally means the inside organs, the bowels,

00:07:50.680 | the kind of feels that moves the insides, right?

00:07:55.520 | If you were to think about a moment

00:07:56.920 | where there was such emotion,

00:07:58.360 | you literally had a physical response,

00:08:01.580 | whether you were breathing hard,

00:08:03.160 | whether you got hot and you started sweating,

00:08:05.440 | whether you felt like you were gonna vomit, right,

00:08:07.800 | and your stomach was about to turn,

00:08:09.720 | typically those are the feelings of like

00:08:11.260 | when you get shocked and scared

00:08:13.000 | and when you get moved because of something you saw.

00:08:15.640 | Here, Paul's talking about his affection,

00:08:20.400 | and then the term is, here, I actually have a

00:08:22.800 | excerpt, okay?

00:08:26.320 | It's an interesting term.

00:08:27.800 | It's splachnon, okay?

00:08:30.280 | It means the intestines bows, right?

00:08:33.180 | It is this visceral reaction to something.

00:08:36.060 | Now, as we think about that,

00:08:37.500 | I want us to take a moment to think about

00:08:39.380 | the way Apostle Paul is writing to his church.

00:08:42.480 | Man, when he says, when I think of you,

00:08:46.860 | I'm like joyful, I'm thankful.

00:08:50.020 | I want you to see how much he's heightening that.

00:08:52.900 | And then we ask ourselves immediately this question,

00:08:54.980 | oh man, are there people in our lives

00:08:58.540 | whom we want to bless and minister to

00:09:01.820 | where we have that kind of range of emotion, right?

00:09:06.700 | Now, let's take it another step, okay?

00:09:09.200 | If you take a moment to think about

00:09:11.820 | what the way Apostle Paul is describing this,

00:09:14.100 | he says not only does he feel this way,

00:09:16.740 | but he longs for them with the affection of Jesus Christ,

00:09:20.520 | of Christ Jesus.

00:09:21.620 | Now, if you're gonna say something like that,

00:09:25.020 | it's like I love you,

00:09:26.820 | now is he saying the same way Jesus does, right?

00:09:29.820 | That would be crazy because Jesus sacrificed himself.

00:09:33.300 | The depth of his love where he goes

00:09:35.580 | from the heights of heaven to the bottoms,

00:09:37.820 | the earth below, the creation that he made.

00:09:40.860 | How can anyone say I love you the same way, right?

00:09:44.980 | That would be pretty intense.

00:09:47.060 | Now, I don't have the opportunity to ask Apostle Paul,

00:09:50.140 | Paul, what did you mean, right?

00:09:52.140 | But very clearly, with the empowering love

00:09:54.900 | that he knows of Christ,

00:09:57.220 | with the kind of sacrificial,

00:09:59.180 | with the kind of brotherly,

00:10:01.260 | the kind of brotherly where he's willing

00:10:02.940 | to lay down his life for these individuals,

00:10:05.360 | could Apostle Paul say that?

00:10:06.680 | Absolutely.

00:10:07.980 | Think again about where he is.

00:10:09.580 | Apostle Paul loves these people

00:10:12.780 | with an incredible, incredible love,

00:10:14.740 | and then he heightens that even more, how?

00:10:17.580 | If you notice, he says, "For God is my witness," right?

00:10:21.480 | Have you guys ever done that?

00:10:25.100 | Nobody was questioning him.

00:10:26.340 | Nobody was sitting there like,

00:10:27.180 | "Paul, do you love us?"

00:10:29.380 | At least the Philippians weren't, maybe other people,

00:10:31.880 | but at least the Philippians weren't.

00:10:33.380 | The Philippians actually received this word

00:10:35.220 | from the beginning.

00:10:36.140 | The Philippians actually were really, really receptive

00:10:38.660 | to Apostle Paul, but he says to even heighten the degree

00:10:42.940 | and just expression of his love,

00:10:44.680 | "God is my witness," right?

00:10:47.860 | My conscience is absolutely clear.

00:10:50.980 | I absolutely love you.

00:10:53.380 | Now, not only then does he get emotional,

00:10:56.900 | not only does he long for them,

00:10:59.580 | in such descriptive ways,

00:11:01.220 | Apostle Paul's heart is deeply, deeply in care,

00:11:06.220 | concern, and love for these people.

00:11:09.700 | And as a quick way of just kind of challenging us,

00:11:12.900 | man, I was thinking, like, man, outside of my family,

00:11:17.900 | outside of my wife, my children,

00:11:21.580 | people who are blood relatives,

00:11:23.540 | do I love people in this fashion?

00:11:27.140 | Where I would devote that kind of extensive time,

00:11:29.660 | that kind of investment in prayer,

00:11:32.100 | where I wouldn't feel crazy awkward saying,

00:11:34.700 | "I miss you, man," you know?

00:11:36.020 | Like, "I wanna see you, it's been too long," you know?

00:11:38.580 | Like, am I in that kind of an expressive love

00:11:43.340 | to an individual that I could say all of that

00:11:45.140 | and be like, "God is my witness, I love you,

00:11:48.140 | "and look at the degree to which I wanna sacrifice for you."

00:11:52.140 | And the crazy thing about it is, yeah,

00:11:54.620 | this isn't like his literal children,

00:11:58.620 | these are full-grown adults.

00:12:01.140 | These aren't people that lived 30 years with him,

00:12:03.940 | these are people he spent a season with.

00:12:06.340 | These are people he spent a time with

00:12:08.260 | as he moved along, right?

00:12:10.020 | But remember, the power of the kind of love

00:12:14.180 | that we receive in the gospel,

00:12:16.300 | the kind of divine love we receive through Jesus Christ,

00:12:20.180 | it is so powerful, it is not confined

00:12:22.300 | just because we spent tons of quality time together.

00:12:26.340 | It is not confined just because we have all kinds

00:12:29.060 | of similarities and same ethnic group

00:12:32.020 | or same demographics and same all of this,

00:12:34.780 | it is superseding all of that, right?

00:12:38.460 | Can two believers come together

00:12:40.500 | and have incredible love for each other,

00:12:42.940 | even in a short amount of time?

00:12:44.860 | Absolutely.

00:12:46.860 | Can two believers come together

00:12:49.580 | and express this kind of love,

00:12:51.860 | even amongst full-grown men

00:12:53.500 | who never ever communicated this way?

00:12:55.660 | Absolutely, right?

00:12:59.020 | And I just wanna challenge every single one of you.

00:13:01.460 | Perhaps you come from backgrounds

00:13:03.100 | that don't practice love like this, you know?

00:13:05.660 | You never say stuff like, "I miss you,

00:13:08.740 | "I really wanna see you," right?

00:13:10.900 | Maybe you just never grew up that way,

00:13:13.300 | maybe you just never heard that in your home.

00:13:16.700 | But we're being challenged by Apostle Paul's love

00:13:20.420 | because this is the kind of love God desires

00:13:23.260 | every single one of us to show the people around us,

00:13:26.980 | especially those within our church, okay?

00:13:30.380 | So that's the first observation that I saw.

00:13:33.660 | Man, what an incredible kind of heart

00:13:36.700 | Apostle Paul has for this church.

00:13:39.620 | Okay, oh man, that went kinda long on that one.

00:13:43.300 | All right, observation number two.

00:13:45.780 | Okay, observation number two.

00:13:47.900 | We have to ask this question,

00:13:49.340 | okay, Apostle Paul describes his heart,

00:13:52.900 | but he also describes what he sees within the church, okay?

00:13:57.580 | So my main question really is,

00:14:00.700 | when Apostle Paul says, "I am so thankful

00:14:03.300 | "when I think of you," what is he thinking about?

00:14:07.100 | "I'm so joyous when I pray for you,"

00:14:10.180 | what was he thinking about?

00:14:11.900 | And he actually says, right?

00:14:13.140 | So I'm gonna read it again,

00:14:14.780 | it's really helpful practice for us

00:14:16.820 | to read the passage over and over again,

00:14:19.300 | to soak in it, right?

00:14:20.900 | And he says this, "I thank my God

00:14:22.700 | "in all my remembrance of you," okay?

00:14:24.900 | So he's just thinking about the church,

00:14:26.380 | and he says, "Always offering up prayers with joy

00:14:28.620 | "in my prayer for you all."

00:14:30.580 | He's thinking about the whole church,

00:14:32.860 | and then more specifically he says this,

00:14:35.180 | which is the giveaway, "In view of your participation," okay?

00:14:40.180 | So here is a highlight.

00:14:43.700 | Now what's more, it says, "In the gospel

00:14:45.060 | "from the first day until now,

00:14:46.940 | "I am confident in this very thing,"

00:14:49.500 | what is Apostle Paul thinking about?

00:14:51.580 | That there is a good work,

00:14:53.820 | that there is a process that Jesus Christ is working in you,

00:14:57.220 | and he will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

00:15:00.780 | What's more, "It is only right for me

00:15:02.580 | "to feel this way about you all

00:15:04.060 | "because I have you in my heart since,

00:15:06.900 | "both in my imprisonment and in my defense

00:15:10.380 | "and the confirmation of the gospel,

00:15:12.660 | "you are all partakers of grace with me."

00:15:16.180 | So we ask this question,

00:15:18.060 | man, what is causing Apostle Paul to be super thankful?

00:15:22.340 | What is causing Apostle Paul to be super joyful, okay?

00:15:26.700 | And this is my observation too, okay?

00:15:30.860 | Whoops, I put a dot there,

00:15:34.100 | and then didn't really write it down,

00:15:35.620 | just for quick review.

00:15:37.100 | He said, "I long for you," which is one of the thing.

00:15:40.340 | The other thing is his affection,

00:15:42.660 | and then the last thing is of Christ, okay?

00:15:48.300 | But the observation too is what is he looking at,

00:15:51.820 | and very clearly and specifically he says

00:15:54.740 | it is the participation, right?

00:15:58.700 | It is being partakers of the same grace.

00:16:02.740 | This term is koinonia.

00:16:05.100 | This term is fellowship.

00:16:07.660 | When he's thinking about them,

00:16:09.580 | yes, he is absolutely confident

00:16:11.660 | that Jesus is working in them.

00:16:13.900 | Yes, he's absolutely confident that these individuals

00:16:16.620 | are in that faithful, believing process

00:16:19.980 | of being sanctified by Christ,

00:16:22.700 | but what he emphasizes is that there is a fellowship here.

00:16:27.500 | What he emphasizes is that there is a mutual participation

00:16:30.940 | in the gospel ministry,

00:16:32.700 | and what's crazy about that is he calls it grace, right?

00:16:37.820 | His perspective on what they're experiencing together

00:16:41.580 | is a grace toward all of them.

00:16:44.220 | Now, as we think about this then,

00:16:46.900 | I want us to think about this idea.

00:16:49.940 | Is there joy in church fellowship?

00:16:54.140 | Is there joy between the relationships that you have

00:16:59.340 | amongst fellow sisters and fellow brothers in Christ?

00:17:02.740 | Now, as we think about that question,

00:17:06.140 | we have to understand that this idea of a mutual feeling,

00:17:11.140 | like we're being blessed,

00:17:14.980 | is currently being experienced

00:17:16.660 | by Apostle Paul and the church.

00:17:18.300 | Why?

00:17:19.540 | Because they're participating in the gospel together, right?

00:17:24.540 | So as we think about this fellowship,

00:17:26.340 | we have to kind of think about

00:17:27.540 | our current state of fellowship

00:17:29.220 | and ask a really important question.

00:17:31.940 | Is the kind of fellowship that we're practicing

00:17:35.540 | watered down?

00:17:36.500 | Is the kind of fellowship that we're practicing

00:17:39.980 | a little distracted?

00:17:41.580 | Because if we have a distracted or watered down fellowship,

00:17:45.340 | that means that the degree and the range of joy,

00:17:49.420 | gratitude, and the mutual experience

00:17:51.580 | is also going to be watered down.

00:17:54.020 | What am I saying?

00:17:55.540 | Apostle Paul's gratitude and thankfulness and joy

00:17:58.340 | is up here right now, right?

00:17:59.820 | He's like, "Oh, I'm so thankful to God.

00:18:01.980 | "I am praying with joy all the time."

00:18:05.300 | Part of that is why.

00:18:06.420 | It's because of the kind of fellowship

00:18:10.300 | he's having with these brothers and sisters in Christ.

00:18:13.060 | Think about that.

00:18:16.060 | That means if within the church

00:18:17.940 | we're having watered down community time,

00:18:20.700 | where we're just here in the same place,

00:18:23.100 | but there isn't actually a investment

00:18:26.100 | in the gospel together,

00:18:28.060 | there isn't actually a mutual experience of fellowship,

00:18:33.100 | of working towards exalting Christ,

00:18:35.700 | then honestly speaking, the range of emotions

00:18:39.300 | is also going to be here, right?

00:18:42.260 | So as we think about this observation number two,

00:18:46.540 | we think about the kind of participation and fellowship has,

00:18:50.820 | and in all honesty, we want that.

00:18:53.260 | We wanna have a kind of fellowship

00:18:56.180 | that produces an incredible amount of encouragement,

00:18:59.180 | that produces incredible amount of thankfulness,

00:19:02.060 | and so we have to ask the question,

00:19:04.340 | are we then participating together in the gospel?

00:19:08.460 | Okay?

00:19:09.460 | All right.

00:19:10.540 | Moving to the third observation.

00:19:13.100 | Oops.

00:19:13.940 | Moving to observation number three.

00:19:17.900 | What I'd like to observe here

00:19:22.180 | is to move to the next portion of the passage and say,

00:19:25.020 | okay, we've really seen Apostle Paul's heart

00:19:27.980 | and what he's viewing.

00:19:29.620 | Then let's move to the next section

00:19:31.700 | where he is talking about his prayer.

00:19:34.180 | So today, I called it his heart and his prayer,

00:19:36.860 | the two parts of this paragraph.

00:19:39.180 | In verse nine through 11, he says this,

00:19:41.540 | "In this I pray, that your love may abound

00:19:44.300 | "still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,

00:19:48.220 | "so that you may approve the things that are excellent,

00:19:51.160 | "in order to be sincere and blameless

00:19:53.260 | "until the day of Christ,

00:19:55.120 | "having been filled with the fruit of the righteousness

00:19:59.020 | "which comes through Jesus Christ,

00:20:00.940 | "to the glory and praise of God."

00:20:03.660 | Okay?

00:20:04.660 | There's a lot there,

00:20:06.180 | but we simply just have to ask the question, right?

00:20:09.620 | What's his prayer?

00:20:13.940 | I know sometimes it's just like

00:20:15.380 | a way too obvious of a question, what's there?

00:20:18.540 | But really, we should soak that in, right?

00:20:21.340 | What is he praying for?

00:20:23.500 | And what's really clear and evident

00:20:25.080 | is just simply this fact, number one,

00:20:27.240 | that your love may abound still more

00:20:30.640 | in real knowledge and discernment, okay?

00:20:33.340 | And then it continues to move

00:20:35.300 | in this kind of chain-link fashion

00:20:37.580 | that they may be able to prove,

00:20:39.220 | that they may be sincere and blameless,

00:20:41.020 | and that this would all be to the glory and praise of God.

00:20:44.820 | So I'm gonna highlight a couple of those things,

00:20:46.740 | that they may be able to prove,

00:20:48.900 | they may be sincere and blameless,

00:20:51.540 | or filled with the Spirit,

00:20:53.100 | and then ultimately to the praise and glory of God, okay?

00:20:56.260 | So we're seeing this progressive result

00:20:58.940 | of them growing more and more, okay?

00:21:03.100 | But let's take a moment to think about this.

00:21:06.480 | I hope you guys got a chance to ask this question.

00:21:10.220 | Hmm, what kind of love is this, right?

00:21:14.460 | Apostle Paul is praying that all these individuals

00:21:18.420 | would be growing even more than where they're at now.

00:21:21.860 | I want you to take a moment to think about that.

00:21:24.100 | These individuals already love to a degree,

00:21:28.380 | but remember 2 Corinthians chapter eight,

00:21:30.700 | they are willing to sacrifice their finances

00:21:33.980 | even beyond what seems natural,

00:21:36.260 | even beyond what seems manageable,

00:21:40.060 | even beyond what seems safe, right?

00:21:43.340 | These are individuals who have participated

00:21:46.020 | by actually sending somebody to make sure

00:21:48.100 | that they're caring for Apostle Paul.

00:21:51.500 | What's more, while Apostle Paul was ministering in Philippi,

00:21:56.840 | it's safe to assume that individuals from this church now,

00:22:01.580 | the people who are hearing the gospel,

00:22:03.600 | they weren't afraid to associate with him.

00:22:05.840 | They weren't thinking, oh shoot, look, he's getting arrested.

00:22:08.440 | Hey, hey, just stay quiet, right?

00:22:11.000 | Some of them were calling to say, hey, wait a minute,

00:22:12.940 | we're with that guy, you know?

00:22:15.440 | I'm kind of reading between the lines here,

00:22:16.960 | but I'm assuming they weren't just stiff-arming him

00:22:20.120 | and pushing him off and pushing him off to a degree

00:22:22.400 | and just watching from a safe distance

00:22:24.220 | when Apostle Paul says, you are partakers with me, right?

00:22:28.020 | Okay, what I'm saying is these are individuals

00:22:31.020 | who already had a certain level of commitment and devotion

00:22:35.220 | that showed their love for Apostle Paul

00:22:37.640 | and ultimately for God.

00:22:39.100 | Now, Apostle Paul says, I want you to grow even more, right?

00:22:45.260 | I want you to grow even more.

00:22:47.740 | So we think about this,

00:22:49.580 | and I kind of want to highlight this idea.

00:22:53.620 | Apostle Paul said, I am really, really confident

00:22:57.180 | and convinced of this.

00:22:58.980 | Clearly, Christ is working in you,

00:23:01.260 | and I am confident that he's going to bring it to completion.

00:23:04.300 | Apostle Paul all the more desires

00:23:08.800 | that even if they're a healthy church,

00:23:10.920 | even if they're showing fruits of the Spirit,

00:23:13.860 | that they need to dig deeper and grow even more.

00:23:17.820 | He is encouraging a church that has good qualities already,

00:23:21.540 | but he's saying, remember,

00:23:23.700 | our standard is not better than others.

00:23:26.060 | Our standard is not simply better than I was before.

00:23:29.140 | Our standard is the full measure of Christ.

00:23:33.060 | And if you guys remember in the book of Colossians,

00:23:35.140 | when Apostle Paul talks about his vision for that church,

00:23:38.420 | he said, I devote myself to teaching, admonishing,

00:23:42.540 | every single individual, constantly teaching about Christ

00:23:45.340 | to present you complete in Christ,

00:23:49.060 | that the image of Christ will be perfected in you.

00:23:51.520 | And I want to make a quick challenge to you.

00:23:55.320 | When you hear the Bible tell you,

00:23:57.900 | still, more and more,

00:24:01.100 | I want you to abound even more,

00:24:03.540 | how do you receive that?

00:24:06.460 | For those of you who are already working hard,

00:24:08.440 | serving hard, loving, how do you receive that?

00:24:12.100 | Do you think like, yeah, man,

00:24:14.860 | you need to go and do this, you know?

00:24:17.300 | Are you immediately thinking about the people

00:24:19.140 | who need to hear it, or are you receiving it

00:24:20.820 | as a convicting passage for you?

00:24:23.460 | That even though you are already laboring,

00:24:27.380 | that God desires for you to grow even more.

00:24:30.700 | And what's very interesting about this, he says,

00:24:32.980 | I want you to grow in love, and the term there is agape.

00:24:37.980 | I want you to grow in that kind of relational,

00:24:40.900 | covenantal, unconditional love,

00:24:43.620 | which is the distinguishing mark of a true believer.

00:24:47.660 | Remember that if a Christian, if we were to think,

00:24:52.140 | what do we have to offer to the world?

00:24:54.040 | What do we have to give?

00:24:57.140 | If you're sitting there thinking,

00:24:58.780 | I don't know, I've got no skills,

00:25:00.620 | we're talking about serving,

00:25:02.180 | and we're talking about loving and stuff,

00:25:03.740 | I'm just, I don't know what I've got to give.

00:25:05.980 | Remember that we, by nature of our salvation,

00:25:11.020 | and the love that we receive from God,

00:25:13.460 | have something so divinely powerful,

00:25:17.540 | it radically, radically changes who we are, right?

00:25:21.460 | And scripture says this is the defining thing about you.

00:25:24.700 | How do you know that you have passed from death to life?

00:25:27.700 | Because you have love for the brethren.

00:25:29.860 | How does the world know that you are a Christian

00:25:32.220 | and a disciple of Christ?

00:25:33.380 | Because you love the brethren.

00:25:35.380 | This is the defining mark of a believer.

00:25:38.000 | So, I want to ask, for you,

00:25:42.700 | when you think about your love for the people around you,

00:25:46.700 | have you fallen into the generational standard

00:25:52.420 | of what's normal?

00:25:53.860 | What do I mean by that?

00:25:55.240 | I believe we live, I'm sorry,

00:25:57.420 | I believe that we live in a very safe distance environment.

00:26:02.420 | Right?

00:26:04.500 | We don't want people to call us anymore, why?

00:26:06.640 | Because I gotta have time to think about

00:26:08.740 | what I want to say, right?

00:26:10.460 | I don't want to be too invasive.

00:26:12.900 | We kind of live in a safe distance environment

00:26:16.420 | where we don't let people that close, right?

00:26:20.180 | The kind of love that we practice,

00:26:22.020 | we want to practice where we have control

00:26:25.380 | over how vulnerable we are.

00:26:27.380 | The kind of love that this generation practice

00:26:29.440 | is a very digital, like I want to be able to say,

00:26:33.900 | I want to be able to see what you're doing,

00:26:35.740 | da da da da da, but at a safe distance.

00:26:38.140 | You guys know what I'm talking about.

00:26:41.220 | Have you settled for that?

00:26:42.740 | And the love for the people around you,

00:26:46.060 | are you just so afraid of awkwardness?

00:26:47.860 | Are you so afraid of getting into certain things

00:26:49.820 | that you don't want to get into?

00:26:52.060 | Or are you going to practice the love

00:26:55.100 | that you see the disciples practicing,

00:26:57.860 | the apostles practicing, and our Lord Jesus Christ?

00:27:01.720 | So, with that said, I do want to highlight

00:27:06.220 | one more thing, which is this.

00:27:08.900 | Apostle Paul describes this love

00:27:11.660 | in a context that's kind of unique, right?

00:27:15.380 | He not only says, I want you to abound

00:27:18.260 | in this love still more and more,

00:27:20.420 | he says, he says, in all, sorry,

00:27:24.580 | in real knowledge and all discernment, right?

00:27:28.380 | Did you guys talk a little bit about what does that mean?

00:27:31.140 | How does love, this agape love, knowledge and truth,

00:27:35.500 | and discernment all kind of mesh together?

00:27:38.820 | How does it plan to each other, right?

00:27:40.460 | Which is a good question to ask.

00:27:42.940 | I want us to think about this a little bit.

00:27:45.300 | What would happen if your love didn't have real knowledge?

00:27:49.740 | If it didn't have as its agenda, truth?

00:27:53.140 | If it didn't have as its agenda, reality?

00:27:55.860 | What if your love didn't have discernment?

00:27:58.040 | What if it didn't have discretion of this is righteous,

00:28:00.380 | this is bad, this is healthy, this is not?

00:28:03.080 | What would happen, right?

00:28:05.420 | Well, if you take a moment to think about it,

00:28:08.620 | love absolutely operates in the context of truth,

00:28:13.180 | and it needs, it needs to operate

00:28:15.420 | in the righteousness of God, why?

00:28:17.700 | Because love without those things

00:28:19.300 | would simply be uncontrolled emotion.

00:28:22.580 | It would be impulse and reactions

00:28:24.620 | to the things that you see.

00:28:26.220 | And in a most perverted way,

00:28:28.500 | love that does not have as its context

00:28:31.780 | the righteousness of God, the truth of the Lord,

00:28:33.900 | or the reality and discernment of what is pleasing to God,

00:28:37.600 | would be adultery, right?

00:28:41.140 | An individual who is given to loving,

00:28:45.020 | wanting, desiring, affection without truth

00:28:50.020 | is going to be the individual who says,

00:28:52.300 | "But I love her, but I love him,"

00:28:54.260 | even besides all the truth and standards of God, right?

00:28:58.160 | An individual who has that kind of love

00:28:59.780 | can be perverted in all sorts of different fashion.

00:29:04.780 | What's more, on the flip side,

00:29:07.300 | it could lead to absolute domination.

00:29:09.820 | Love's supposed to be action.

00:29:11.420 | Love's supposed to be, "I do what's in your best interest."

00:29:14.140 | So you grab the back of their neck and you say, "Do it!"

00:29:16.580 | Right?

00:29:17.580 | And some people think that's love.

00:29:19.340 | If love does not have reality, discretion, truth of God,

00:29:25.580 | and it's not pursuing the righteousness of the Lord,

00:29:29.580 | it's gonna fall to those two extremes,

00:29:31.580 | absolute perversion and some kind of permissiveness

00:29:34.700 | that leads to all kinds of unrighteousness,

00:29:36.940 | or it's going to lead to domination.

00:29:39.460 | This is good for you, right?

00:29:41.380 | So what Apostle Paul says is,

00:29:44.700 | "Your love needs to abound

00:29:47.340 | "in real knowledge and all discernment."

00:29:50.260 | This world will say, "You know what?

00:29:52.200 | "Love is blind."

00:29:54.100 | False, right?

00:29:55.460 | Well, but we know what they're saying.

00:29:57.340 | Love is not blind.

00:29:58.340 | As a matter of fact, love sees everything.

00:30:00.900 | Love, and I want to just take a moment to describe this.

00:30:05.880 | Love cares enough to perceive.

00:30:08.900 | Love cares enough to perceive where you're wrong.

00:30:12.260 | Love cares enough to perceive where you're in need.

00:30:14.580 | Love cares enough to perceive where you're hurt.

00:30:16.860 | Love should be the most informed, the most understanding,

00:30:20.940 | the most perceptive of all things, right?

00:30:24.380 | And ladies, you can speak to this, right?

00:30:27.580 | Ladies, if you guys have ever been into a relationship

00:30:30.900 | and your guy is very, you know,

00:30:33.500 | doesn't have that kind of sense,

00:30:35.560 | doesn't have that kind of intuition,

00:30:39.600 | and they can't tell whether you're upset,

00:30:41.240 | they can't tell whether you're happy,

00:30:42.480 | they can't tell whether you're mad.

00:30:43.560 | They're like, "Everything's cool, right?"

00:30:44.680 | And you're just like, "Do you even care?"

00:30:47.840 | No, you guys have never felt that way?

00:30:50.040 | Of course you have, to some degree.

00:30:52.720 | Why?

00:30:53.680 | Because yes, true love will know.

00:30:56.400 | Doesn't have the same kind of ring to it

00:30:59.880 | when the world says, "Love is blind."

00:31:02.760 | Okay, that sounds great, but as a matter of fact,

00:31:06.160 | no, love is most perceptive.

00:31:08.680 | And this past weekend, if you guys were here

00:31:10.260 | for Pastor Peter's sermon, oh my gosh,

00:31:12.800 | it just like killed me.

00:31:13.680 | I was just sitting there crying because,

00:31:16.160 | think about that.

00:31:18.260 | Think about the love of God.

00:31:20.280 | The love of God that sympathizes with you.

00:31:24.640 | Just take a moment to think about that.

00:31:28.820 | The love of God is not blind to you.

00:31:31.600 | The love of God is like, "You know what?

00:31:32.960 | "I just don't care."

00:31:33.880 | No, he sees all of it.

00:31:37.280 | He sees the filth, he sees the anger, the sin,

00:31:40.040 | he sees all of it.

00:31:41.680 | And then he loves you and then cares

00:31:45.640 | to that meticulous, detailed fashion

00:31:49.160 | to address every single need you have

00:31:52.880 | through the amazing power of the love of Christ.

00:31:56.080 | And then what's more, the love of God

00:31:58.720 | does not just simply leave it there,

00:32:00.300 | but the love of God is sanctifying.

00:32:02.240 | The love of God that doesn't say, "I feel you, man,"

00:32:07.160 | and then all of a sudden you feel bitter.

00:32:08.400 | No, the love of God walks into your life

00:32:11.760 | and it washes you, it sanctifies you.

00:32:15.600 | And so I wanna read to you a passage,

00:32:17.280 | one of the passages that hit me

00:32:18.640 | from the last session of Colossians,

00:32:21.280 | was he said this, Colossians chapter 1, 21 through 22.

00:32:25.320 | Colossians 1, 21 through 22.

00:32:27.480 | And although you were formerly alienated,

00:32:30.700 | you were hostile in your mind,

00:32:32.980 | you were engaged in evil deeds,

00:32:35.340 | yet he has now reconciled you

00:32:37.180 | in his fleshly body through death.

00:32:39.940 | It doesn't stop there.

00:32:41.220 | He says, "In order to present you before him

00:32:44.620 | "wholly blameless and beyond reproach."

00:32:49.020 | Oh my goodness.

00:32:51.960 | The amazing love of God.

00:32:56.260 | Just simply for him to listen to us

00:32:59.600 | would be grace upon grace.

00:33:01.740 | But for him to step down and walk our place,

00:33:04.460 | for him to step down and sympathize and empathize with us,

00:33:07.380 | that's grace upon grace upon grace.

00:33:10.120 | But then to desire to make us wholly blameless

00:33:14.300 | and beyond reproach.

00:33:15.560 | We can't even describe that.

00:33:17.980 | The intention and love of God.

00:33:22.300 | And so, as we follow in the likeness of Christ

00:33:27.300 | and abound in that kind of love,

00:33:30.540 | we're going to be all the more godly, righteous,

00:33:33.280 | conformed to the image of his son.

00:33:35.460 | And that's going to be glorifying to him, amen?

00:33:37.900 | All right, so today we highlighted,

00:33:41.860 | A, we have Apostle Paul's heart

00:33:44.660 | and expressed love and concern,

00:33:47.100 | thankfulness and joy over this church

00:33:49.260 | that he just sees this like precious,

00:33:51.500 | precious baby of his, right?

00:33:53.580 | And then we see his prayer.

00:33:55.220 | I am praying for you,

00:33:56.740 | not that none of this stuff happens to you.

00:33:58.900 | I'm not praying that you would run away

00:34:01.140 | and not be jailed like me.

00:34:02.660 | I'm not asking for all your circumstances to work out.

00:34:05.300 | I'm not asking for a hedge of protection around you, right?

00:34:08.420 | I am praying for your faith,

00:34:11.020 | for your love to abound,

00:34:13.220 | for you to glorify God by loving like he does, amen?

00:34:17.900 | All right, let's take a moment to pray

00:34:19.540 | and then we can jump into our application time.

00:34:21.940 | Lord God, we want to thank you.

00:34:26.020 | Father, we know that your love

00:34:31.540 | goes so much beyond just this period of time

00:34:35.340 | and it goes so much beyond our period of time.

00:34:37.900 | Father God, your love has extended

00:34:42.820 | throughout the generations of your people

00:34:45.300 | and through the generations of your people,

00:34:47.420 | you have sent your messengers,

00:34:49.180 | you have sent the revelation of who you are.

00:34:52.420 | And now, Father God, for us, we're privileged

00:34:55.380 | because Lord, we can see this in your son,

00:35:00.380 | in your truth, that God, your love is truly poured out

00:35:04.700 | upon us.

00:35:06.020 | I pray, Father God, that we would respond to you

00:35:09.700 | with great thankfulness and joy likewise

00:35:12.540 | and God, that we would all the more be so eager,

00:35:15.980 | Lord, to grow as you want us to.

00:35:18.420 | That Father God, we would not ask you to settle

00:35:20.960 | for whatever we're already doing.

00:35:23.500 | We would not ask you to settle

00:35:24.900 | for what's normal to our society,

00:35:27.500 | but God, that we would be fully, fully thankful.

00:35:30.880 | Lord, that you would cause us to grow

00:35:32.580 | and that you would complete your process, Lord.

00:35:35.020 | We want to thank you again, it's in Christ.

00:35:36.500 | In you pray, amen.

00:35:37.620 | Thanks for watching!