SPEAKER_01
0:20 All right, welcome back, day two in our march through Philippians. 0:24 We are on chapter one, verse nine, and following. 0:28 Says this, and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with all knowledge and all discernment, 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. 0:50 So what is Paul praying for? 0:53 Again, he's praying for the folks at Philippi. 0:56 He's not just praying about them. 0:58 When we pray about people, we're basically saying, God, would you change them so that they would be more likable for me? 1:04 And that's not how we're supposed to pray. 1:06 We're actually supposed to pray for people. 1:09 Because oftentimes we pray dumb prayers. 1:11 Like, yeah, I'm praying for people in my disciple group, and we pray, God, God, just be with them. 1:15 Of course he's going to be with them, dummy. 1:17 He is omnipresent. 1:18 He's in all places at all times. 1:20 And if the person that you're praying for is a believer, he's not just with them, he actually resides on the inside of them. 1:25 So be specific in what you're praying for. 1:27 And so what Paul specifically prays for is that your love may abound more and more. 1:34 And this is a really big deal. 1:36 Because Paul is going to prioritize in his prayer what Jesus prioritizes in his preaching. 1:41 Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love people. 1:46 He quotes the Shema. 1:48 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 1:55 That's what he quotes. 1:57 He says that 1 John chapter 4, verse 10 says that the reason that we love is because we have been first loved by God, and God first loved us by sending his son as the propitiation for our sin. 2:09 When Jesus is turning the corner to head to the cross, he says to his disciples, I'm going to give you a brand new commandment. 2:17 And the new commandment I give you is this love one another. 2:21 So essentially, what Paul is praying for is Paul is praying for the discipleship or the sanctification of the people that he loves. 2:28 And we understand from 1 Corinthians 13 that love is not a feeling. 2:32 He's not saying, God, I pray that they grow in their goosebumps when they're at church, but that love is an action. 2:40 Love is our joy in the Lord expressed towards one another at great expense to ourselves. 2:44 But he doesn't just pray for love with no guardrails to it. 2:49 He says that he prays for this abounding love with knowledge and discernment. 2:54 You see, again, the Shema says that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that truth matters, that knowledge and discernment matter, that you cannot rightly love God without believing right things about God. 3:08 The example I always give, if I'm I can't sing or write a song, but if I were to write a love song to Gretchen and I went home today and said, baby, I got a song to sing to you, and I begin to sing about her beautiful green eyes and red hair, then she wouldn't love it because that's not who she is. 3:23 And you cannot rightly love God without right thoughts about God. 3:27 See, knowledge is to know the truth about God. 3:30 Discernment is to apply that truth to your real life. 3:34 And unapplied truth is worthless. 3:37 Every year, the elders make me go in for an executive physical. 3:41 So I go to Mayo, I do this executive physical, and I'm just, you know, cards on the table. 3:46 I'm not a big fan of our current medical system and big pharma and all the things. 3:50 Okay, so think of that what you will. 3:52 And this doctor looks at me and he hands me a food pyramid, which means I should eat less protein and more grains and sugars. 4:00 And I'm like, you dummy. 4:02 And the guy that is telling me what to do, he's giving me this advice. 4:06 He looks like a human being back. 4:08 And so, in a little bit of, you know, unfiltered comments, I said, bro, what are you even talking about? 4:14 I don't think you may have a degree in medicine, but you are not applying the right kind of things to your life. 4:20 Why in the world would I take advice from you? 4:23 Now you should listen to your doctors, but not when they give you bad nutrition advice. 4:27 And the reason that Paul's praying that their love may abound more and more with knowledge and depth of insight or discernment is so that you may approve what is excellent and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. 4:38 Now, does that mean that if I get it all right, then I'll be righteous before God on the day of Christ? 4:45 No, that's impossible. 4:47 What is excellent and pure and blameless is Jesus. 4:53 Christ is excellent and pure and blameless. 4:56 And it is faith in his finished work that makes you pure and blameless for the day of Christ. 5:02 And the result of knowing Christ is a transformed life filled with all the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. 5:15 He does not say that your activity is the root of righteousness that makes you righteous. 5:22 The root of your righteousness is your faith in Jesus. 5:25 The fruit, the byproduct, the result of your right standing before God is the way that we live and act towards God and one another. 5:34 Be praying for your brothers. 5:37 Amen.