7/30/23 Philippians - Part 2 “Growing, Knowing, Showing”
Philippians – Part 2 “Growing, Knowing, Showing”
Philippians 1:8-11
A couple of weeks ago, Lisa and I had the opportunity to walk through the many outdoor displays at the Wisconsin Farm Technology Days that was held near Baraboo this year.
If you’re not familiar with Farm Technology Days, it’s a large outdoor Agricultural trade show held in a different county of the state every year. You can see numerous vendors displaying their machinery, products, and services – all geared to a rural audience & lifestyle.
The show has slowly diminished in size over the years. I remember going as a kid back in the 80’s and it would literally take all day to walk through the many streets, tents, and field demonstrations.
These days, you can cover the entire show in just a few hours.
One of the vendors at this year’s show was demonstrating his cutting-edge product to some interested potential customers.
The product happened to be a large drone that you could fly over a field and apply treatments such as herbicides, pesticides, fertilizer, etc.
I overheard the company rep tell his listeners that there would be two things needing to be in place before the drone could be successfully used on their farm.
1) The farm needed to be large enough to make the significant initial investment of purchasing a drone worthwhile. (This one was around $20K)
2) If condition #1 is met, then condition #2 was that there would need to be someone willing to learn how to operate the drone, acquire the necessary license to fly it, and devote time to understanding its sophisticated owner’s manual.
If conditions 1&2 are met, the drone could then be delivered to the farm and begin to show off its capabilities.
Finally, if all goes well, by the end of the year, the farmer will see a net benefit from purchasing the drone as it would hopefully save on time, fuel, and wear & tear on other machinery.
In this drone scenario, there was an entire sequence of events that needed to occur – and they all needed to occur in the proper order for things to work out well.
In a similar way, our passage for today from Philippians contains certain spiritual elements that need to be present in the life of a believer in order for us to be effective ambassadors of Christ.
And, just like in our drone scenario, these spiritual elements build upon each other – first comes the foundation of love. Then, on top of that comes the attributes of wisdom & discernment.
When these things are combined, it results in one’s ability to live in obedience to God – we begin to show spiritual fruit in our lives.
Finally, when this process fulfills itself in the life of a believer and we consistently display good spiritual fruit in our lives, It brings glory and praise to God – And THIS (To bring glory to God) is the ultimate goal of becoming more mature in our faith!
This morning, we’re going to take a brief look at each of these steps toward Christian maturity (Its a process that theologians call ‘sanctification’ – which basically means ‘to become more and more like Jesus, and less and less like the world’)
We can refer to these steps as “Growing, Knowing, and Showing.”
Verse 8 (Philippians 1:8) picks up where we left off from verse 7 last week.
Paul is telling the believers in Philippi that, because of their steadfastness in the faith, it has bolstered his spirits while being imprisoned in Rome.
He goes on to testify before God, as if in a court of law, that he has a deep, abiding love and affection for the Philippian believers.
It’s easy to see that Paul has an affinity for the church at Philippi – a type of love that can only be found amongst believers in Christ.
In Verse 9 (Philippians 1:9) Paul begins by telling the Philippian church that he is praying for them.
He is praying for their sanctification, and sanctification always begins with love.
If we are to be less and less like the world, we will need to have a love for God that will continually grow stronger and stronger.
On a side note, whenever we take a close look at any passage of scripture, it’s a healthy practice to not only take into consideration what is being said (Or disclosed) but also, what is not being said (Or not being disclosed)
In this case, as is the case with almost all of Paul’s recorded prayers, we see that Paul is praying solely for the spiritual needs of the church.
Surprisingly, we see nothing about church growth, or the physical well-being of individuals within the church.
This is not to say that we shouldn’t pray for these things – they are important as we see Jesus heal the sick and also give us the command to spread the good news of the gospel to every tribe and tongue.
But, to Paul, it was always the spiritual health of a church that was the most pressing thing on his mind – it was of supreme importance compared to everything else.
In our dedicated time of prayer every Sunday morning, perhaps we ought to take a page out of Paul’s book and remember to consistently pray for the overall spiritual health of this congregation.
Karen does a good job of reminding us every week to pray for our troops and our government, maybe one of you would like to begin asking for prayer each week for the spiritual well-being of our church, our sanctification, our spiritual maturity.
This was extremely important to Paul – and it ought to be extremely important to us as well.
Continuing In verse 9 (Philippians 1:9) we see that the first thing Paul prays for regarding the church in Philippi is love.
Simply put, Love is the foundation of life for a Christian.
My sister-in-law and her husband are currently building a house on Lake Redstone and a few weeks ago they poured the concrete foundation. Without this solid foundation, the rest of the house would not be able to stand….it would slide right into the lake.
Just as this foundation holds up the entire house, a strong love for God and love for others holds up everything else in our Christian walk.
Jesus tells us exactly this in Matthew chapter 22. When someone asks him which is the greatest commandment, Jesus responds by saying “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
If you do not have love, you are only going through the motions of being a born-again believer.
Without love, you are just playing the game of religiosity, you are only acting the part, you are (As Paul declares in his great description of love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13) “only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1)
You’re like the person who said this famous quote “I Love humanity…it’s people I can’t stand”
John strongly reminds us that we cannot know God if we do not have love in our hearts.
He writes in 1 John 4:7-8 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
He goes on to say a few verses later “If anyone says, ’I love God’, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:20-21)
In other words, no one around you should ever be ‘Love-starved’. And here’s the difficult part - Keep loving others…even if they don’t love you back!
The kind of love being spoken of in these passages is a specific type of love called agape love.
Agape love is the highest form of love that, at its core, is a sacrificial kind of love.
It is the love that Paul so beautifully describes in 1 Corinthians 13, it is the love that John speaks of in his gospel and his epistles, and it is the love that drove Jesus to the cross.
Agape Love is the root system to our plant of Christian maturity – it provides spiritual nutrients and water to the body, and without it, the plant withers & dies.
Love is the ‘Growing’ part of our sanctification process.
In the second half of verse 9, and then in verse 10, Paul builds upon the foundation of love.
He adds these 2 important words: “Knowledge” (In verse 9) and “Discernment” (In verse 10)
Here in LaValle, you are all too familiar with what can happen when a river floods and overruns its banks.
Water is what we all need to survive, but that same life-giving water could turn deadly if it’s allowed to go wherever it wants to.
Think of love as a river flowing between two banks. Let’s call one bank ‘knowledge’, and let’s call the other bank ‘discernment.’
These banks of biblical knowledge and discernment keep the river of love safe, and going where it was originally intended to go.
Knowledge, in this context, is basically referring to understanding the Word of God.
The more we allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate scripture and lead us into a deeper understanding of God’s perfect Word, the more we understand truth, and the higher and stronger that riverbank is going to be.
Simply Put, love needs knowledge.
Love without knowledge is extremely dangerous because we will all inevitably align our thoughts and behavior to that of our feelings and emotions.
This is why staying in the Word on a daily basis is so important. It literally re-sets, or re-calibrates, our thinking and decision making. Our flesh naturally wants to operate outside of the realm of scripture; therefore, we need to “train” it every day to look and act more like Jesus. Like a horse with wild tendencies, God’s Word reigns us in, it tames our wild spirit.
The other bank of our river is Discernment.
Discernment is similar to knowledge. Whereas knowledge can be described as understanding God’s Word, Discernment can be described as rightly applying God’s Word.
Jesus, In the sermon on the Mount, says this about discernment: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27)
Discernment is applying biblical knowledge in a way that consistently keeps our eyes upon Jesus – the author and perfector of our faith.
Another way to describe discernment would be for one to have “mature insight” or “wise moral perception.”
Simply put, we need to know how to apply our agape love to various situations….in other words, we can’t get sloppy with our agape!
There are times when biblical, agape love looks different depending on the situation.
For instance, there were times when Jesus tenderly healed and consoled people, and there were times when he overturned tables and argued with Pharisees.
Think back to when you were raising your children (Or maybe you are currently raising kids right now) ….. sometimes you show love by tightly holding them in your arms, and sometimes you show love by providing a reminder to their backside that what they had just done was wrong and won’t be tolerated.
Real, genuine love must have limitations, otherwise it ceases to be love.
Today, we live in a world that wants nothing more than to have love with no limitations – even when the resulting scenario is damaging, illogical, irrational, and delusional.
Today, our culture is throwing everything it’s got into the war against a biblical definition of love – love that has boundaries – boundaries that are there to protect us.
When love is based on feeling and emotion, it becomes like that river without riverbanks. It goes from a gentle, controlled source of life to an out-of-control torrent of deadly floodwater….many of you have experienced this in a physical sense, and the same thing can happen in a spiritual sense.
This is why our culture isn’t even looking for absolute truth right now….most people don’t even want to know about a kind of truth that transcends feelings and emotion because it might interfere with their sinful lifestyle of comfort and pleasure.
This is why we see people pretend to be things they are not – and biologically never could be!....and our society affirms this deceptive delusion rather than calling it what it really is – sin.
Applauding sin, in any form, is evil….and that certainly goes for inside the church as well.
Yes, there is a reason why this church does not fly that colorful flag out on our property like some churches do – we simply cannot condone lifestyles that are in direct opposition to God’s Holy Word.
Romans 1:32 says “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
Folks, our stance on Biblical morality has nothing to do with being unloving, in fact, it’s the exact opposite.
True love is advocating for lifestyles that harmonize with God’s Word and, at the same time, warning people about sinful lifestyles that go against God’s eternal, unchanging moral laws.
Love is not wanting to see people endure an eternity of torment, frustration, isolation, and despair in a horrible place that the Bible calls Hell.
If we truly care about people who are purposefully living in opposition to God’s Word, we will want to warn them – this is the loving course of action.
So, Love is growing, knowledge & discernment are knowing.
Lastly, Verse 11 (Philippians 1:11) brings us ‘Showing’ through the fruit of righteousness displayed in our lives.
Or, to put it another way, our good deeds.
When your life is saturated with agape love and its safely flowing between the banks of knowledge and discernment, you WILL be a living example of what a believer in Christ ought to look like.
It’s important to remember that we don’t perform good deeds in some sort of effort to become closer to God, or to gain entrance into Heaven…
We perform good deeds to reflect the love that our Father in heaven has shown to us through the sending of His son, Jesus, to take upon himself our sin (Your sin, my sin) and die a horrible, gruesome, bloody death so that when we die, we may be able to enter the presence of God and live forever with Him.
This is why we perform good deeds. It has nothing to do with our own merit or abilities – rather, it has everything to do with God’s love, mercy & grace – all culminating in the cross of calvary.
Love is growing, Knowledge and Discernment are Knowing, and the fruit of righteousness is showing.
This level of maturity in the believer will, as verse 11 says, bring glory and praise to God – and that, brothers & sisters, are why we are on this earth.
Jesus says in John 15:8 “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
To bring glory & praise to God should be why you woke up this morning, it should be why you are here at church right now, and whatever you decide to do later today…that should be why you do it!
Some days we need to be reminded of this, don’t we?
We need to be reminded of where our priorities ought to be as a professed believer in Christ.
Sometimes our jobs want to command the top spot in our priorities list.
Sometimes our phone wants to command the top spot in our priorities list.
Sometimes our family wants to command the top spot in our priorities list.
Sometimes our next meal wants to command the top spot in our priorities list.
Many times, its our own desires, wants, hopes, and dreams about the future that want to command the top spot in our priorities list.
Folks, there’s only one name that should be sitting on top of your priority list….and that name, is Jesus!
If you haven’t already completely committed yourself to becoming a servant of Jesus Christ, do it today!
The decision to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation through His son will be the most important decision that you will ever make in your entire lifetime.
Make absolutely sure that you make the right decision.
Let’s Pray.