Philippians 1 — Philippians 1-4

0:00 It's funny, I gave a commencement speech a couple years ago in front of thousands of people and it's not nearly as nerve racking as it is to come up here in front of you folks. It's an amazing thing. I wasn't nervous about that very much at all. But here we talk about things that matter. That's the difference.

0:22 Get my stuff organized here. First I want to say what an encouragement it was last week to hear young men get up here and talk. And what a neat thing that is. And you know, folks, it's not about being polished, and I know that. There's a lot of unpolished you're 'll get to witness this morning.

0:42 But it's not about being polished, it's that it's the growth and development that comes through the preparation and encouraging our young men to get up there and do this. And I know that there is kind of a gap here at Westlake Bible Fellowship with some of those things and how important it is to make sure that we are, working on these young men, and I pray for my own children, that they will have those mentors and people to bring them along, and get them ready to come up here and serve the Lord both through their service outside of this room, but but to come up here and teach. The the great benefit of of preparing these messages, and I've said this before, is for the speaker. You know, I mean, what you get out of it is maybe is a fraction of what you get out of it in the preparation, the course of going through and studying and breaking down the word of God and how it speaks to you and how it how it helps you to grow. That's that's the benefit and so for for those young guys to come up, it was huge, it was nice to see Josh come up here and talk and what sounds like what a great young man he is.

1:50 And, Krista, nice nice job. We approve. Not that our approval matters. We approve. And I'm not just trying to recruit him for Sunday school either.

1:59 That's not that's not what this is about. So, with that, and since Bob talked to me about recruiting, it's been a lot been a lot more out, go get them about that stuff. Alright. Okay. Let's open in prayer.

2:15 Heavenly father, we thank you so much for the opportunity. Anytime, Lord, that we can open your word. It is a blessing. It is an encouragement. There's so much to be gained because your knowledge, your wisdom is true.

2:31 Contrasted all the other things that we face and see on a daily basis, Lord, to come together and worship and fellowship together. What a joy to hear truth, to meditate on truth, and, just the wonder of who you are. We thank you so much for that opportunity. We pray, Lord, this morning that you will be glorified, through our discussion here and that that that we too will benefit from from opening up your word and and, and meditating on those things. Your name.

3:05 Amen. Well, a few weeks ago as I was contemplating and reading and trying to figure out what to talk about, I... You know, we were... We've been reading through Philippians, as a family with our devotions which I think we get to eat dinner together about twice a week with all the scheduling issues and wrestling and football and all those things. We don't get a lot of dinners together to to to get to do that, but when we do get the opportunity, we've been enjoying Philippians, and so I decided that that's, you know, as much encouragement as we've gotten as a family talking about those things, I thought, well, let's let's try to do that together as a group here.

3:47 So this is, you know, and I warned my dad that this was coming, but that, you know, this is probably going to be the Dave Bingham type of two to three year course of, to get through Philippians like he did with Peter a long time ago. But unless we go into another direction as a group, that's my goal is to try to get through Philippians a little bit at a time. The other thought was, you know, I got mad at Tammy a few weeks ago and threatened to talk about marriage, I didn't think that was really, that wasn't the leading of the Holy Spirit. That was just me trying to get after about it. Here she comes now.

4:24 I would have you all turn when she walked in, but we... That's not fair. I certainly... If there's one place I can't throw stones, it's on the tardiness issue. So, okay.

4:39 Folks say, just going give you a little background about, Philippi and and the book of Philippians and and the historic, side of things. Not a lot. Don't worry. I'm not going to delve into that too much, although it's tempting. The more you read about that stuff and the multiple times they changed hands, or that Mark Antony and Brutus fought their great battle during the Roman civil war right there at Philippi.

4:59 I mean, it's pretty cool stuff, but we won't go into that too much. But for the, sometimes I think about, you know, if we have our Sunday school group out here, I want them to have some idea. I know that if somebody had told me when I was 11 or 12 years old that Philippi was in Eastern Macedonia or Northern Greece, you know, no idea. So there's a map to help. There it is, there's Philippi and the journey starts basically in Troyes as Paul has a vision while he's in Troyes that he should go to Macedonia.

5:32 This is where you're not supposed to turn around and look. I told him I saw you coming so I'll throw you under the bus a little bit. I'm just kidding. You should, I know. Anyways, just to get a little background.

5:51 Hey, if you were in our marriage study, you understand that the deal with Tammy and I, it's a whole different ball of wax. We are very much a unique couple, I think, in many ways. Very much in love, very happy, but very unique. So let's... Yeah, some of you will never forget that.

6:09 Some some people went home and thanked the Lord for the marriage that they have after they heard about... Heard the Binghams talk and go after it, so... Anyways, Philippi was established by by Philip II, who was Alexander the Great's father in three fifty six BC. It's located in Eastern Macedonia as we just showed. And it was during Paul's second missionary journey, which was approximately fifty AD, and I've seen different numbers on that but we'll go with fifty AD, it's close enough.

7:18 For God it was just, it's you know, everyday thing. It's no big deal. But but for us to to think about how incredible it was, the timing of that, to do during the Roman Empire when when the word could get out and across continents and and things like that. And we should be thankful for that as Gentiles that it came to us as well. So while in Troas, Paul has this vision of a man who's pleading with him pleading with him to come to Macedonia.

7:45 And so immediately, and that was the the thing that stood out to me was in Acts chapter 16 verses nine and ten, it talks about how immediately Paul answered that call. They just got up and went. And that's kind of almost Peter ish, right? Peter, we know, is that kind of reactionary guy. Paul is a little more thought out, but when that call came from Macedonia in that vision, he immediately got up and sailed there.

8:10 Let's take a look at Acts 16 real quick. I'm not going to read through all the stories for the sake of time, but to get some background, to the book of Philippians, I think to see some of the experiences that Paul had while he was in Philippi that it's helpful. So Acts chapter 16. And I didn't put my little markers in my bible, so it's gonna it's gonna be a sword drill here to see who gets there first. Acts chapter 16, and we'll start reading in verse 11.

8:51 Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Sematris and the next day came to Neapolitan, Neapolitan. And from there to Philippi, which is the fur, foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days. And on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now, we're just going to quickly review it, but if you consider the amount that gets done, the amount of things that happens to Paul while he's there in just what they describe as several days.

9:34 First thing, he meets with Lydia, right? And this is a this is a godly woman, she was there praying, it said that in verse 14, now a certain woman named Lydia heard us and she was a seller of purple from the city of, what is that, Thyatira, who worshipped God. So we do know that she was a worshipper of God, she did think of the things of God, but when she heard the news, she accepted this great news of Jesus Christ and was saved. And then immediately they go home, they tell the family, the family accepts this good news, and they're baptized. So the word of God, the incredible gospel is already being spread the minute that that Paul sets foot in Philippi.

11:00 Even though it was the truth, even though she's telling people exactly what Paul Silas, and Timothy, and Luke are doing, it had to become a little annoying to have, you know, to have her doing it. And it probably was a distraction from what truly was the message that they were bringing, right, to have this demon possessed girl do this. So Paul turns around, boom, tells that demon it's time to go. Right? Well that demon, because this girl could foretell the future, that this was the livelihood of her masters And they're upset because they just lost, instead of now fortune telling and making money for them, you know, in their eyes, she's she's worthless.

11:39 She can't do what she used to do. So they're upset. They go to the magistrates, they say, hey, these people are are preaching things that are against our Roman law. This is, we can't have this because this was a city under the control of Rome at the time. And this is against Roman law.

11:54 They they can't do this. They can't do this. And so Paul and Silas, and I don't know what happened with Luke Timothy, but they don't seem to go to prison, I don't know how they escaped this, but they did. Paul and Silas are called before the magistrates, they're found, to have been causing a ruckus and certainly the magistrates don't want their businessmen, to be affected, because that's where their bread is buttered too. And so so they throw Paul and Silas in jail.

12:21 You know the story from here. Paul and Silas, while they're in jail, a great earthquake occurs and the doors fly open and they have a chance to escape and they don't. They don't leave. And the jailer who's about to jab a sword into himself because he knows what the penalty will be for for not keeping his prisoners in prison even with an earthquake as an excuse. You would think you think of some of the excuses we've given at work before, right?

12:49 Guys, there was an earthquake. You know, I I would think that's pretty valid. But but he's he knows that that he's going be in trouble. He knows he's going to be in trouble. And so he's about to kill himself and Paul and Silas say don't do it.

13:02 We're still here. We're all good. Look how that works to further the gospel. If you had a chance to stay in jail or leave, most of us, we're getting Right? Paul and Silas decide to stay for the furtherance of the gospel.

13:15 What a testimony that is, right? To choose the suffering, to choose that because they didn't know how that what the reaction was going to be. They could have just been thrown back in the pit and good, thank goodness they didn't get out. Alright? But instead this jailer takes them home, cleans them up because they've been beaten along with their imprisonment, cleans them up and he and his household are saved.

13:39 Once again how God uses that grace to or God demonstrates his grace through those situations. Okay? So he cleans them up. And then the next day, Paul and Silas, they're asked to leave. Hey, you guys caused a lot of trouble, but, you know, we just want you guys to get out.

13:58 And Paul reminds them, yeah, there's one problem. I'm a Roman citizen, and you beat us and you threw us in prison, and we didn't get any due process in this matter. So we're not just going to leave. You need to so that, well, now the apologies come. When they found out that that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they handled a little differently, but still asked them to leave.

14:21 So in verse 40, and that's what I wanted to kind of skip down to. In verse 40, when Paul and Silas are about to leave, so they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they had seen the brethren, notice when they had seen the brethren. So I don't know if that's just Lydia's family, or if the word had started to spread already. When they had seen Lydia, or when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. And that is the beginning of the Philippian church.

15:46 This is for his glory. Is for... This has been, this book, just studying with the kids, and I've read it many times but but not, you know, the way I've been reading it lately and with the kids and stuff. Certainly the accountability there is great to help you delve deeper. But this is such a personal letter and the more I read it, the more I read it over and over, there there's something very personal about this letter to the Philippians and there's something very touching and heartwarming about this letter.

16:14 In in many of Paul's letters, he needs to make corrections. People are doing things wrong, whether it was in whether it's the Galatians or whether it's the the in Corinth, he needs to make corrections. He needs to get things fixed. And so sometimes there's some scathing rebukes involved with that. Well deserved, needed to happen, but you don't get a lot of there's there's a there's a tiny rebuke in chapter four of Philippians, right, saying hey, let's try to get along, you know, that type of thing.

16:42 There was a little bit of conflict going on, but but pretty minor. Most of this letter is very, he he demonstrates and expresses his joy over what this church has been doing. Part of that, and remember that this is a thank you letter. Philippians is a thank you letter. He's, they've they've given him a financial gift sent through, and I'm I'm I'm going to get this name right, Epaphroditus.

17:06 I practiced. Epiphroditis who sent, brought this gift and so it's a thank you letter. It it it's so that you could feel that throughout. And and I found myself just encouraged by the tone of the letter number one. Number two, the themes in this, the joys of sacrifice.

17:26 The joys of sacrifice, that it's not always easy, but that when it's in service to the Lord, that there's joy in that, right? The joys of defending and confirming the gospel. What that means to to defend and confirm the gospel. And how much joy can be found in that. And I wrote these down all based on joy, even if it doesn't specifically say it's eventually it does, you know.

17:52 The joy of submission. The joy of submission to a righteous and holy God. And then, the joy that is to come. And that's one of the beautiful things I think, you know, this is also, I got tell you there's a and I'm gonna hold it together. There is a personal side to this too.

18:09 My mom's grave is Philippians one twenty one, which has a lot of meaning, we'll talk about that in just a second. But so that verse has always stuck with me and that take us to our key verses. So verses as we go through this study eventually, like I said over the next three to eight years. In Philippians one twenty one, for me to live, three to eight years was a joke. Hopefully you guys didn't didn't catch that.

18:36 But for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. That's the one that's on my mom's tombstone. It's also on my dad's. And then Philippians two five through seven, we we know we actually talk about it all the time. I love that when that comes up in the first meeting.

18:54 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ and that's that that idea of our humility that Christ humbled himself, what an example for us. And then, in verse chapter three seven through 10, What things were gained to me, these things I have counted lost for Christ. I know these are very familiar verses but they that doesn't lose any of its power because of its familiarity. And then Philippians three twenty, for our citizenship is in heaven. I think that's a great place to end it.

19:25 But unfortunately I found another one that I just thought I had to put on here. So I'm not ending it there. And then Philippians four thirteen, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So those are some of the key verses that we'll look at in concepts and it kind of, you know, just going through those verses, there's something very uplifting about those things, encouraging about those those thoughts. Okay?

20:23 Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Jesus Christ. To all the saints We proud of of great world. Day. A will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. You can already feel the the affection and the joy that Paul has for the Philippian church.

21:09 That he who has begun a good work in you. There's a good work there, right? And that good work was demonstrated of course through the gift that afrab... I messed it up. Epaphroditis brought.

21:20 I knew I was going to do that. Just as it is right for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve excellent, that you may be sincere without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.

22:14 So that it became evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife. Some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel.

22:47 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this, rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectations and hope that in nothing, I shall be ashamed.

23:09 But with all boldness as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I cannot tell. For I'm hard pressed between the two, having desired to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

23:38 Thinking about that this morning when Drew was reading about the end times. Be a great time. Right now, it'd be a great time, wouldn't it? Yeah. Especially those kids in my class have to take notes on this.

23:52 Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you and being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith. That your rejoicing for me may may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict which you saw in me and now here is in me.

24:52 Okay. The goal today is to get through in the next eighteen minutes. The goal is to get through verses one through 11. And as I considered you know, some people have this gift and I've heard so many speakers that, you know, you look at the first couple of verse, Paul and Timothy, and and the guy can go for twenty five minutes just talking, expounding on Paul and Timothy. You know what I mean?

25:16 Like, I don't have that. I don't have that. But I did, I challenged myself a little bit to look at, you know, what is there to be gained even from a salutation? What what do we learn from that? And so, some of this was, you know, personally, well how does the Lord speak to us on these things?

26:07 There was no place higher to go unless they had a king. But at that time, there wasn't, you know, they didn't even have a king. So there was no place higher to go than Pharisee. And he had reached that that pinnacle. And he was not only a Pharisee but he was a well respected, well thought of, powerful, seeing he was the one who was attacking the church, powerful Pharisee.

26:26 Right? So he had reached that point. He had plenty to brag about, didn't he? He also was personally recruited by Jesus Christ. How many people can say that?

26:39 That they were personally recruited, we're talking about St. Ed's, illegal recruitment. This is Jesus. He can do whatever he wants. He...

26:45 This is serious personal recruitment. Jesus went out, shone the light in his face, blinded him, and recruited him into his work. Right? Something to brag about. He came and got me.

26:59 Right? Nothing to brag about there for us, you know that. But but he could have. Right? He's also caught up in the third heaven.

27:06 I don't have a full understanding of what third heaven is. But he was caught up, as we read Corinthians, he was caught up into third heaven. He was caught up into paradise and heard unmentionable words, things that are not even lawful for man to say. Got to experience that in the presence of God. Something to brag about.

27:24 Not too many of us have done that. So imagine he started off his letter. If you want to set this off, if you want to set this up, so you know who I am, so you know what I'm all about. This is Paul, the apostle, personally recruited by Jesus Christ. Right?

27:41 Personally recruited. Brought up into third heaven to hear the unutterable words of God himself. Right? The apostle, the great... He could have set it up that way, but look how he does it.

27:56 Look how he does it. There's certainly something for us to learn from that, isn't it? The bond servant. And you probably think, you know, bond servant certainly, it speaks of humility, doesn't it? That I'm a slave to Christ.

28:05 I'm a bond servant. But for us, that's easier. Right? For Paul, it wasn't. And it was intentional.

28:14 I'm a bond servant of Christ to humble myself at the very beginning of my letter, to let let let you know, this ain't Paul high and lofty and mighty. This is Paul the bond servant, the slave of Christ. I'm just like you, but I have a little more information. I have a little more information than you do. Right?

28:35 And so the more I meditated, I thought, how incredible. What an incredible example it is, and how he starts that letter. He's a bond servant. We know in verse one one that the church is already well established, that they have elders, that they have deacons, and I thought about tackling the whole deacon thing, but I'm not, I'm going let that go, let somebody else take that one on. I don't know enough information historically of our deacon lessness but I don't, honestly I don't.

29:06 But I know we don't have deacons and yet we have people that probably act in those regards but I don't know that we have officially recognized and we could debate that and discuss that maybe tomorrow night Pilate. Okay? And then and then we go to verse two and let's read that together. To all the saints in Jesus Christ or in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I read what different people said about this, about the grace and peace aspect of this, I think the thing that stood out to me, I'm just going to make a brief statement about it.

29:46 This is a church, he's writing to the church, a body of believers, right? So we know that they already have Christ, they've already been saved, they've already been forgiven. So the grace that he's referring to, it certainly is a reminder of our position, right? Grace and peace to you, a constant reminder of of our position with Christ, that it was through his grace that that we have standing with him at all. Correct?

30:11 But but it's also the grace that we receive every day. And and I think about, you know, we we give thanks at our table all the time and say, you know, Lord, thank you for your grace, that you demonstrate us the fact that we're able to sit here as a family and eat dinner together and all those things. And sometimes we think of it that's the grace. How about affliction? Would we think of affliction as grace?

30:34 Would we think of, and we live, we have it way too easy, we know that. We have it way too easy here. We don't, we're not afflicted in many of the ways. I think of the I think of the anxiety that I face before I hand a track to the to the girl at the window at McDonald's, you know what I mean? As if that's real affliction.

30:55 I'm so nervous. What if she looks at me like I'm a lunatic? And that's my affliction. That's that's as far as it's gotten. I always put a gun to my head.

31:04 If sometimes in fact, I think it would be easier. Put a gun to my head and tell me to reject God. Man, I'm ready for that. And I'm nervous to hand a girl a track at the window at McDonald's. What sense does that make?

31:17 This is the level of affliction we deal with and yet, you know, all the grace that we have, it's amazing, it's amazing. I'm trying to collect my thought on that. Sometimes I wonder if those who are facing true affliction are truly the ones that are experiencing that grace to an even deeper level. Because think about the times in your life, think about the times in your life that you've had the most gratifying experiences from your service to the Lord and most of them were the toughest ones. Right?

31:53 Not the easy ones. They were the toughest experiences that you felt, boy, it was you know, it felt good today to serve, doesn't it? And so sometimes I wonder if you know having it easy isn't real good for us. I know it's not good for me. Okay, let's look at verses three through seven.

32:44 There's a consistency there, right? Paul has considered them partners from day one. I think it's great that Paul, and you know when Paul says it somehow you believe it, you know how we say to each other, you know what, I'm I'm I'm going gonna remember you every day. Every day I'm going remember you in prayer. And we fail at that, I know I do, I have to think that most of you do too.

33:03 We fail in that so often, don't we? We think about, you know, sometimes the kids, thank the Lord for my kids sometimes because they're great about reminding, you know, they just remind me of a name today, won't say it, but they remind me of a name today that I haven't prayed for for a while. Hey, what happened to him? We don't see him anymore. We need to pray.

33:24 Very convicting. But when Paul says it, you believe it. Always in every prayer of mine, make a request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. So he's definitely appreciative of the fact that they have been together, as he mentions later, defending, confirming, promoting the gospel of Jesus Christ. Being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

33:55 And so he expresses his confidence that God would continue to provide them the strength, the grace that they need to promote, defend, and confirm the gospel until the day of Jesus Christ. And so, you know, as we try to apply these things, like how does this fit? Tell me that this... What he wrote to the Philippians two thousand years ago applies to us just as strongly, doesn't it? And as we look at his prayer, that's that's the part we're going to kind of focus in on a little more.

34:20 But the confidence that if we are are actively confirming and defending the gospel of Jesus Christ, and and it's the world that we live in right now, it's more it's going to get tougher and tougher, isn't it? The church is under attack like we've never had, it's still not bad. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that it's bad. But it's getting there. You can see where it's going.

34:44 You can see that if you stand up for for the beliefs of the gospel, for for the things that are taught in God's word, that the hammer's going to come down on you. It was just in the inauguration, I think we talked about this a while ago, the guy, and I can't remember his name, someone probably has the name, the guy who is a, he's a pastor and he was supposed to give the inaugural address and, but they found a tape a few years back where where he had said that homosexuality was sin. Bump, he got dropped from the line up. Immediately dropped from the line up. Because in his church, as he was teaching, from God's word, he recognized it as sin.

35:24 And that precludes him from being a part of the inauguration address. Right? How about in in the courts, they've already attempted to force Christian schools, Christian organizations, Catholic organizations to accept homosexuals and those type of things on the staff. That you have to do this. That you have to do it.

35:45 That was our administration, our president and his group, cronies, whatever you want call them, going to the supreme court to fight for that. To fight for that. So it didn't win, it lost, just so you know. It lost, but the fact that they're fighting for that should get a little chilled on our backs, right? So we need to be ready to defend the gospel against critics and against those who would fight against truth.

36:17 What I want to do in the next six minutes, how does this always happen? I thought, just this little bit, I won't have a problem today. What I want to do is talk about this prayer that Paul has for the church because as I read that prayer over and over again, when we talked with the kids about it, there were certain things that I really thought, one were an encouragement but but what Paul focuses on. And I think the things that he focuses on are good for us to remind ourselves about. I think we have, especially right now, a a pretty healthy assembly.

36:52 I think we do. And I've been here, maybe not as an adult, full adult for the for the whole time, but we've had some times where we've some conflict and we've had some turmoil here. And comparatively, we're in a very good place, aren't we? It's pretty true? Being of one mind, being those types of things.

37:10 And having seen it from a youth perspective, seeing where we were at one point, and I was younger and dumber. To be able to see from that perspective some of the places where we were and see how those things worked out. You can see some of the damage that happens when we're not of one mind. When we're when our focus is solely on the Lord Jesus Christ and His will for us as a group and individually. Right?

37:38 When it's not that focused, that's when we have problems. So I want to share some of this stuff because I think it was was touching to me and a good reminder of what we need to be. So the first part of his prayer, let's look at that in verse eight. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you with all the affection of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, so the prayer is actually in verse nine.

38:45 But the he talks about in there that that one of the main challenges of the church is their the low esteem in which they hold God. That God is not lifted up and held to a high enough esteem, that he is not honored the way he should be, that our focus is on so many other things and that, and I don't just mean in the world, I mean as a group, that sometimes our focus gets off of this pointing to Christ, our head, completely, and honoring him and what we do and how we act together and all those types of things, that the main problem in the church is that. That you can look at all the other issues, but they really stem to not honoring and esteeming God the way he should be. And so it's a good reminder that when when this comes that our love should abound more and more in knowledge, Well, knowledge of what? If he's talking to the church, knowledge of what?

39:45 Knowledge of the almighty. To me, there's no question that is referenced there in knowledge. It's about knowledge of the almighty. You... I...

39:52 Your love should be based on something and it's based on the knowledge of who God is. The knowledge of who God is because if you know God, if you understand his attributes, if you meditate on those things, there is no way that you can come away from it and not be humbled and not be recognizing how undeserved his love is for us and how could we not love him more. This is a hard one for me, I'm going tell you this is on a personal level. Loving God was one of my biggest issues before. How do I how do I love him?

40:29 I don't know him, I don't, you know, I... To feel love, I believe this, I've heard this stuff mentally, intellectually, I've heard it all my life and I know But how do I go from this place of where it's an intellectual understanding of what God is and what he's done. I knew all the stories, all that kind of stuff. But how do I go from that to really loving God? That was a challenge for me.

40:53 And and I thank many of you for helping me through that challenge because I'm going tell you, was at the death of my mother that I saw the love of the church and it gave me a glimpse into the love of and what that meant, to love him. Right? I saw the love of the church, the brethren, and that was a big that was that was huge for me. And Tammy would attest to that. That's where things started to turn around for me.

41:19 I got a little glimpse of what it looks like. But what I found over the years is pretty simple. To know someone or to love someone, have to know them. Don't you? And the more you know about God, the more you can't help but love him.

41:36 Because he sent his son, and he died for me, and I know what I am. It's incredible. Where am I going? Other than collecting myself here. Okay.

41:59 And that also includes our love for each other. That as we know the Lord God, we have to grow in our love and affection for each other. So for our love to abound more and more, it starts with the knowledge of him who created us. And then this point of discernment, that that love is, you know, one of the quotes that that I wanted to make sure I mentioned, and I skipped a whole bunch of stuff here, I thought maybe I was speaking for three hours today. But one of the quotes that I read in discussing this section was, what is good is not always what is best.

42:38 To love what is good is not always to recognize and love what is best. And there are times when what we think is good is not really what God has for us. That he has a whole another plan. Right? So in this discernment, if we are looking to the will of God and we are looking for strength and guidance through the holy spirit, it is, that's where we develop the discernment of what not is just good, but what is best according to God's plan.

43:03 And that's where that discernment comes in. And and like I already mentioned, it's kind of, you know, my dad last night gave his, hey, you might want to throw something in there, and I I fully agree that that that discernment is necessary to defend against the false teaching and worldly wisdom that we're going to face as well. It's not just in how we love each other and how we treat each other and act as a group, but but in being able to defend the gospel against what we're going to face coming from the world and what's considered wisdom. And we see those warnings in Matthew, Jesus talks about First Corinthians two and really one Corinthians one through, chapter two, has plenty of that. And then of course, I was going have the kids recite it because they know it.

43:45 How do you defend it? How do you defend it? Two Timothy two fifteen, I thought there was going be like condition like Pavlov's dog, a conditioned response, right? Isn't that what we do at Awana? Aren't we conditioned to...

43:58 You hear second Timothy two fifteen, what do you do? Approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That's where it starts, right guys? That's where it starts, rightly dividing the word of truth. That will help us with discernment.

44:18 The next part of that prayer. The next part of that prayer. That you may approve the things that are excellent. I thought about that for a little bit. That you may approve the things that are excellent.

44:30 Not excellent according to our definition of excellent, but those things that are truly excellent, right? You know, like if I see, you know, a great catch, you know, with the guy who flips into the end zone, that's excellent. No, that's nothing, that's stupidity that we just sidetrack ourselves with, right? But but the things that are truly excellent, the things that are from God, right? And all that is excellent comes from God.

44:57 And a lot local body that honors Christ as his head, its head and prayerfully seeks his will in all things will be better equipped to discern the things that are excellent. We know that that's true. Next part of that prayer that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ. This one really someone could devote, I'm sure someone who's much more skilled at this could could devote an entire day to this part. But but as the physical testimony of God's grace, that's us, right?

45:34 We are we are what the world sees as evidence of God's grace. We really have to be careful about how we present ourselves, don't we? And that's a challenge to each one of us individually and collectively. You think of damage done, you know Paul says, hey, later on in the chapter, I I don't, however the gospel is getting out there, it's fine. Okay, if that gospel is the truth of of Jesus Christ and and his salvation and regardless of the the motives of the person who's getting it out there but people are saved from it.

46:06 Okay, I get what he's saying. But there's a lot of people that have gone out in the name of Jesus Christ and done damage and have driven people away from God because of the way they presented themselves before, know, as as a representative of of God. Can't do it. So we have to present ourselves, we're going to go to Romans, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. A challenge certainly for each one of us.

46:30 And we must seek what is right and forsake what is wrong. One of the verses I had, I had wanted to look at for that is Philippians four:eight. Let's take a look real quick. I'm going try to close this up. Philippians four eight.

46:48 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report. Notice, if you go back and you look at each one of those things, the things that are pure, just, lovely, noble, where do they come from? We know who they come from. Right? If there is any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

47:17 Spend our time thinking about those things that matter, and those are the things that come from God, the things of God. And then the last part of that prayer, his prayer for them is that they would be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus to the glory and praise of God. The body and its individual members can reap the blessings, that's us. We can reap the blessings that come from the complete submission to God's will and be filled with the fruit that righteousness or righteous living produces.