 Philippians chapter 1. I'll read beginning at verse 1 and just read the first two verses and get into our study. We're going to take about a 12-week journey, a 12-week journey through the book of Philippians. Obviously, this being our first installment, our introduction. And I chose to entitle this particular installment, this introduction, simply, I have you in my heart. And you'll see this in just a moment why I chose to entitle this installment by that name. I have you in my heart. Beginning at verse 1, reading 1 and 2 and getting into our introduction. Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints 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. Now, I'm going to give a brief introduction, brief as my introductions can be, meaning it's going to take a while. But I'm going to give you an introduction of the book of Philippians. First, we know that the book of Acts records three missionary journeys that the Apostle Paul embarked on. Acts chapter 16 records what has been called Paul's second missionary journey. Now, on that journey, Paul had separated from Barnabas because there was a controversy over a young man by the name of John Mark. You see, on the first journey, Mark had deserted the team and had gone home. And when he had done that, Paul obviously was greatly upset and disapproved of it. Barnabas, on the other hand, desired to take Mark on the second journey, but Paul refused. Paul had a real problem over that, so they separated. Acts chapter 15, verses 39 through 41, records they had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. So Acts 16 says that Paul took Silas and Timothy. Luke went to Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia. When you look at Acts chapter 16, especially verses 13 through 15, as well as verses 29 through 34, you see that while he was there, there was a fruitful ministry that took place. He converted Lydia, her household, as well as a Philippian jailer and his household. And these were the first roots of Christianity in Europe. Now, around 11 years later, Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians. This is one of his four prison epistles. The others are Philemon, Ephesians, and as you know, Colossians. These are all written while Paul was in a Roman jail. Now, as we look at this particular book, you're going to see that there are at least three reasons that Paul wrote this particular letter. One, he wrote to encourage them to live lives of humility, steadfastness, and unity. You'll see that later on in chapter one, verses 27 through 30. Second, he desired to update them concerning his situation while in prison. We'll see that in verses 12 through 26 of chapter one. And then third, he wanted to thank them for their support because they had received, they had actually given some support to him and he had received it through a man by the name of Epaphroditus. You see that in chapter four. If there's a central theme, it would be an exhortation, an exhortation for believers to rejoice. The word rejoice in similar words occurs 16 times in this one letter. So Paul is obviously reminding them that Christian joy is greater than outer circumstances. And that's why in chapter four, verse four, he says, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. And so what we see here is an exhortation to rejoice because Paul, though he is confined in a Roman prison, still has the ability to have joined the Lord because he knows that though his freedom has been taken away from him in terms of his personal ability to go places, well, his freedom in Christ could never be taken away. And so he wants people to know that no matter what your circumstances that you find yourself in, no matter what kind of jail you might have, even if you're not behind bars, no matter what your circumstances that are holding you back, Paul would say you can rejoice always. And that's why he says, and again, I say rejoice. And that's what we've seen here in this particular letter, an exhortation to rejoice no matter what your circumstance. Now in verses one and two, as I read earlier, let's look at it. Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the bishops and deacons. Often Paul and Timothy went together. You see that the names Paul and Timothy are found in various letters, first and second Corinthians, first and second Thessalonians, Colossians, Philemon. Paul often was with Timothy and Timothy participated in the founding of the church, and therefore he'd be well known to them. And that's why Paul includes Timothy in this salutation. Now notice how he refers to himself and Timothy. Notice that he refers to them as servants of Jesus Christ. That's how he introduces himself, Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ. Now everybody is a servant of something. Everybody serves one thing or another. The question has to be asked, what is it that I am serving with all of my strength? What is it that I am willing to put my time, my talent, my tithe? What is it that I am willing to serve? Because everybody serves something and everybody serves somebody. What do I serve with all of my strength? You see the Bible teaches we can be servants of a variety of things. One and most obviously we can be a servant of sin. Sin can have a toehold in my life to the degree that is what I do and becomes who I am. It can be what is empowering me. It can be the thing that actually enslaves me. Jesus in John 8 34 said, he who sins is a slave to sin, a servant of sin. And Romans chapter 6 verse 16 says, don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey? Whether you are slaves to sin which leads to death or to obedience which leads to righteousness? So when I can be a servant to sin, I can have a habit, a sin habit that I cannot break free from, that I am enslaved and entrapped by. Talk to the alcoholic when he's sober and ask him, would you like to be free of that? In the more sober moments when they're being honest, many an alcoholic will admit that they feel like they're in slavery. They're in bondage. That's what Jesus said. You're a slave to sin. It holds you captive. You're being under its power. And so sin can hold you captive. I've talked to so many people over the years. So many people who say, I wish I could be free of this. I understand that. Because prior to coming to Christ, there were many times just before I got saved that I began to cry out to God saying, you've got to set me free. You've got to help me. I can't take this anymore. I can't stand the way that I treat people. I can't stand who I've become and what I've done. When people give their testimonies, very often people will say that they they were at their the end of their rope and and finally God just cast them a lifeline. Part of the way, as a matter of fact, a very large of the large part of the way that I got saved was simply because I got tired. I got tired of being an idiot. I got tired of being cruel. I got tired of being mean. I got tired of making my mom cry. I got tired of embarrassing my father. I got tired of hurting people, my sisters. I got tired of embarrassing my brother. I especially got tired of hurting girls that I thought I loved. And part of the way part of the way that I got saved is I finally just hurt somebody I really cared about to the degree that God used that and all of the other things that I'd done to awaken me to the pain that I caused others. And when that happened, when I realized that I was in bondage, this is when I cried out to Christ and sin makes you its slave and it pays slave wages, meaning you get nothing out of it other than pain. And so you can be a servant to sin. You can also be a servant of the world. When you read the word world in scripture, it's used in a variety of ways, but one of the ways it speaks concerning the world is it's a death system. The world in a biblical sense, one of the ways that that word world is used is in reference of a death system. A system that cannot give you life. It's a system that thrives on death. And in 1 John chapter 2 verses 15 through 17, John said, don't love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away. But the man who does the will of God lives forever. You can be a sin slave. You can be a slave to the world. And then finally, you can be a servant of Satan. You can be a servant of the devil. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 24 through 26 says, the Lord's servant must not quarrel. Instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him, he must gently instruct in hope that that God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will. You can be a slave to sin, a slave to the world, a slave to the devil, or you can voluntarily be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can make your choice. Now when you serve sin, when you serve the world, when you serve the devil, you have no joy because you have no cause of rejoicing. All the world system has, all that there is, is bondage, dissatisfaction, and ultimately death. Jesus in John 10 verse 10 said, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But he said, I've come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. So you can be a servant of the world, a servant of sin, a servant of the devil, or a servant of Jesus Christ. Those are your choices. Now Paul was a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was his bond slave. He recognized that Jesus bought him the redemption and he knew that he belonged to Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20 he says you're bought with the price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which belong to God. And so when he refers to himself as a servant of Jesus Christ, he's renouncing all self-importance and it reveals his genuine humility. Now notice in verse 1 who he writes this letter to. It's to the saints, the bishops, and the deacons. Saints, you hear me say this quite often whenever I see that word in an introduction. Either you're a saint or you're an ant. You know either you're part of the kingdom of God or you're not. Sometimes we use the word saint and we try to make it into something that the Bible didn't intend us to think. We sometimes can take people and we can say oh they are a notch above the average person. They are a real true saint. And that means that we just think that they're really remarkable Christians. But what that does is it creates a class of Christians where you have the super saints and then you have the people who are just the average kinds of people. Bible doesn't record it that way. You are a saint. The word saint means is from the Greek word hagios. It speaks of separating something for use. And when he's speaking here, he's speaking in general. He's speaking to what the believer is and he's saying I'm writing this to you saints. I'm writing this to believers in Christ. You have been set apart by the Lord Jesus Christ. So not only is he writing to the saints in Philippi, he's also speaking to the leadership. He speaks of them as bishops and deacons. That is that is a word we don't use. You know the word bishop as it is used today sometimes is a hierarchical thing where you have a person who's way high in church organization. The word bishop really speaks of a pastor. And so what he's speaking of is an elder. So he's saying I'm writing this letter to the Philippians. It includes everybody. The congregation and your spiritual leadership. And so that's his introduction. Then he says grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to remind you that when you see grace and when you see peace in a salutation from Paul, you will never see him say peace from God and grace to you. You just don't ever see that. And you know the reason why is because you cannot have peace with God until you have the grace that comes from God. Grace leads to peace. You will never have peace without God's grace. Now a lot of people want to have peace but they don't have God's grace. They're not walking in the grace of the Lord. Grace is unmerited favor and peace is the result of a relationship with God. You can have peace with God and you can have the peace of God. Paul in Romans chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 says being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. But in Philippians we'll see in chapter 4 verse 7 he says the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I have peace with God. The war is over. God gave to me terms of peace. He is the victor. The terms of peace come in what is called the gospel. The gospel message is communicated to me. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Jesus died on a cross for me. He paid the penalty because God demands perfection and righteousness that a man cannot have because my inability keeps me from being perfect. And so because I am imperfect God took it upon himself took upon himself human flesh and fulfilled every righteous requirement enabling me by faith to trust him to have a relationship with him through simply trusting what he did on my behalf and that is communicated to me through a message called the gospel. The gospel is referred to as the message of reconciliation. There were two parties at war. It was humanity and a holy and righteous God. God is the victor. Jesus dies on the cross. As he does so God declares himself to be victor as Jesus is resurrected. He demonstrates he has authority over sin and the world and the devil. I hear this message. When I hear the message I say God be merciful to me I'm a sinner. Jesus died on the cross because of my sins. Now God says I've given you terms of peace. It requires unconditional surrender. It isn't a piece that is brokered. It is an unconditional surrender. You have to say to me that you recognize me as the total victor and you have you have to come under me. So when I hear the gospel and it says that I'm to bow my knee to Jesus Christ because he's God in the flesh and I do. What happens is I now have peace with God because the war is over. He won and now I am his servant. So we can have peace with God the moment we say to God be merciful to me I'm a sinner. The war is over. But I also have a second aspect of that and that is the peace that comes from God. I can declare to you today that I understand my peace with God but sometimes I don't seem to have that peace that comes from God. That's a little bit different because I have to learn to cast my cares on him because he cares for me. I have to learn to walk as a disciple of Jesus Christ with a spiritual discipline to begin to understand that part of the path that I walk is strewn with landmines, spiritual landmines. I have to learn to walk as Paul said to the Ephesians. I have to learn to walk in a certain way. I have to walk circumspectly aware of the way things are, the spiritual minds that are around me. Sometimes I will trip into one of those landmines. Sometimes I intentionally may walk into a land field, landmine field. But what happens is when I start stepping over that boundary, that peace that I had from God no longer is ruling my heart and my mind because I've yielded myself to something that actually produces a dissonance, it produces a confusion within myself. That which I desire to do, I'm not doing. That which I shouldn't do is what I'm doing. And so I find myself at a loss. That's why I have to come back to understand who's going to save me from this body of death and then I can say thanks be to God who gives me the victory through Jesus Christ. And that way I can say God be merciful to me because in my walk I have failed. And Lord now I'm asking for you to forgive me because I not only want that peace that is with you, but I need that peace that comes from you because it's going to guard me, because it's going to protect me. And so we have grace which is the source of peace. And so if you don't have the grace of God, you don't have peace with him. Now moving into verse three, he begins his letter. That was all your introduction and only took half hour. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 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. I thank my God. Now I want you to think about that for just a moment. What a testimony for Paul? What a testimony for the Philippians. Wouldn't you like to receive a letter like that someday where somebody says, I want you to know something. Every time I think of you, I smile. Every time I think of you, I thank God for you. What a powerful thing. What an encouragement that would be instead of, you know, God is crying and I just want you to know he's crying because you made him cry. You know, I like encouragement. And just the way he begins, Paul and Timothy in other words, you know who we are. We are writing you a letter. I'm writing you a letter and my companion Timothy is part of it. And I want to remind you that we are servants of Jesus Christ. And this letter is intended to be an encouragement to all of you who've been separated by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the first thing I want you to know as I even begin this letter is every time I think of you, in the Lord I smile, because you are such a blessing to me. And every time I pray for you, it's with thanksgiving. Every time I pray for you, it's with joy. Because you have caused great joy in my heart. There are people that when I pray for them, it isn't always with joy. It's a lot of times, and I must confess, I pray for some with sorrow, with tears, because their lives are not really solid, because there are needs that they have. There are times that I have prayed for myself with simple sorrow because of who I am and what I've done. And so I can't confess that every time I think of a certain individual that every time I pray for them, I think, Lord, thank you so much for their fellowship. Thank you so much for the blessing they are. But Paul could, Paul could speak of the Philippians in that way. And he could say that in verse 3, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. I can rejoice over you as I pray for you. In 3 John verses 3 and 4, John said, it gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth, and how you continue to walk in the truth. And he goes on to say, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth. That is an old man speaking of younger people, by the way. John the aged. I've gotten to that point where I see myself not so much as a father sometimes, as a grandfather. I was with a young lady in our fellowship just the other day, who is God is using in a mighty way. She's a teen, a late teen now. And as we're talking, I said that to her. I said, and her father, we were together, and I said to her, I said, you know, I have a love for you like, you know, like a grandfather has. You know, and I understand that when you've been ministering for a while and you see the church, when you see the body doing well, there is a, it's almost like a father or a grandfatherly joy that you have that that just causes a smile to come upon your face. And you realize that God has done some great things. And that's how John was, and that's how Paul is. Now notice in verse five, he's rejoicing for their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until then. For their fellowship in the gospel. Fellowship always relies on our belonging to him and one another, as well as our service. And so when he's speaking about their fellowship in the gospel, it's not simply that we are both saved. It's that we are both saved and we're both serving the Lord Jesus Christ. We are laborers together in the Lord Jesus Christ. And to see you serving the Lord is a great blessing. Then he says in verse six, being confident, 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. Being confident that God who began the work will continue and complete it. I am persuaded that God began this work and I am persuaded that God will continue this work and I am fully confident that God will complete this work. I am confident of your conversion. And because you've been saved, I want to encourage you to continue in your walk. You've been faithful for 11 years and I believe that you're going to continue being so. Now notice his confidence doesn't rest in them alone. It rests in God who always finishes what he begins. If God began it, God continues it and God completes it if he began it. He's the author and he's the perfecter of our faith. God begins and he finishes. If you take notes Luke chapter 14 verses 28 through 30, Jesus said it this way, suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays a foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him saying this fellow began to build and was not able to finish. Who begins to build a house without the funds? Well during the time of Christ that wasn't done. In our day you can go by whole housing tracks that were begun and not completed. But what do people say about those housing tracks? What a foolish thing to begin in economic times like this? To build an entire track of houses. I was in Greece back in 1975. Boy that's a long time just to say that. I should have said I was in Greece once. Back in 1975 and we were in a southern portion of Greece. We're just uh just south of the city of Corinth and a place called Patras and uh we spent a month there almost a month in this particular city and traveled throughout Greece. I spent three months in Europe backpacking and and the friend of mine I traveled with, his name was Nick. Nick was Greek and he had his family still in Greece and they lived in in Patras as well as Thessalonica. And so we went and sponged off. I mean we went and stayed with his family there at the end of our trip and as we were in Patras we had the opportunity of just relaxing and and seeing Greece. It was really beautiful. I really enjoyed going through Greece and all of that. But one of his cousins and his name was George decided to be our guide and he was taking us on a tour and he took us by this house and he stopped and the house was just basically framed. It was framed out of brick and he stops and he speaks to us and he says you see that house there and uh and we said yeah he said an American came here and American Greek came here and began to build this house. He said but he ran out of funds. He says that all he's left was the shell that's all he has. He says and the talents people will actually come by here and point at it and and remember with laughter this guy who came thinking that he was real special building a house in our village who didn't have the funds to build the house and as he was saying that I couldn't help but remember this passage out of Luke how the Lord Jesus Christ said exactly that. Who begins to build a house and doesn't complete it. Who does that? He says will that person who begins that to build that house will he not be the laughing stock of the neighborhood if he begins a work and doesn't complete it. Let me ask you a question did God begin the work in you? If God began the work in you is God going to complete that work in you? I believe what Paul is saying is yeah if God began the work he'll complete the work. That's what he's saying in verse 6 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. God began the work will he violate his own illustration? Would he say to on the one hand Jesus say well someone who begins and doesn't complete it is really foolish would he violate that. See part of my confidence that I have in the Lord is the knowledge of who began the work. If I began the work then I have every reason to doubt but if God began the work I have every reason to believe because if God began it God will continue it and God will complete it. No does that give me permission to sin so I can go out there and say all right God's grace is sufficient I can go out and get bombed I can do whatever I want whenever I want. No because to take the grace of God as a license for sin is to misappropriate and misunderstand the grace of God. God's grace was not extended to me to give me permission to continue in sin God's grace was given to me so that I have freedom from sin so when the Lord begins to work in my life he sets me free from that bondage that I at one time found myself entrapped by and so when I got saved I didn't become instantly perfect but I did get on the path towards being sanctified being cleansed being worked on over the course of my life a work that will continue into the day I see Jesus Christ but I am confident that God who began the work continues it and he completes it and that's what Paul is basically saying here now in verse seven he says just as it is right for me to think this of you all so you know that Paul was from Tarsus now we discover that he was from southern Tarsus because notice how he said it just as it is right for me to think this of y'all right there you go thank you you are awake 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 y'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 when I was a young man I was reading a book I've shared this with you before I was reading a book it was on Paul the missionary it was not written by a Christian it was written by a secular writer who presented a case that the apostle Paul was pretty much a an emotionless intellect that he was simply an intellect you know I think there is a truism when you're intellectual sometimes you can come on or come off as heartless you can come off that way and and I don't believe that at all I believe that the most intelligent human being whoever lived was a man by the name of Jesus Christ yeah who was smarter than than Jesus yet we see Jesus as a man of compassion the apostle Paul is presented very often by secular writers as a heartless intellectual yet it was the same apostle Paul who in who wrote first Corinthians 13 and defined for us what love is the apostle Paul when he was writing to the Corinthians in second Corinthians chapter 12 said the more I love you the less I am loved by you and when you read second Corinthians you will see that second Corinthians is his most open hearted letter that he has in all of his writings or he pours out his heart to the people and shares with them his deep affection and love for them and many times in his writings he speaks concerning the love that he has for people so the apostle Paul was not a heartless intellectual he was an individual had a tremendous love for these people and so he's making very clear his affection for them he's telling them that he's saying I love you and I and notice how he speaks of them he says I have you in my heart in other words I have you in the center of my being I have you in in in my my will and in my decision-making I have you in in my affections and this love for them is an outpouring of love given to him for them by Jesus Christ Paul who at one time breathed out threatenings for those who were followers of Jesus Paul who would take them bind them in chains bring them back to Jerusalem stand witness against them as heretics and agree at their death as now an individual who is using all of his strength to go out and proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and loving those whom he at one time had been at war with and that's what he's saying here he's saying I have a tremendous love for you the earmark of a Christian guys never forget it the earmark of a Christian and we'll see some more about this in just a moment is the love of God that is the earmark of a believer it's the love of Jesus Christ that flows through you to other people they know there's something different about you your sincerity your concern your generosity your compassion your willingness to bear with them your your your your your entire demeanor there's something different about you and when they see that they'll say this person is not like everybody else i know must be a religious person no that's where you're wrong i'm not a religious person i was i was a religious person before i got saved i was a religious person on christmas and i was a religious person sometimes on easter and i could be a religious person when i had to be but i wasn't right with god when i got right with god and when you got right with god you cease being a religious person and now you're a relational person you don't have a relationship with god the living god who changes your life absolutely radically transforms you from being a jerk to a loving caring person a kind person i remember a friend of mine i got saved and i was talking to this friend and i said to them my wish my wish is that one day one day i'll be known as a person who's got a kind heart i said that's my desire i want to have kindness because because i didn't because i was not kind and and for me i wanted that transformation i wanted that gentleness that that goodness in action i wanted to put on a kind heart because when i looked at jesus christ he's kind jesus is kind i mean you could walk up to him and and speak to him and and he would give you he would give you his time even though he was the most important person and people would crowd him around him and impede him as he was going all it would take is a blind man to say jesus son of nazareth helped me and instantly the christian parade would stop and jesus would turn it would only take a woman with the issue of blood as she saw him passing by if i just were to touch the him of his garment my my illness would be would be healed and all she didn't even interrupt him she just reached down and touched and jesus stops right where he's at and turns around and says who touched me and then his disciples the spiritual giants that they are say you see the crowd they're jostling you and you're asking who touched you and then jesus slapped them twice and then looks around no and and jesus says no i i sensed i sensed the touch of faith i sensed the touch of faith virtue has proceeded from me someone touched me and here's a woman who for 12 years was incapable of fellowship because when a woman was on her menstrual cycle she had no fellowship she was declared unclean until her cycle completed then she made offerings and then she could once again have relationship she had not had fellowship nobody had been able to even touch her for 12 years for 12 years and she couldn't take it anymore and she saw the master walking by if i but touched the him of his garment why the him of the garment because the him of the garment symbolized all the law of god because there were four tassels in blue there that every Jew would wear it symbolized the law of god and she understood that if she touched that him that was symbolic of jesus christ who fulfills that law and so she reaches to touch that him as a point if you will have contact with that one whom she was unable to really touch because of uncleanness but the second she touches she's dried up from her infirmity and therefore she's no longer unclean and that's how the lord jesus is jesus is walking and and here comes some mamas with their little drooling stinky babies and and and they they bring the baby to jesus and and there's those super apostles once again saying don't bother the master come on now leave them alone jesus says uh suffer the little children to come on to me and forbid them not for such as the kingdom of heaven and he would take them in his hands and he would bless them and as he did so wow what an incredible moment with the master love that is the mark of a christian i am not impressed with how smart somebody is never have been i'm just not able to be i'm not smart enough to be impressed by smart people i'm really not you know i just they're smart well that's nice i'm not okay so what you know what impresses me character honesty integrity patience love that impresses me and a knowledge of god's word that is put into action will always impress me and so that's what paul's talking about paul is saying it's right for me to think this about you because i have you in my heart and i love you and so the love that i have for you is an outpouring of the love that christ has had for me so in light of my chains in light of my defense and the confirmation of the gospel you have remained faithful to me you have not feared being identified with me not only that you've continued caring for me you have made sure that i am cared for so that's why he says that again verse seven and eight 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 god knows how deeply i love you now he goes on in verse nine and and this i pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment that you may approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere and 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 paul how did you pray what kind of prayers did you pray here's a great example this is what i pray well what are you praying for well i pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment knowledge i pray that your love will abound in knowledge that word knowledge is a word that speaks of knowing god by experience knowing god experientially you can know god in terms of information about him you can spout it out i knew of a uh a hebrew scholar a non-christian hebrew scholar who memorized the gospel of mark word for word now he was not a christian he taught you know ancient literature and all and he memorized the gospel of mark word for word he was a man that when a student would be reading to him from the gospel because he would do this he would stop the student when the student missed a word and he'd say go on back you forgot this word this man knew a lot about the bible but he didn't know the god of the bible he was able he had knowledge he had knowledge when you go to israel there have been times when we have had some incredibly brilliant experienced guides and i have had one guide in particular who he may be christian now i i'm not sure i don't want to say that he is but he i've known him for a long time and i i i really am at the point where i'm thinking this man i think he committed himself to his messiah he just uh i could go into stories with you about why but but i know when i first met him i was standing outside of capernaum and i was about to go in and teach and i had already gotten a passage prepared to share on and he's standing there and he's saying well we're here at this particular city now you could use luke and he gives me a chapter in luke he said if you'd like because you can see these three or four things there in the gospel of luke or if you want you can use matthew matthew does a real good job and you know he says then again mark and he said and then you know john and he's there i'm serious he's given me all these passages that he knows because he has been the tour guide for calvary chapel pastor after calvary chapel pastor for years so he could actually go as a matter of fact the first time he was our guide i gave a study at capernaum and after i gave the study at capernaum he was standing there see normally our jewish guides will just walk away they don't want to hear us teach they walk away and then they'll come back when you're through they go and talk to the bus driver or we'll visit with some other guides they don't listen this man stood there and listened to me teach that's very very unusual for them to do that so i was thinking oh he's looking for something to that i'm saying that's wrong oh boy we'll hear about it later on when i finished teaching the very first time that i was with him there he walked up and he said i wish i could remember his exact words but he said what pastor david said is absolutely right and then he took my message and began to repeat it to the people and exhorted them to do what the passage said and i remember standing there looking at this jewish man looking for my wife marie to kind of hold me up i'm about to faint i mean i've never seen this before and over time he and i have had numerous conversations and i believe you know i started believing you know jesus your word doesn't return into your void it accomplishes what you've sent it home and the gospel is the power of god into salvation and this man is listening and so i came up with a theory just a theory of you know don't go out walking out saying this is the bible no it's a theory but you know when the rapture occurs there are going to be quite a number of people who are jewish guides who know the gospel and i'm wondering i cannot help but wonder and i told marie i said i wonder if he's one of the 144 000 i wonder what god may be doing here but since then i've come to believe that he may very well be a brother in the lord now but getting back to the passage which has nothing to do with this i mean but getting back to it story time getting back to it knowledge it's an experiential knowledge of god that he's referring to now the knowledge or the experience john 17 3 gives to us where it says this is eternal life that they may know you the only true god in jesus christ whom you have sent so he's speaking about their knowledge of god through salvation he also speaks of discernment discernment is the result of fellowship and a maturing knowledge of god it speaks of one who has developed moral judgment and isn't easily deceived so a discerning love has perception a deserving discerning love knows right from wrong in daily affairs as well as spiritual so he's saying i want your love to be more than just a simple emotion may your love abound still more and more in knowledge and discernment that's where a lot of people seem to to forget the writings of paul perhaps haven't really appropriated them because for them biblical truth is what they feel like believing in if it makes them feel good then they say i love the truth but the fact is is that love is is really based in knowledge and discernment and that's what he's speaking about he says in verse 10 uh that you may approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of christ and so he wants you to approve he wants us to approve the things that are of value that word excellent speaks of those things that have value to him and so this results from a christian ignoring the standards of the world and seeking to please god maturing christians do not make decisions based only on feeling but through prayer and the word of god and his desire is that they may be sincere and without offense till the day of christ to be sincere that's an interesting word sincera to be sincere sincera means without wax that's what it means in latin sincera you would go to a pottery store and you were looking for a vase you would pick up the vase and you would turn it upside down and as you look at the vase upside down you'd be looking for the words sincera sincera simply meant without wax see what would happen during that day is if i went to a pottery store and i picked up a piece of pottery i might think it looks perfect i might purchase at full price take it home and begin to use it if i put some hot liquid in it or whatever then i would discover that it actually had hairline fractures because the hot liquid would cause the wax that had been placed in those fractures to melt and run and i would discover that this pot actually was defective and so in the better shops when you went in you would just turn the jar over and see sincera and when you see that without wax you would know that there are no defects in it and so sincerity is that it's to be real so he says i want you to be real i want you to be sincere he says i want you to be without a fence when he says without a fence that says really i want you to live a godly life i want you to be the kind of person who is real and godly not someone who pretends to be as we all know and perhaps we've even ourselves done you can go to church and be one thing but once you're out the doors of the church that's what you really are what you are in the church what i am here in this pulpit is one thing what i am at home that's the real thing so my kids see me in the pulpit but they see the real david if you will when he's with mom when he's with the family when he's with them they know me that way i'm telling you and you know this it's not hard to to demal the right things i know that because i've done it i've shared this with you before from this very platform i had been a christian for a couple of years but i had difficulty with an occasional over drinking now when i drank i wasn't like some people they drank a beer i drank a six-pack i just wasn't the one who could pick up a glass of wine i drank the whole bottle that's just the way i was that's just you know and that's not excuse that's the way i was i got saved after getting saved my life began to radically change i went in the military for 21 months so for the first two years of my life 21 months of those in my walk with christ 21 months of those two years were in the military so there's not a whole lot of bible study that you can do there's not a whole lot of great fellowship there's not a whole lot involvement in serving you're in the military i got out when i got out i was still really basically just a brand new believer that's what i was i i i didn't have anybody teaching me you know on a weekly basis in a church how to live for christ it was kind of a new thing i was blessed that i that i made it through the army and still came out with my faith and so i remember going to one of my cousin's weddings her name is lianne and i went to her wedding she's born again so i went to lianne's wedding well they had all kinds of free alcohol because her dad made sure that they had an open bar now lianne was not a drinker but her father was and so so was i and so i drank drank more than i should i still remember i was seated in the front room getting a little you know high to be honest with you i was feeling a you know dizzy and i was thinking better not drink anymore right now but here comes these two christians and they sit down next to me to witness to me and they're telling me do you know the lord jesus christ can forgive you of your sins and i said yeah they said he has a way of work i still remember part of the conversation and i said look at i'm a christian i was slurring my words you know closing one eye so i could see him true and they were witnessing to me you need jesus christ and i said look at i'm already saved yeah i know the lord and they got up and they said okay brother thank you they they walked away knowing i wasn't saved at least in their own mind and i still remember this last thing i said to them as they walked away i said here there or in the air that's what i said to them one way hypocrite hypocrite but see in my mind at that time i didn't really think of it i started to really get solid with the lord when i started going to bible college and i started to have people like my favorite professor dr more and others like him who influenced me and started waking me up i started teaching the bible in 1973 as a christian service assignment and the more i began to read the more i began to become aware of who god was and from there over time my actions began to start matching my words it's easy to say certain things it's more difficult to actually do those things and so what's paul praying for that you would know god that you would have an actual relationship with him that you would love him and that your life would demonstrate it that you would have a discerning kind of love for god and that you would be sincere that you would be without offense and finally that you be saying to the flippians and and to us would be filled with the fruit of righteousness that you would have a righteous life but not only that but that you would actually reach out to others with a heart to see them saved because that's what god wants for you he wants you to win people to the lord and you can do so by knowing his word and living a godly life and paul is simply saying to the flippians i know god has begun to work in you you have remained faithful over these 11 years and i have every reason to believe that he will continue to work in you and you will complete that work in you so my prayer for you is that your love will grow that you have knowledge and discernment that you'll be sincere and without offense that you'll be filled with the fruit of righteousness and you will bring glory and praise to god that's my desire for you