This is our third sermon in the book of Philippians and today we're going to Review we're going to look again at three verses Philippians chapter 1 verses 9 10 and 11 and As we approach these verses I was thinking about about these verses and how they would affect you and the reason I went back to them is because there's so much here for us to apply to our lives and We might think, we might read these verses about love abounding and being blameless and so forth, and we might think those are very unrealistic desires. And we all have unrealistic desires. Everybody in this room has something in their life that they want, that is very unrealistic, in fact, maybe so unrealistic that it's impossible. I have two that I've had almost my whole life. I have two very unrealistic desires. And in fact, I don't care what yours are, mine's gonna top yours, because I'm gonna tell you what they are. The first one is, I want to be buried on the moon. Ask my children, they've heard it their whole lives, I want to be buried on the moon. It's not likely. But second of all, I want to attend my own funeral. But I won't be there, but the body will. The body will be there, but like this robe, but the body will. And there will be people there, and I'm sure that Joanne will be there, and my children will be there, and their spouses will be there, and friends will be there. Even Jimmy's probably gonna come to my funeral, I don't know. I'm gonna have work associates that'll come to my funeral, and people that I've pastored, maybe some of you will be at my funeral. Who knows who will be at my funeral? But the thing that I wonder about is if you're at my funeral, if Joanne's at my funeral and she gives part of my eulogy, what's she going to say about me? And what are my children, my eight children, when they come up behind that holy desk to bid me farewell and to tell people something about me, what are they going to remember about me? And what are their spouses going to think is important enough to tell somebody about me on the day of my death? And what is Jimmy gonna tell about me? I've known Jimmy 60. Somewhere in 60 years 55 60 years. What's he gonna? What's it? What's he gonna say? He's already promised not to tell the bad stuff, but what's what's good there and What about you? as my congregation, my beloved congregation, people I love, people I pray for, people I have desires for, and my previous congregation, 21 years in Maryland, 21 years of people I loved and prayed for and prayed for their children and married them and buried them and baptized at the works. Well, in Philippians 1, 9 through 11, the Apostle Paul prays for specific things that he wanted for himself. And without the Lord Jesus, they are so unrealistic. In fact, they are impossible. And he prays these things for himself and for all Christians. to be known and to be remembered for. So he's going to tell us today some things that he wants to be said about our lives while we're alive, but certainly after we're gone. And there is not much in your life worth anything unless it's worth your time and effort to be praying about it. So Paul, the apostle, is praying about some certain things. And in fact, the way that we learn many things about Paul is because we listen in on his prayers, the prayers that he wrote in the scripture. And in these three verses that we have today, we find some specific petitions that he regularly prayed for the people of the church. And in these petitions, God shows us some core values and some goals, some admirable goals. So look at the text, if you will. Philippians 1, 9, 10, and 11. In this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." May God add His blessing to the reading and the hearing of those words. So here we have truths that teach us how to guarantee that our lives will produce the kind of remembrances that we all want when that time comes for our eulogy. We want, I used to be a rescue man. I've held people while they've died. I've seen many people die. I've been at bedsides as a pastor as people have died. And everybody wants four things. Every man, woman, and child, maybe not children, they haven't developed that much, but every man and woman, they want to die with dignity. They want to die with company. They don't want to be alone. Nobody ever wants to be alone. I've had people dying and say, please don't leave me. And they all want forgiveness because as they're dying, they remember their past. And then while they're remembering their past, they wish for a legacy. They wish for a future. And that is how God made men. But now notice that Paul, when he was praying this prayer, he did not pray for them to be richer or to be more powerful. He did not pray for anyone to be more beautiful or to be more intellectual. He did not pray for anyone to be more famous in any way or even to live longer lives. Paul, in speaking to Christians about the most important goals for their lives, he gives them this goal, the goal of a love that is full and never stops, verse 9. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more. Now when you hear that, don't think, oh no, another sermon on love, oh it's so empty, it's so vain, it's so, this kind of message is so shallow. I don't think this message is going to be shallow if you won't tune out, if you'll stay tuned in. As we look at these verses, the Greek term for abound here means to be overflowing and to overflow over and over again without being held back. In other words, the love is to overcome boundaries. This love is to overcome boundaries and it's supposed to be, you're supposed to be so full of this love that overcomes boundaries that it can't be stopped. Any enemy can be stopped eventually with love. Any enemy. And now you have people in your life that you probably, if I said, is there anybody in your life you don't like? That you don't love? You already have a name, don't you? Well, you can defeat that evil in your own heart. You can defeat that evil in your own heart by the grace of God as He gives you this love that overflows and overcomes all boundaries. Now, I want you to know that I didn't just say, and Paul didn't just say, hey guys, I want you to man up. I want you to pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. I want you to start doing better by your own strength, by your own power, by your own resources, through your own knowledge and according to your own wisdom. No, Paul here prayed that God, that he prayed to God that God would make these things become the reality in these people's lives. And that's what I pray to be the reality in our lives. He prayed for God to grant this because nothing, that we are the source of and nothing that we do naturally from ourselves can possibly be done to the glory of God and can meet His standards of usefulness. It's got to come from Him. And there's a way it's going to come from Him, as you'll see. You see, that's exactly the kind of abounding love that He wants us to have. And you can have because you have Grace, you have Jesus and you have God's Word. You can't do it without grace and Jesus and God's Word. But there are some essential things that you need to know about love that God gives to those He wants to overflow to others. And the first thing is that love is not a feeling. Love is not a feeling. True love is not a feeling. And contrary to the way that we often refer to love, it is not a sensation. You know that quiver in your liver that I had when I met Joanne? It's that ooey gooey that, you know? You know what? of it like it's some kind of spell. True love, like true faith, is objective. And it's objective enough to be measurable. Now think about that. You can't really measure your feelings and your sensations except whether they're overwhelming you or whether they're very suppressed in you. The fire can get big or the fire can get small. But that's not what we're talking about here. The Apostle Paul gives standards for us to use to tell if our lives or anyone's life is really marked by this abounding, overflowing, unstoppable love for others. One of them is found in 1 Corinthians 13. Now, here, in 1 Corinthians 13, we call it the love chapter because, for a reason, because it's the love chapter. In this passage, he gives standards. He says love is and love isn't some things. He made a summary, the apostle Paul, the same apostle who wrote the book of Philippians. And he says, love is patient. Patience is, it's visible, isn't it? It's measurable, isn't it? You know when it's absent and you know when it's present. Love is kind. Kindness is visible. Kindness is objective. It's not just a feeling, even though it feels good to receive kindness. It is not jealous. Jealousy is very visible. It does not brag. Love is not arrogant. Love does not act unbecomingly. And what that word means is love does not create an undue tension or any unnecessary embarrassment. Love does not seek its own. Love is not provoked. Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Never. It never falls down on the job is literally more what that says. So let's just do an experiment. I'm going to pick on some of you because I can do that. Doreen is patient. Doreen is kind. Joanna is not jealous. Joanne does not brag. Kevin is not arrogant. Kevin does not act unbecomingly. Jason does not seek his own. Jason is not provoked. Carrie does not take into account a wrong suffered. Carrie does not rejoice in unrighteousness. Jason rejoices with the truth. Kirk bears all things. Corey believes all things. Christian hopes all things. Mike George endures all things. Your love never fails. Go home today and take 1 Corinthians 13 and just scratch through the word love and put your name there if it fits. And don't get rid of the word love, but just put your name there. And ask, as I measure myself by God's standard, by Paul's standard, how do I measure up? And now husbands, there's another standard. In Ephesians chapter 5, 25 through 33a. Now think about this. 25 through 33a is all about husbands. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word. To present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish. And then it goes down to 33. Husbands see to it that you love your wives and wives see to it that you respect your husbands. So husbands, what are they supposed to do? A husband is supposed to live his life making his wife washed in the Word strong in the word, the woman that she ought to be in Christ. He's supposed to lead her. He's supposed to, book your seat belts, ladies. The husband is supposed to command her and expect obedience because he has commanded her according to the scriptures, according to the truth, and according to what's good for her and best for her, whether she thinks so or not. It's just one of those things. And what is she supposed to do? See to it that she respect her husband. And then there's a third measure, and this is a biggie. Romans 13, 10, Paul again, love does no wrong to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. What does the word fulfillment mean? It means to ratify, it means to put in place, it means to establish. It does not mean to do away with, because otherwise this verse would say if the word fulfillment meant do away with, love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the doing away with the law. It's not. So, what does this mean? If I love Colleen as a sister, it means that I'm gonna do my best to see to it that Colleen has no other God but the true and the living God, Yahweh. I'm gonna do my best to make sure that Carl does not have any images of any member of the Trinity. I'm going to try to see to it that Jerry honors God's name. I'm going to try to see to it that Jimmy is a Sabbath keeper. He honors the Lord's day, the particular day that God has set aside for worship. I'm going to try to see that my children, for my own sake, and your children, for your own sake, honor their parents, which is the first commandment with a promise. I can't possibly tell you that I love you if you think your life is in danger And I'm going to murder you or if I'm going to do something Sexually impure with any of you or if you're worried about me stealing your goods. That's not love. That's hate That's the opposite if you if I'm a person who is a liar to you I'm lying to you to manipulate you then I'm not loving you. I'm hating you and So you can define these things and if I'm coveting what you've got then I'm not loving you. But if I am keeping the law objectively toward you, then that is a way for me to prove and to demonstrate that I love you. Even without the ooey-gooeys, even without the quiver in the liver type feeling. So we see that love is not emotions, but it's practical actions. Love is practical actions. Now the emotions are fine, but they can't supplant the objective here. the practical action. Love is having the gumption or the character, the conviction to say no to ungodliness, to say no to lawlessness, to say no to the self that wants to do what I want to do over what God wants to do no matter how hard and no matter how inconvenient or no matter what the opposition against me is. Even if the opposition is a husband, ladies, is a wife, men, is a child. Anybody have child problems? You've got to command them. You've got to teach them. And it's not promises, but it's performance. It's performances that are not based on my strength or my standards or my wisdom or my feelings but on my connection to God and His resources and His truth. That is where I learn how to love and that's where I get my ability to love and you too. Now, if love doesn't show itself in a real and a holy and lawful action, even when that love is resisted, then it's not real love. The question then would become, do I love God more than I love this thing or this event or this person? I had a man, I've told you this one time before I think, I had a man tell me, he was living with his girlfriend, and I said, you realize that the scripture says you cannot be a Christian and be living with your girlfriend. And he said, I guess the bottom line is that I love this life with this girl more than I love God. He admitted it. That's really what we're talking about. We love our sin more than we love God. We love our ways more than we love God's ways. We've got to be careful about that. In 1 Timothy 5, I'm sorry, 1 Timothy 1, 5 through 5 and 6, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men straying from these things have turned aside to empty things or empty talk. are to empty actions, are to empty inactions. You know, you can show hatred by inaction as much as you can action. You can hurt somebody or you can let somebody hurt themselves. You can let somebody stay in their deceptions or you can teach them the truth and bring them out of their deceptions. And sometimes that's the hardest way to love people of all. So true love treats God I'm sorry, treats people the way God wants them to be treated no matter who they are or what they've done or how hard or costly it is to obey. Well, the second part of this sermon is in these just three verses is Paul's goal for us is to be love exercised in real knowledge and all discernment. Verse 9 and then 10a, so that you can approve the things that are excellent. What does this mean? Well, God wants us to know what is true and what is excellent, and He wants our lives to be lived in such a way as to approve them, which means confirming them by our actions. You see how we can't get away from this? There's no escape from this. It's subjective. You can't say, I can't say, Joanne, I love you, and then treat her without following God's ways. If I love her, saying it is one thing, that's just a promise or that's just a declaration. It's a self-report. But when I do it, when you do it, when you have it done to you, when you have it done for you, when you have love exercised on your behalf, you know it's objective. And so we need to approve the things that are excellent by the confirmation that we really believe them and are really committed to them by our actions. God wants us to know what is true, and He wants us to know what is excellent, and He wants our lives to be lived in such a way as to approve them by our actions. So, true love is the key to God's plan. We need biblical knowledge in order to do these things. You knew I would get there because without the Bible, we're just empty, foolish people. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 22, 29, you are in error because you do not know the Scriptures are the power of God. We need to know what the Bible says so that we can follow the Scriptures because nobody knows how to love that person you think you might love than God. God knows how to love that person you think you love. And when you're obeying Him and following His ways according to His word, then that person is truly being loved. That person is being loved the way God wants them loved rather than the subjective failing way that we see so much of. You know, we I know husbands that just do not leave their wives. Which means, according to Ephesians 5, that they really don't love their wives. Just like the Scripture says, if you don't spank your children, you don't love your children. There's some objective things from the Scriptures that put us Between the ditch and the white line and we've got we've got to stay there so if you're going to love and real knowledge verse 9 then you must be guided and directed and safeguarded by a personal and overflowing knowledge of the truth of the God of Scripture and what he wants you to do a knowledge that drives you a knowledge that directs you in everything about your