Philippians chapter 1, Philippians chapter 1, verses 1-11. But again, the main text we'll be looking at is verses 9-11, and the title of the message is, A Prayer for Spiritual Growth. A Prayer for Spiritual Growth. Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons, Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And here's our text. And this, I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Let's look to the Lord in prayer again. Lord God, I pray this prayer that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to pray. Lord, I pray that you would, that the love that you have implanted in your children would abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgment. Lord, that we would approve things that are excellent, that we would be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, that you would fill us with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ and to the glory and praise of your name, Lord. God, sanctify us by your truth, for we know that thy word is truth. It's in Jesus' name, amen. When I was here last time, I don't expect you to remember, of course, but when I was here last time, I preached on another one of Paul's prayers from Ephesians, chapter 3, verses 14 through 21. I titled that, A Prayer for Believers. And I mentioned this then, I want to mention it now. One common trait of Paul's prayer, of Paul's epistles, are his prayers. Intermingled with his instructions, his encouragements, his greetings, sometimes his rebukes, he is always praying for the people to whom he is writing. Matter of fact, I did a little bit of a study and there are scripture records in the letters that Paul writes, scripture records that there are over 40 prayers that scripture records that Paul prays. Paul believed in prayer. And I want us to note here in the first, before we look at verses 9 through 11 of Philippians 1, I want us to note something. How much he loves the saints to whom he is writing here at Philippi. My father, Brother Zach, wrote a commentary on Paul's letter to the Philippians. I encourage all of you to get one. I can get the free I would be happy to bring some over. But one thing that he states, that Brother Zach states, is that Philippi is Paul's favorite church. That's what he believes. And it's hard to argue with him when you see this type of language that Paul is using to the saints here at Philippi. And you remember, Paul's in prison when he's writing this letter. But I want you to note his language. Paul is not saying, Woe is me. Paul is not saying, y'all think about me and I want you to remember what I'm going through. Actually, Paul is writing this letter as a thank-you letter for a gift that the church at Philippi sent to him through the servant Epaphroditus. They sent a gift to Paul, a monetary gift to Paul while he was in prison, and he is writing to thank them and he's writing, honestly, to encourage them because he knew that they would probably be discouraged by the fact that he's in prison for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, but instead of him just having a pity party, which I can imagine I might want to have a pity party if I'm in jail, especially for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul is doing just the opposite. He is writing to thank them and to encourage them. I want you to note some of the language he uses with these dear saints to him here at Philippi. Look at verse three, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy. He says in verse seven, he says, I have you in my heart. He has these saints in his heart. He says, you are partakers of my grace. Verse eight, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. I long after you. I love you. What a beautiful heart that Paul has here, a pastoral heart of deep, deep love and affection for these saints to whom he is writing. Oh, that pastors would strive to love their congregations with this type of love, but also church member to church member, believer to believer. May we strive to love each other with this type of love. I have you in my heart. I long after you all. Every prayer of mine, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Oh, that we would cultivate that love. May God bless us to cultivate that love for one another that Paul has for the saints at Philippi. But let's look at verses 9 through 11 again. One common theme I think we're going to see is from Paul's heart for the Philippian saints here is that he desires for them to grow. He wants to see spiritual growth. And this I pray that your love may abound, abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. I wanted to note the first point here. How does he want them to grow? He wants them to grow in love. He wants their love to abound. He wants to see growth in love. Now, The first thing we need to point out here is that Paul is writing to a people who already possess love. God has written his love into their hearts. I want you to note that. These are believers that Paul is writing to. These are a people who the Holy Spirit, by His irresistible, drawing power, has called these people out of darkness into His everlasting light. We love Him. How so? Because He first loved us. God puts His love into His people. And so what is Paul praying for? This love that you already have. You're believers. Again, this is the people that he dearly loves. This is a church that, for all intents and purposes, is a pretty healthy church at Philippi. Some of Paul's letters, he's got to really get on to some people. And there are parts of Philippi where he instructs them, as we'll see later, Lord willing, where he has to to gently rebuke them, but this is a people who love the Lord, who love his people, who are clearly a generous people. But what he's praying for, I want to see you grow in this. God desires for you. We're talking about God's will for our life, counts your many blessings. His will for our life is to be a thankful people. It's also his will for his people to grow, to grow in love. to grow in love for the Lord, and then what flows from that? Love for each other. What's the first and great commandment? Love, this is from Jesus himself, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and then what? What's the second liken to it? Love your neighbor as yourself. Love God, love each other. He wants to see this love, He wants to see it, He wants to see them grow, abound. He says, in this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more. The word abound literally means to overflow or to excess. So we have cartons that we'll pour sink water into and then put them in the refrigerator so it'll be nice and cold and sometimes I'll pour, I'll have the sink on, and put some water into an empty cart, and then I might go do something else and kind of forget about that, and then before you know it, it's overflowing, it's filled up, and it's spilling out water. That's the type of love. That's how Paul wants to see the Philippian saints, and how the saints at Olena need to be. We, as believers in Jesus Christ, we need to be overflowing like that with love. Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 22, He writes, and this is to the believers who are scattered because they're being persecuted, in 1 Peter he says, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. That unfeigned love means a sincere love. A love that is genuine. It's without hypocrisy. No strings attached. Love one another, an unfeigned love, with a pure heart, fervently. Paul would tell the Roman saints in Romans 12, 9, let love be without dissimilation. Dissimilation means hypocrisy. Let your love be without hypocrisy. This is a genuine, sincere love. Now, when we talk about love, This is not Hollywood's perverted, distorted version of love. Agape love, biblical love, always means action. It always means service. I'm not going to take the time today to look at 1 Corinthians 13. If we want to know what love is, love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. This is action. There's not always going to be the warm and fuzzy feelings. That's not reality, brothers and sisters in Christ. But love means that we're going to bear up under one another's burdens. So fulfilling the law of Christ. We're not always going to feel like loving each other because you know what? We're probably going to wrong each other at times. Not probably. We are because we're sinners. We still have our sinful nature. We're going to wrong each other. We're going to offend each other at times. Guess what? We don't have an out in that. Well, I don't got to love you. If you treat me like that, I'm going to treat you like this. Is that what God says? Overcome evil with evil. Is that right? Wrong. Overcome evil with good. Look to the example of Jesus Christ. As a man, as a human, the God-man, Did Jesus always have the warm and fuzzy feelings for his children, for what he was sent to earth to do? You remember, after he goes out to the Mount of Olives and goes to Gethsemane, and he feels just the weight, the agonizing weight and burden of what is happening. He feels that God the Father is pouring his wrath, his holy wrath for sin, for sinners, for all of His children, are being poured on our Savior Jesus Christ? The one who is scourged, who is whipped, nailed, mocked, spat upon, beaten? What does Jesus as a human do? Remember, He falls to the ground and says, Father, if it be possible, Let this cup be removed from me." You think Jesus felt like, yes, I love these people right here, and I'm so excited to do this as a man. At this moment, Jesus was crushed under the weight of the sin that He never committed, but that your and my sin, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, was poured on Him, and He fell to the ground. Father, if it be possible, let this cup be removed from me. But then what does he say? Praise God. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. Brothers and sisters, love can be hard. I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Love can be hard. But this is the exhortation. Look to Jesus Christ. I want you to abound in this love. Now to abound in this love, guess what that means? We got to die to ourself. We got to die to ourself, to my selfish desires. You know, I was thinking about this, this past week, actually, just, I don't know that I don't, I'd like to think I don't just do this just some, you know, just outright, but subconsciously, it seems like I'm always going to look for a way in whatever situation that's going to benefit me, that's going to give me an edge, that's going to prop me up in my natural selfish state. Loving each other is hard. Loving each other, loving God, loving each other means we have to die to self. Look to the example of Jesus Christ. So Paul says, Paul's prayer, this I pray. Philippian saints and Olenian saints, Christians, believers in Jesus Christ, this is for all of us today, this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more. I love Paul's, Paul believes Hebrews, you know it tells us in Hebrews that we can come to our high priest boldly, We come to God the Father through Jesus Christ boldly. That means we can let it all out. That word actually means without reservation. We can come to God through Jesus Christ without reservation. That's what Paul is doing here. I want to see your love abound more and more. But how does he want to see their love grow? How does he want to see them grow in love? He wants them to grow in love. Then he wants them to grow in knowledge and judgment. Or that word judgment can mean discernment. OK, this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more. How so? In knowledge and in all judgment. I love what Arthur Pink says. Arthur A.W. Pink says these are affections educated by spiritual knowledge and controlled by spiritual sensibility. That's good. That's good. This knowledge is generally gained by experience. As we are walking with Christ, as we are looking to the example of Christ, we are going to grow in our knowledge. So what does that mean? What does that mean, growing in knowledge? God wants your mind. He wants your mind. You know, God gave us all a brain. He gave us all mental faculties. He gave us capabilities to discern. How are we using it? How are we using the mind that God has given us? He wants us to know him more and more. Well, how do we do that? Where does God speak? He speaks in his word. We know he speaks in creation. We know there's a God. Everybody, believer and nonbeliever, whether they admit it or not, by the way, Romans one would tell us believer and nonbeliever alike know there's a God. By looking at creation. But on a deeper level, God speaks loud and clear. He speaks to us in the Holy Scriptures. And so how are we going to know, how are we going to know Him? We've got to go to the book. We have to be under the sound of the gospel. Often, weekly, under the sound of the gospel. And then we have to eat. How often? How often do you have to eat? Are you going to get weak? And eventually, if you if you starve, you can die physically, also spiritually. As far as we're talking about here, we have to eat of God's word in order to know him. How? I was thinking about this. How could I love? Someone that I don't really know think about my wife. We've been married. We celebrated October 19th was our ninth wedding anniversary Praise the Lord But how can I really love her if I didn't know her, if I didn't get to know her? What are her likes or dislikes? What's her personality? What kind of clothes does she like? What kind of perfume? You know, all those things. But, you know, how are some ways that around the house I could help carry less in her workload? Can I wash the dishes for her more often or whatever the case may be? How am I going to love? How can I truly say I love her if I don't know her? Does that make sense with the Lord? We can say, Lord, I love you. I love you. Yes, I love the Lord. I'm a Christian. But we don't know him. We don't take the time to get to know him. Can we really say we love the Lord? Remember what do we say about love? Love is action. And we've all heard it all our lives. Actions speak louder than words. The prayer here is to grow in knowledge. And in all discernment. 2 Peter 3.18, but grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us to look at another prayer of Paul in Colossians 1, verses 9-10. Colossians 1, verses 9-10, Paul is praying for the saints at Colossae here. He says in verse 9, Colossians chapter 1, for this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease, we're not stopping to pray for you and to desire, what's the desire? That ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God's will for you, brother and sister in Christ, is to grow, is to grow in your love for Him, grow in your knowledge of Him. And we can stay in Colossians chapter 3. Look how God describes, how the scriptures describe one who has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, one who is a believer in Jesus Christ. Colossians 3. Verse 10, he talks about putting on the new man. You know, in Colossians 3, there's the put-offs and the put-ons. Paul describes, put off anger and wrath and malice and all of these things. And he talks about putting on, has the idea of taking off nasty clothes and taking a spiritual shower and putting on some clean clothes, as it were. Well, he says in Colossians 3.10, he says, Have put on the new man, which is what which is renewed in knowledge After the image of him that created him We need to renew our minds You ever have to do a renovation project on your house or something like that Got some wood that's rotting or just things that are that are just decaying and you we got to renovate Got to do a renovation project Do we need to do a renovation project in our hearts, in our lives? Do we need to get rid of some things, some sins, some sin habits that we have not conquered by the grace of God? We need to renew our minds by getting in the book, by being under the sound of the gospel, by crying out to God who hears your prayers through Jesus Christ. Renew your minds. Renew your minds. Grow in knowledge. You know, scripture we all love, 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is God breathed. It is the breath of God and it is profitable. It is profitable for doctrine, for correction. And what does he say? For instruction in righteousness. God's Word is profitable to instruct us, to teach us in knowledge and in all judgment. So as we grow, in our walk with Christ, as we grow as believers in Jesus Christ, as Christians, by knowing Christ on a deeper level, we're going to grow in our judgment, Paul says back here in Philippians. And again, that word judgment, literally it means discernment, or it means good sense, you could say. Having a good sense. It is, we could say, it is the right application of knowledge. So again, God's blessed us with minds. God has blessed us, believer and non-believer, with a brain. But the believer in Jesus Christ is going to be the one who knows how to use what God has given us. He's going to know how to discern. And brothers and sisters, we have a standard. That standard is absolute standard. It doesn't waver. The world wants to tell you everything is relative. Your truth is your truth. My truth is my truth. I'm not going to judge. You know, gender, it's fluid. It's whatever you feel. Marriage, love is love. That's what the world wants to say. All these, all these catchphrases and these things that are absolutely vile in God's eyes, we have an absolute standard, absolute truth. And before I just pile on the world in our own hearts, in my own heart, I may in my mind know what's true, but I still want to do what I want to do. So what I'm really saying is, God, I don't care what you say. That's what I'm doing by my actions. But brothers and sisters, as we grow, as we abound in love, in knowledge, and in all judgment, in that discernment, we're going to know how to discern how to live life. How to discern how to be a body of Christ as a church family. That standard again is God's Word. Absolute truth. What does Paul charge the Thessalonians? Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Discernment is applying God's Word daily to our lives. What does James say? Be not just hearers of the Word. We have to hear the Word of God, but we need to be doers of the Word of God. Turn to Hebrews. I don't know if you all remember this, this has been several years ago now, but Brother Jimmy Barber preached a meeting here and it was from this passage in Hebrews chapter 5. And the context here is the writer of Hebrews, many think is the Apostle Paul, I'm fine with that. Well, I guess we'll find out in heaven, but we know regardless that it is the Holy Spirit who inspired it, that the writer is actually upset with the Hebrew saints because they have been lazy in their understanding of God's Word. They have been dull of hearing. They should have been ahead of where they are by now. They should have been growing more in their walk with Christ and their understanding of God's Word, but they haven't been. And so I want you to notice this. I'll start in verse, so he's talking about Jesus Christ who subjected Himself, who was obedient to all the things He had to suffer. He suffered them completely. He became the author of eternal salvation to those who obey Him. All these things. And then verse 11 of Hebrews 5. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. for when the time ye ought to be teachers." What he's saying here is, you should be able to teach these things. And these aren't preachers he's talking to. You should be able to teach these things, for when the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age." What he's saying here is they should be maturing in their walk with Christ. They should be able to graduate from the milk to meat. of God's Word. We are but grow in grace in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's what I want. Verse 14, But strong belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. As you have your senses exercised You're going to be able to discern, to grow in that judgment or that discernment, to discern both good and evil. Well, how do you have your senses exercised? Those spiritual perceptions, the spiritual life, how do you have it exercised? Well, how do you exercise anything else? I love basketball. I played basketball in college. I still try to play at least one to three times a week. I love basketball. Well, how did I, and I'm not that good, but how did I even get to where I could, praise God, I got my school paid for to play basketball? Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Dribble. Dribble. Dribble. Claire, you want me to pick on your soccer again like I did last time? You've got to practice. If you want to get better, you practice. It's the same thing with our spiritual walk. Growing in our walk with the Lord. Growing in our knowledge. Growing in discernment. We have to stay in the Word. We have to be accountable to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have to constantly confess our sins. We have to constantly be repenting. We sang these two hymns, revive us again and Lord revive us. No revival. I just hope this isn't too much of a rabbit trail. Revival will never happen without repentance. We have to repent if we want to expect revival, God to bless us and see an end gathering. Having our senses exercised to discern both good and evil, exercise daily, constant, constantly in God's Word, constantly under the sound of the Gospel, constantly crying out to God, constantly fellowshipping as much as we can with our brothers and sisters in Christ, constantly repenting and turning, repenting and turning. So whether conflict arises in the church or in your family, you know, I said that, excuse me, Paul loves this church deeply. And this is a good church. This is a pretty healthy church, generous church. But did you know that there was the potential and actually some conflict that did arise in the church at Philippi? In Philippians chapter 4, you don't have to turn there, but he beseeches these two sisters that are in the church, Iodias and Syntyche, these two sisters in the church, Iodias and Syntyche, in verse 4, Or chapter 4, verse 2, I beseech Iodias and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel. Apparently, these two sisters had a conflict. And many commentators think that they were pretty prominent sisters in the church and that people at the church of Philippi were starting to choose sides. I'm on, I'm on Yodius' side, I'm on Syndicate's side. Yodius did her wrong, or whatever the case is. And it could have been something, a major thing. It could have torn this church up. Very easily. You know that. Satan loves to destroy. He loves to drive a wedge between us. And so if we don't have this, if we're not growing in our knowledge and in our discernment, knowing good and evil, Satan will take a foothold. He will take a foothold and destroy churches and families and relationships. But what does Paul say in chapter 4? I beseech the Odious and beseech the Syntyche, they be of the same mind in the Lord. Whether, no matter what, no matter what, if there's conflict in family or relationships or young people, if you're trying to decide who to marry or what movies should I be watching or what music should I be listening to, what should I allow my eyes to see or my ears to hear or friends that I should have? Discernment. Discernment. God's Word is the standard. There's a hymn. I don't think it's in the old school hymnal. But you probably all know it. It's the hymn writer Adelaide Pollard. She has this line in the hymn. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Hold o'er my being absolute sway. Oh, brothers and sisters, May that be our prayer. God, would you have absolute sway over every decision I make, every thought that I think, everything that I look at, everything I say. Lord, would you have absolute sway over my being? Let that be our prayer. Let that be our desire. Back to Philippians 1. And this, I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge than all judgment." So we've talked about Paul's prayer. He wants to see growth in love, this prayer for spiritual growth, growth in love. And then as you grow in love, he wants to see, number two, growth in knowledge and discernment. What's the purpose? What's the purpose? Why? Verse 10, that ye may approve things that are excellent. The ye may approve things that are excellent. The word approve literally means to test, to see if something is genuine. Like if you would test to see if gold is real gold or something like that, to see if a dollar bill is counterfeit. You know, you hold it up to see if it's counterfeit or if it's a genuine dollar bill. In Psalm 12, the 12th Psalm, when talking about God's Word, it says the words of the Lord are pure words as silver, tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. So it's talking about God's Word has been tested as if it went through a furnace of fire and it's been shown pure. And that's the idea here, to approve things that are excellent. I already mentioned it earlier, 1 Thessalonians 5.21, what does Paul tell the Thessalonian saints? Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good. And so what he wants to see here, the purpose of this growth, this prayer for growth and love and knowledge and discernment, that we may chase after things that have value, that are excellent, that we may approve things that are valuable. So our motives, our priorities in life. You know, it could be things that are that are not even bad. One thing that my father says, too, is he said, what does he say? Good is the enemy of great. Good is the enemy of great. So there may be things in our life that aren't necessarily bad in and of themselves. But do they take up so much of our time that we're not spending time in God's word? We're not calling our brothers and sisters in Christ or seeing how we can serve one another. Does old sister so-and-so need her grass cut? Or we're so busy with, again, things that are not necessarily bad that we don't have time, sometimes we neglect the house of God. So what Paul is saying here is, no, no, no, I want you to approve what has the most value, things that are excellent. One of my biggest challenges in life right now is just time management. Husband, father, trying to preach. employ, you know, work. We all have, I'm not saying woe is me at all. We all have so many responsibilities. It can be a challenge to manage our time wisely. Okay, what's the most excellent thing I could be doing right now? What has value? What's the best way I could be spending my time right now? And brothers and sisters, I'm sure there were many distractions that could vie for the Philippian saint's attention back in the time this letter was written. But we know for sure that there are so many distractions that are out there today, whether it's social media, entertainment, sports, whatever the case is, there are many, many distractions that can cause us to neglect things that are excellent, to cause us to neglect things that matter, mainly our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. But everything, everything we do, I mentioned it, hold over our being, absolute sway, everything we do, every decision we make, must be brought under the guiding light of God's word. It must be brought under the guiding light of God's word so that we will choose what is best, approve things that are excellent. For young people, the younger ones, I want y'all to listen to this verse right here. Psalm 90 verse 12. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. I'm 33. Just yesterday, I was in college. Two days ago, it seems like, I was in high school. You know the old country song, I think it's Kenny Chesney, Don't Blink. You know, you wake up and you're 35 and all that. It's true. So I know young people right now, you had your whole life ahead of you. You got time to waste, right? No, you don't have time to waste. Apply your hearts to wisdom. Apply your hearts to wisdom. Choose what's excellent. Approve things that are excellent. Listen to your parents. That's God's will for your life. Did you know that? Children, what? Obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Now, for older folks who may think, well, my time's done, life's passed me by, there's not really a whole lot left for me to do. You're wrong. You're wrong. I was just thinking about this. You know, there's many places in Scripture, but there's just two different places that I thought about. One of them is in Titus, where it talks about the older women. What's one of the jobs of the older women? To teach the younger women. You have experience. You've lived life, and guess what? You've made mistakes. You've sinned, and you've done the wrong thing at times. You have the experience to tell the younger women, don't do what I did, maybe. What we are all to do as older people, as parents and older people in Deuteronomy would tell us, Moses instructs the children of Israel, teach, teach, teach the younger ones. Teach them that they may fear the Lord. So younger people, older people alike, there are jobs for us to do. We can approve things that are excellent. And time is running short, so I will try to hurry on. Paul wants to see growth in love, growth in knowledge and discernment for the purpose that the saints at Philippi would approve things that are excellent and that they would be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ. Well, the word sincere has the idea of pure and it has the same similar word to approve, testing, testing something to see if it's genuine or not. Well, the word sincere, it literally means to be tested by sunlight. And so I was thinking about this the other day, you know, if I'm driving, now it's dark at five o'clock, right? So I'm driving home from work, it's already dark and my dashboard looks pretty clean. But early in the morning when that sun's starting to shine, I see all that dust caked on the dashboard. Man, I need to clean my car. It's been tested by that sunlight. I can see through that sunlight. And so this is the idea of why do you need, why is this, why do I have this desire that you abound in love and in knowledge and in judgment and that you would approve things that are excellent? So that you will be pure. So that you will be undefiled, uncontaminated by the things of this world. that you would have, as Timothy had, an unfeigned faith, a sincere faith, a pure walk with Christ. Doesn't mean you're not gonna sin, we know that. It doesn't mean that we're not, there's nobody, there's no human that's ever been completely perfect except the God-man himself. But has the idea of, you know what, I'm growing in my walk with the Lord and when I am sinning, I'm repenting. and following after Christ. I'm sincere and without offense to the day of Christ. I'm unspotted from the world. I'm living in integrity. And then in verse 11, Philippians 1, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. It's God's will for us to grow and to be filled with fruits of righteousness. Now these fruits, are not the cause, but they are the product of your salvation. You can't do anything to get yourself saved. Dead men can't walk. But listen, Jesus Christ did not just die on the cross just to get us to heaven. He did that He died on the cross also to transform our lives, to be filled with the fruits of righteousness. John chapter 15, Jesus says in verse 4, He says, Abide in Me, remain in Me. It has the idea live in me dwell in me This is Jesus talking abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine Jesus is the vine Accepted abide in the vine no more. Can ye except ye abide in me verse 5 I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit For without me ye can do nothing. I We're expected to grow. Do you know you were created for good works? What does it say in Ephesians 2? We love, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Then what does it say? For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he before ordained that you should walk in them. It is God's will for our lives to be growing in our walk with Christ, to be filled with the fruits of righteousness. And brothers and sisters, the source of these fruits is Jesus Christ. It says in verse 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ. We can't even grow in our walk with Christ without Jesus Christ first allowing us to, for without me you can do nothing. And then finally, what is the purpose for all this? What is the purpose for this prayer for spiritual growth? unto the glory and praise of God. Let me turn back to Philippians. I lost my place. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. This is the end purpose of why we are alive, brothers and sisters. We're not alive just to fill up space. We're alive for the glory of God. If any man speak, Peter would say, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. to God be the glory. Why? Why is it important? Why is it necessary that we are growing in our walk with the Lord? To give God the glory, for the glory of God. And so, as I close, may we pray, what a great prayer. Do you ever get in a rut in your prayer life? You just, I can't even think of what to say. My mind's cloudy, I'm tired, I'm falling asleep while I'm trying to pray. We can admit it, and that happens to me often. I can just daydream and zone out, and I'm trying to pray, Lord, forgive me. I just forgot, I just daydreamed for about five minutes when I was supposed to be praying. You know what you can do? God's Word. The Apostle Paul's prayers has at least 40 prayers in themselves. You know, you can use those words and take those words with you to God. What a great way to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, this prayer right here. that our love would abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all wisdom, knowledge and in all judgment. And if there's anybody here, young people, anybody here who who don't show any signs yet that that you have this love in your heart this love of Christ in your heart my prayers that today the Holy Spirit would so move in your heart that you would love the Lord Jesus Christ you would trust him and then guess what that your love would abound yet more and more in knowledge and in judgment for his glory all right let's pray Lord God This is Your Word. God, You are Alpha. You are the Omega. You are the Beginning. You are the End. Lord, You are the End Goal, the End Purpose. Your glory is the End Goal and the End Purpose of everything. So God, I pray for this congregation, for the people here, Lord, that for Your glory, our love for You, for each other would abound yet more and more in knowledge, in all judgment, that we would approve things that are excellent, things that have value, not the things of this world, that we would be sincere, that we would be pure and have integrity without offense. We would not be a stumbling block till the day of Christ, till the day that either you take us home or Jesus comes back, whichever happens first. Lord, that we would be filled with the fruits of righteousness. You would fill us with your righteousness. Lord, that you would cause us to hunger and thirst after righteousness sake. which are by Christ and Lord again for the ultimate purpose that you would be praised. It's in Jesus' name, amen.