Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the last time in our consideration of verses four to eight, we reflected on the tender relationship Paul had with the Philippians. He thanked the Lord for the fellowship that he had with them, for the certainty of God's continual work in them, and his enduring affection for them. These qualities formed the atmosphere of his prayers for them. He shows his true pastoral heart for the congregation of Philippi. No one can accuse the Apostle Paul of being cold, clinically toward the Philippians, sometimes Paul is characterized as being a cold-hearted theologian, one who merely is interested in doctrine without real affection. This letter shows that Paul had great affection for the Philippians, desiring to see them all once again. In fact, you could read in verse six that he says, I have you in my heart. He was very close to the Philippian believers. Then in verse eight he says, I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. Paul was no cold clinical theologian, but was warmly hearted with the affection of Christ himself. Paul had already told them that he remembered them in prayer when he said it in verse three and four. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always and every prayer of mine making requests for you with all joy. He described how his relationship with them stimulated him to pray for them. This should be true for each and every one of us. Shouldn't it be? The depth of our love for someone can be measured by the prayers that we offer for them. Isn't that so true? We pray most passionately for those who are close to us, our spouse, our children, our parents, because we love them. And that stimulates our prayers. And today we will hear this genuine love and concern for them and guiding through the content of his prayers for them. His desire is that they would grow in love. Now Paul is making this request of God himself. The Lord has infinite resources. And Paul chooses to ask the church might increase in its love for one another. It shows how important this quality is in the life of the church. Paul is praying for the church's growth. Which implies more attendance, which doesn't imply more attendance or bigger budgets, but no, a true spiritual growth. Listen to our text once again as we begin, verse 9. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in the knowledge and in all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, and 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 the praise of God. So let's consider these verses under the theme, a pastoral prayer for the church's growth in love. First, the nature of this growth. Second, the channels of this growth. And third, the outcome of this growth. So, and first, the nature of this growth. Paul begins, praying with the petition that your love might abound more and more. Now, your conception of love has probably been colored by Valentine Day cards, romantic stories. You might think of two lovers walking hand in hand down a nice path through the scenic woods in a non-threatening context. You probably think of a relationship where there is a mutual attraction, where you show affection for one another. This is a love largely based on romantic feelings for one another. And that is not what Paul is talking about here when he is praying for the church to abound in love. He is referring to the sacrificial love that flows from the love of Christ for us. It isn't about the love that causes one's heart to flutter, but about a love that is given in spite of inconveniences and heartache, involved in placing the needs of others above our own. This love is what God has in store for his people, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The love which Paul is praying might abound in the lives of the Philippians is best portrayed in Christ, who has loved us so much that he gave himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a sweet-smelling aroma. Therefore, Paul is praying that they would abound in this love, which gives more and more, which gives sacrificially at great cost to us personally. It is to be modeled after the sacrificial giving of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. What would our marriages look like with such love flowing through them? Now notice that Paul doesn't give the object of such love He does not say that your love for God may abound more and more or that your love for one another may abound more and more. The reason for this is because he is both in view. From a Christian point of view, growing love for God must be reflected in love for fellow believers. Love for God and love for your neighbor cannot be separated. Jesus teaches this connection when he summarizes the two tables of the law as loving God and loving our neighbor. Now we must realize this quality of love is essential in the life of every Christian. There is no question that the more we progress in our Christian walk, the more our love for God and for the others ought to increase. The way to tell if you are growing in your faith is to ask yourself whether you are abounding in love. Love toward God and love toward your neighbor. Scripture is so clear that if we do not show love to others, then we know nothing about God's love. The Apostle John writes, beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, and he who does not love does not know God, for God is love. So Paul is not talking about so-called love, which is getting, but it is a love which is a sacrificial giving. He is going to flesh this out later in this epistle when he says, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2, verse 4. Paul directs Christians in the book of Romans, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another. However, this love that Paul prays might abound more and more is not only giving, but it also involves dying. The Apostle John is known as the Apostle of Love, and he outlines this love very well in all his writings. In his gospel account, the Apostle John recorded the well-known words, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In his first epistle, John also explained the costliness of love. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. And then, to keep us from evading the summons of self-sacrificing love, By relegating it to unlikely life or death situations, John brings us back into the mundane and saying, but whatever has this world's good and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? Only the Lord's work in our heart can make us love in such a giving and sacrificial and costly manner. Did you get that? It is only through the Lord's work in our hearts that we could do such a thing. Now the fact that Paul is praying that this love would abound more and more indicates that he knows that they already had it in some measure. He has been the object of their love and he has acknowledged that God has begun a good work in them. However, he wants to press so that they might mature and that they would become more like Christ in their expressions of love. Do you love like this? Are you praying that this love would abound more and more in your life and the life of your fellow believers? Are you praying that this quality would be more evident in your family? Are you praying that it would be in your congregation? That we would experience more and more of the love toward God and each other? How can we grow this love? The way to grow in love, which Paul is speaking about here, is to love yourself less. Isn't that true? What stops us from giving sacrificially? Isn't it because we love ourselves more than we love others? What stops us from serving God in love? Isn't it because we prefer to love ourselves and serve ourselves? You see, the opposite of love for Christ is self-love. We naturally love ourselves, don't we? We naturally are selfish. We naturally love ourselves so much so that Christ says, love your neighbor as yourself. By saying that, he is not saying you need to love yourself first, but he is assuming that you love yourself. Today, this is being twisted in all sorts of directions, where selfishness, self-love, self-care are seen as virtues. Where the focus upon self is being promoted even in Christian circles today, But is this the focus of the Bible? Doesn't the Bible instead call us to live sacrificially for others? Books are being written encouraging selfishness, encouraging loving oneself. including some Christian books. They refer to various Bible texts, but often they are pulled out of context. The Bible continually calls us to die to ourself, live sacrificially. One of the reasons for this dramatic increase is in depression and in anxiety. issues today is because the focus is so much on ourselves rather than on God and others. People are becoming increasingly focused on themselves, their wants, their desires, their cares, rather than God and His glory and the needs of others. Maybe you believe that you have given enough and that you have given sacrificially, but now you're tired and your plate is full. Your schedule's busy, your emotion reservoir is low. You love enough people already and you can't see yourself giving anymore. That may be a sign that you are doing something right, something good and something proper. Lay down at night, sleep well, and arise again in the morning and start it all over again, living for the glory of God. Your busyness in God's service is an expression of your love. You see, when we are in Christ, the love of Christ for us stretches us so that we rejoice in God most and who puts others before ourselves. This then gives us joy. Paul prays that the church would know this selfless love, which can only flow from the gift of the sacrificial love of Christ. Now understand that Paul is not trying to guilt trip the Philippians to strive, strifle their selfishness. Love is a fruit produced by God's spirit through Jesus Christ. Galatians 5.22. The fact that Paul is praying that their love might abound more and more shows that he recognizes that only God can produce this in our hearts. And here we come to our second point, the channels of this growth. But notice how this love contains knowledge and all discernment in Philippians 1 verse 9. We consider the channels of this growth in love in our second point. Think of sides of the water channel along with the water of love flowing through it. Knowledge and discernment guide this love along its proper course. That this love is directed by knowledge and discernment again demonstrates that this love is not the superficial love of the world, but it is so much deeper. Sometimes you hear the expression, love is blind. This refers to a couple who is infatuated with each other, that they lose touch with reality. They aren't aware of each other's flaws, but are blindly driven by their passion for each other. It is a love largely motivated by one's feelings rather than one's knowledge. That's not what Paul is intending at all in this conception of love, for it includes knowledge. Sometimes you also hear people condemn any doctrinal knowledge by pitting that over against love, arguing that the fact that we must love each other should trump argument for truth and for righteousness. They argue that doctrine divides, but love unites. Therefore, they want to avoid any discussion of truth, because that can cause trouble. However, Paul recognizes this in his prayer, that in growth in love results in a greater understanding of knowledge and discernment. So this love is not so much what you feel. It is first something that you know, and then you act upon. Knowledge shapes our love. Now, we must admit that there are times when churches have appeared to cling to the truth but neglected love. In Revelation 2, Jesus praises the church at Ephesus for its devotional vigilance, but rebukes them for their lack of love. However, true knowledge will lead to greater love. However, in the same chapter, the Lord Jesus also commanded the church at Thyatira for their love, but critiqued them for their compromise of the truth. Revelation 2.18-29. We are not immune to either of these scenarios, for there are some today who are fixated on doctrinal purity, but are unloving in how they deal with other people. There are also those who are so focused on loving service that they compromise the truth in their efforts. We should be keenly aware of this danger. How often a church today has refused to stand against a doctrinal error because someone argues that we must be loving. And of course, love has understood to mean being agreeable and tolerant, but love rejoices in the truth. True love is devoted to truth, seeing it clearly, speaking it lovingly, hearing it humbly, and defending it firmly. Knowledge is essential to love, isn't it? Because the Lord is so perfect in all his attributes, the more we know him, the better we will love him, won't we? When the bride speaks about her bridegroom in the Song of Solomon, she is not short of words to speak because of her love for him. She loves him more because of her intimate knowledge of him. His hands are like rods of gold. His legs are pillars of marble. His countenance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is more sweet. Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughter of Jerusalem, Song of Solomon 5, 14 to 16. She is all this knowledge of him, and so she loves him more. That is, What is it that you love about Christ? What is it about His character that is lovely to you? Can you articulate it? Surely, when we love Him, we must know Him. Let us apply ourself to know our Lord. Now, Paul also speaks of knowledge and discernment. Our love is to be a discerning love. This has much to do with how we act in love. Some people believe that love is always affirming of another. And if it isn't affirming of someone's actions, it isn't love. The truth of the matter is that it might be exactly the opposite. Just think of the manner in which you deal with your children. You correct them because you love them. You discipline them because you love them. You hold them accountable because you love them. Now, that means your love isn't mindless. It isn't a love that is only concerned with the temporal, but the eternal. One commentator uses this illustration. Suppose that you have a friend who is a world-renowned oncologists. And so when she reads your MRI and foresees a sobering scenario that you might have cancer, does she just put on a happy face and pretend that everything is good with you? To keep you from feeling afraid? Not if she's a real friend. She will choose her words carefully, breaking the news gently and inserting seeds of hope wherever she can honestly can. But her love for you and her medical insight will not let her leave you in a world of illusion, blissfully imagining that you are totally well. Jenny-Wen lives in a real world and wisely leads the beloved to face reality too. She has knowledge of the problem. She has discernment and she is able to understand what is happening in your body. And she tells you the truth. even though it's very hard because she loves you. Her intentions are only for your good. But that love, she has compelled her to deal with you honestly. Isn't it not a superficial affection, but a love that is characterized by an accurate knowledge and insightful discernment? But isn't that how the Lord deals with us in love? He comes to us gently, instructing us that we have sinned and that we have fallen so short of His glory. He has warned us that our sins deserve both temporal and eternal punishment of both the body and soul. That truth is conveyed to us in love. Then God's love moved him to give his son as a ransom for sinners. According to his infinite discernment, his wisdom, he ordained the plan of redemption for us in lovingly giving his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. God so loved sinners, his plan for our redemption was the most radical that you could ever imagine. But then think of the love of Christ who became the object of his father's full fury and wrath that we might be saved. Then think that the Lord Jesus so loved that he recognized that this was the only way for us to have salvation in him. Here at the cross, we see true love displayed. Christ's cross diagnoses the severity of our spiritual condition in the direct terms telling truth about herself that we would prefer not to hear. But God's wise love knew that no less radical redeeming could ever have rescued us. So his love toward us abounded in divine knowledge and discernment. Now Paul prays that this love would be abounding in the Philippians, that this love would increasingly be known and practiced among us. So if Paul prays that the Philippian love may abound more and more, he quickly adds a knowledge and discernment. But he still isn't finished because he describes the outcome in verse 10 through 11, which will flow from this love. And here we see in our third the outcome of this growth of love. God's gift of abounding, discerning love is that believers have the capacity to approve what is excellent. This has the idea that you will be able to discern between the various opinions presented in this life. Life must be evaluated not only from an assessment of what is right and wrong, but what is best. We are to approve excellent things. Many ungodly men can tell you that they know the difference between right and wrong, for that is built into their conscience. The question is, do we know the difference between what is good and what is best? Many things may be good, but not everything is excellent. Paul is saying that we must be able to pick out what stands out from the rest. There must be an examination and our conclusion flowing from the abounding of our love. It will give us an informed preference for what is superior. Clearly, Paul does not want the Philippian believers to be satisfied with mediocrity. We cannot be satisfied in a fallen world. with the status quo. Paul wants these believers to move on, to become more and more discerning, proving in their own experience what is best. He wants them to pursue what is best in the knowledge of God, what is best in their relationship with other believers, and what is best in joyful obedience, how important it is in our day and age. When buying a new product, I have the habit of going online and reading the reviews of those who have tested the product so that I might find the most excellent one. For instance, my wife had an old can opener that simply was always trouble. And when she asked me to open up a few cans, I asked her, why do you tolerate such junk? I went online and I researched until I found the one that was excellent in all reviews, not a single bad one. They were all excellent. I bought it online and the next day it was at our home. And it worked perfectly. I didn't just want a good one, I wanted the best one. Now Paul is applying the same principle for how we should conduct ourselves proving what is excellent. There may be a lot of things which are good, but shouldn't we all be more concerned about what is excellent? That takes discernment. We live in an age and a day when we have a shift through so much in order to find what is excellent. You can go online and look for a can opener and your choices are literally in the thousands. You can buy the cheapest model or you can default to the more expensive model, but that won't tell you whether it's good or if it's excellent. How can you tell? You need to increase your knowledge of can openers. Your research now and how they work, which one has the highest reviews, which one has been viewed with a reputable consumer, And that's the way you can properly discern what is an excellent one. And similarly, on a moral or spiritual level, we should never be satisfied with good, but always striving for what's best. When by the grace of God, we are released from our selfishness and our self-pity and our self-love, We begin to realize what is best. When by the grace of God we are released, we see what is eternal and what is more important. You begin to make the choice that are in accordance with God's wise purposes for you and for the beginning to show true love to others. Later, he will advise the Philippians in chapter four, verse eight, finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. You see, Paul wants these things to be the focus of our lives. He wants us to reflect on these essential matters. He is calling us to focus on more important issues and keeping less critical points in their proper perspective. Therefore, in our moral outlook, we should aim for what is best, not for that which aims for what is good. In our conduct with people, we must aim for what is best. It is like saying to your children, you should never be satisfied with C's on your report card, but always strive for the A's. Are you doing this in your life? The wise love that God gives instills in us the good sense to commit ourselves to the things that really count. When we overflow with love to God and to others, along with the growing personal knowledge of God and Christ, and practical insight, we will be able to discern and choose those things that are excellent, the best over the second best, the best over the good, the best in knowledge of God, the best in priorities, the best in habits, the best in prayer leisures, the best in our pursuits, the best course of action for ourselves and for our families. As a result of approving what is excellent is that we will be sincere and without offense, or as other translations have it, that we might be pure and blameless. When you choose those things which are excellent, the result is that you will be pure and blameless. Do you see how this will work practically? If you reject any type of questionable activity, no one will question your purity or your integrity. Today, in our permissive society, purity, blamelessness, sincerity, and righteousness have been replaced with selfishness, indulging of our own selfish ambitions, courting with temptations, lack of seriousness, celebrating immorality. Our culture is attracted to the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. where there is a focus on self-indulgence, sensual perversions. Movie stars, rock stars, sports heroes are all respected along with their sinful indulgences more than a humble godly woman who takes care of their children at home. or the man who loves in sacrificial service his wife, his family, his community, his church. But in this regard, Paul is challenging us all to counter cultural in pursuing that which is excellent. Paul loved his Philippian friends enough to challenge them through his prayer for them that they would focus on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ when he would come again. The Lord of the universe will return with all glory and all power. This reminds us that what is ultimately most important is that which can stand the test of time, even into eternity. making your choices on the basis of what promotes purity and holiness, which will leave you blameless. Paul lived and served Cormo Deo before the face of God. So his motive was love toward others, untainted by concerns for himself. He asked God to give his friends the same sincere, other-serving, self-forgetting love. Paul's prayer for the Philippians is that love will be preeminent in their relationships, that they would stand united on the day of Christ, having furthered each other's trek toward holiness. This is rather than leading others into sin, This is the true love of Christ, that seek to present all men blameless, without spot or wrinkle. before the throne of God. Paul speaks of this love in Ephesians 5 when he describes the true love of a husband for his wife. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ so loved the church and gave himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. For he who loves his wife loves himself. That is the love we are called to abound in more and more. not only in our marriages, but even toward one another in the body of Christ. Conclusion, Paul closes these verses with the reminder that in this way we will be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God. This again reminds us that God is the one who nurtures this love in our hearts. As we listen to this prayer of Paul for the Philippians, we heard that his desire is that their love would abound more and more. He wants this love to grow in them, that they discern what is more important in this life, and that they reflect their Savior's purity and righteousness, therefore giving him the glory. This all emphasizes how much we need the work of Christ in our hearts to grow in this love. Naturally, we are so self-centered, self-indulgent, caring for ourselves. But when the gospel takes hold of us, our perspectives should change. and our focus is on God and on others instead of ourselves. Has that change occurred in your life? When it has, we will increasingly see love in our lives. Through faith in Jesus Christ, not only are we forgiven of our sin, our failure to love God and our neighbor, but we are also being transformed more and more into the image of Christ, who laid down his life for his friends. then we will be changed, then we will be more eager to love others, and we will love Christ. The more we realize his love for us in giving his own life for us, the more we will live sacrificially, loving others, particularly those who do not love us in return. Let me close with this challenge. Do you want for yourself what Paul wanted for the Philippians? Overflowing, sacrificial, self-denying love? Do you want to be blended with knowledge and discernment so that you would be pure and blameless at the coming of Christ? Maybe you don't want that for yourself, but want to simply continue living for yourself. If that's true, you need to repent of your sin, your self-love, and you must turn to the Lord in repentance. But if you do, where can you find the strength to love in such a sacrificial way when the pride is so high and its returns often are so low? Pray to God and you ask him, as Paul did for the Philippians, to make your love abound to those you now find hard to love, to fill you with the fruit of righteousness that comes only through Jesus Christ for his glory.