11-11-12 The Prayer Pt. 2

Php 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,

Php 1:10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;

Php 1:11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

We are studying Paul’s letter to the Philippians,

a letter written by Paul to the Phillippian church

from his prison cell in Rome.

We’ve seen already that it is nothing like what we would have expected

from a man being held in prison

waiting for his trial before Caesar,

a trial that could easily end with his execution.

It is a letter that simply screams hope,

and encouragement,

and victory,

and joy.

And as such it makes a wonderful place

for us to spend our time for a few winter months on Sunday mornings,

and all the more

if we find that the circumstances in our lives

or in our world

are not going the way we wish the would.

Nothing equips us for the darkness

like finding the light,

and there’s a whole lot of light in this letter.

Last week we began looking at Paul’s prayer for the Philippians,

a prayer he chose to write out

and include in his introduction to this wonderful letter.

It’s recorded for us in verses 9-11 of chapter one

and last week we looked at the first phrase of that prayer

where we heard Paul prayer that your love may abound still more and more.

We spent much of our time

talking about the true nature of love,

seeing that, even though true love will have a deep impact on our mind, will, and emotions,

it always begins with and is built upon our choices.

Love truly is a choice we can make,

and one our Lord has called each of us to make

in every relationship in our life.

In fact our Lord went so far as to call each of us

to ...love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:27-28)

Clearly He was not asking us to feel some sort of gushy emotion

for those who are our enemies.

He’s talking with us

about the choices we make towards them,

choosing to seek good and do good to them

no matter how we may feel at the time.

It is a radical way of living,

an approach to life

that makes the child of God unique in all the world.

And in this prayer recorded for us by Paul

he prays that our love will abound still more and more.

In other words,

he wants us to literally grow in our ability

to make those love choices in our lives.

OK, that’s where we stopped last week,

but fortunately it’s not where Paul stops

because clearly we need a little more information

if this love thing is going to become a growing reality in our lives.

And some of that information comes to us in the remainder of Paul’s prayer.

And at the risk of turning something very powerful

and very personal into something academic

let me tell you that in this short prayer

Paul walks us through 5 steps that have the power

to make love a growing reality in our lives.

The first step is the one we’ve already seen.

It’s the goal he sets before us

when he prayers that our love may abound still more and more.

That’s where we’re going,

or at least that’s where the Spirit of God is seeking to take each of us.

It makes no difference what our gifts are,

or what unique talents or abilities or personalities our Lord has given us.

I’ll make this personal

so that you can better understand what I’m talking about.

Our King has chosen to give me a teaching gift.

That’s what I do up here on Sunday mornings.

But that isn’t or shouldn’t be my motivation or my goal.

My motivation in what I do

should be my love for you,

and my goal should be

to express that love through my teaching gift.

If that’s not what I’m doing

my words may feed your minds,

but they will have no power to feed your spirits

or to draw you more deeply into the growing knowledge of your Lord’s love for you.

And the same truth applies literally

to everything we do in life.

Every day we live

our time is filled with an endless stream of surface duties and responsibilities, and recreations.

But underlying everyone of those activities

is our true calling of finding out how to act in love toward those we have contact with.

When you sit down at the kitchen table

and try to help your child overcome the terror of long division,

or to learn the multiplication tables,

the goal is not to conquer the material.

That’s simply the means, the project that provides you with the framework in which to pursue the goal.

The goal is to love your child

and communicating that love

in ways they can hear.

OK, step one is Paul’s revelation of the goal - that our love may abound still more and more.

Then, the next thing he does

is to reveal to us the soil in which true love can grow.

He says, I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment...

And that’s going to take just a bit of explaining

for us to be able to understand what He means.

And this right here

is where true love drops out of that cultural la la land

that we find in all of the songs and movies,

and becomes very practical indeed.

This is where our love choices

go way beyond feelings

and take on the ability to transform the lives of those we love.

And let me see if I can explain.

Paul tells us that there are two essential ingredients

that must be present in all of our attempts at expressing love.

The first is what we have translated in the New American Standard text as “real knowledge”,

and the second is “all discernment”.

And we’ll start with real knowledge.

Those of you who have very long memories

will recognize the Greek word used by Paul in this prayer

that we have translated as real knowledge.

It’s the word “epignosis”,

a word that we looked at in some detail a number of years ago.

It’s a single Greek word

for which we have no single English counterpart,

and so, when the translators came to it

they used real knowledge in this passage,

and in other passages true knowledge or complete knowledge.

The most common word for knowledge in the Greek is the word gnosis

which means the accumulation of facts, information.

It’s what we do whenever we increase our knowledge in any area - we gain gnosis.

But when the New Testament writers talked about the Christian’s knowledge of Christ,

the word gnosis simply wouldn’t do

because what the Christian has with Christ

goes far beyond simply the accumulation of facts about Him.

And so they chose the word epignosis.

The literal meaning of the word is full or complete knowledge,

but what they were seeking to communicate

is the difference between simply knowing about Christ

and actually entering into a personal knowledge of Him - a friendship with Him.

It’s interesting how it is - once we’ve entered into that epignosis of our Creator,

once our spirit has met His Spirit,

once we truly know Him,

for the rest of our lives

we are forever looking for others who know Him too.

And whenever we find them

that realization creates the most fascinating union between those two individuals.

It has nothing to do with whether we attend the same church,

or come from the same cultural backgrounds,

or anything like that.

It is a unity and a trust that grows out of that shared epignosis of God.

And I find it interesting, too,

that Paul specifically warns the people of God

about those within the church world

who are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge (epignosis) of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7),

those who have accumulated great Biblical content,

but don’t really know the King.

But I’m getting off track here.

The New Testament writers make it clear

that only Christians can have epignosis of God,

and nearly every time this word is used

it is used to describe the Christian’s personal spirit friendship with our Savior.

But in this prayer

Paul uses it to describe

not our knowledge of Christ,

but rather our knowledge of those we are called to love.

And what he’s doing

is linking two things that shouldn’t surprise us -

he links our depth of knowledge of a person

with our depth of love for them.

I’m making this more complicated than it is.

Do you know what Paul is praying?

He’s praying that we’ll grow in deep, strong, honest friendships with one another

so that we can learn more and more clearly

how to truly love one another,

how to give one another

the truth, and the encouragement, and the kindness, and the compassion they need.

And as long as we’ve gotten into this,

or rather Paul got us into this,

I’m going to say just a little bit more

with the hope it will help us make this practical.

I have been trying to figure out this Christian love thing

since the fall of 1966 when my King first barged into my life.

And in the past 46 years

one thing I’ve learned absolutely -

true, healthy, trusting, growing strong friendships

are never built in small groups or large gatherings.

They are always, only built through one-to-one communication.

In fact, I’m to the point now

where I’m convinced that far too often

we in the church world

actually use group gatherings

to hide from one another.

The group gives us the illusion of social contact and communication

while carefully protecting us

from anything other than superficial banter.

I’m certainly not saying those gathering are wrong if we enjoy them,

but I am saying that they are remarkably ineffective vehicles

with which to truly build deep love relationships.

There have been a number of times in my life

when my Lord has given me strong, deep love relationships with my fellow Christians,

relationships in which I was able to give the other person

the truth or support or encouragement they needed,

and they were able to do the same for me.

And without exception

those friendships were never ever built in a group.

They were built through one-to-one, honest and sometimes courageous communication.

I think that’s what Paul is praying for in this passage.

I think that’s what he means

when he prays that his fellow Christians will grow in epignosis of one another.

Are you lonely?

Do you feel as though you really know nobody

and nobody really knows you?

Are you looking for those friendships in the group?

You won’t find them there.

In fact you will find

that most of the time

your group activities

will simply intensify your feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Why not go out to lunch with someone - just one someone,

or go out for coffee,

or go fishing, or golfing, or hiking with just one someone,

and then listen closely

and choose to care deeply?

It’s the only reliable way I’ve ever found

for moving beyond superficial social banter

into true, honest friendship and communication with another person.

Well, Paul then adds one additional element to this soil in which love grows.

He prays that we’ll grow in real knowledge and all discernment.

And the discernment thing

is mostly praying and trusting the Spirit of God

to give us eyes to see

how we can most effectively communicate love to the person we’re with.

And it will differ with every person

because we each hear and receive love differently

and we need the Spirit of God

to give us insight into how to communicate love

in the way that will bring hope and healing in a person’s life.

And you do see what’s happening in this prayer, I hope.

Paul is praying that the people of God

will understand and accept

the absolutely unique life calling our Lord has given to each of us.

All the rest of the world

is immersed in a frantic search to find some way of hiding from the pain

because their isolation from their Creator

leaves them feeling empty inside.

Some run to the flesh to try to find something to dull the pain,

while others pile up possessions in an attempt to make themselves feel good and feel secure,

and yet others seek power, prominence, affirmation from others or control over them.

But once we enter into the discovery of our God’s love for us

we are freed to reach out in love to those around us

without having to use them to meet our needs.

And that’s where Paul goes in the next two steps of his prayer.

Having told us the goal, that we love,

and then reveals to us how we do that,

he then tells us about result and the reward.

And the result is found in that phrase, so that you may approve the things that are excellent...

He’s talking about a purifying of our priorities

that takes place within us

when we finally get it -

when we choose to accept this love thing

as our highest priority in life.

The word we have translated as “approve” carries with it the idea of discovering...

so that you may discover the things that are excellent...

He wants our lives to make sense.

He wants them to satisfy.

He wants us to understand how to live in a way

that is filled with a sense of fulfillment

and free from regret.

And he knows that such a life

can only be found

in our figuring out how to love those around us -

how to love them in a way that brings healing to their souls

and brings fulfillment to ours.

Do you think I’m talking here

about old people stuff...

things that only really matter

after you’ve made your mark in the world

and gotten your recognition from others

and collected your pile of toys and trophies?

The things that are truly excellent in life,

the things that satisfy,

the things that bring a deep sense of fulfillment and purpose,

the things that have the power to just make us feel good

are exactly the same at any age.

Are you in high school?

What is it you think you must have in order to be happy?

Is it sports...to make the team...to win the match or the game?

Or is it academic success

or some other path that you hope will lead you to prominence?

There’s nothing wrong with those goals in themselves,

but they won’t get you where you want to be,

and they won’t quiet that turmoil inside you.

When I was in high school

with a student body of more than a thousand kids to compete with

I knew I wasn’t going to make it in sports,

so I got into speech and drama and then school politics.

And I got some of the leading roles in the plays,

and came out on top in some of the biggest elections.

But when the curtain came down,

and all the votes were cast

and I had to go home

I still felt lonely and afraid.

Paul is not praying here just about old people stuff.

He’s praying about the stuff

that forms the very heart of our existence as human beings,

which is why he prays that we’ll learn how to love

because he knows it’s the only thing in life

that has the power to fill the emptiness inside.

And then, after sharing with us the result,

he goes on to share with us the reward...in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.

He’s talking about our finding an approach to life

that will take us from where we are now

to the day our King returns

without fear and without regret.

Without fear...and without regret.

And it’s possible, you know...to live without fear and without regret.

In fact that’s why our King shares with us

the things He does.

He knows how He designed us.

He knows what fulfills...and what does not.

And He knows if we will accept the calling He’s given us

to learn how to love those He brings into our life,

and then allow Him to show us one day at a time

how to fulfill that calling,

we will find an approach to life

that is truly free from regret.

But that’s not where Paul ends this prayer

because he wants to make certain we never ever begin to believe

that this loving thing

is something we are suppose to try to do for Him.

And so he concludes his prayer by saying,

having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

All we can do is to accept the calling

and then reach out to our God one day at a time

to do in us and through us

what only He can do

in order to make love a living reality in our lives.

I’ve been married for more than 36 years now.

And yet, I’ve shared with you in the past,

that nearly every day of my life

one of the things I ask of my God

is that he will show me this day

what it means for me to love Sandee.

And it doesn’t stop there.

I offer the same prayer...and the same dependance upon my God

with every person I have contact with each day.

And at this point in my life

I have to tell you I love that dependance upon Him.

I love knowing He alone can give me eyes to see what I need to see

and ears to hear what’s really being said in each conversation.

I love knowing He can and will do in and through and for me

the stuff that really matters,

the stuff that has the power to change my life

and the lives of those around me.

Php 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,

Php 1:10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;

Php 1:11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Amen.