And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment,And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment;
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… Always more to discover. Paul wrote in Philippians 1.9, this I pray that your love may abound still more and more. Listen, you're never done as a Christian. No matter how much you love, you can love more. No matter how much you pray, you can pray more. No matter how much you obey, you can obey more. blessed are those who are continually hungering and thirsting after righteousness for they shall be filled. So I don't know about you but I think every Christian should look at themselves and say I'm not content with where I'm at spiritually. There's more to change in my life. I need to become more like Jesus. Well, Pastor Greg, it's such an encouragement to us here at A New Beginning when listeners tell us how this broadcast has impacted their life. In fact, some people even call us and leave a recording of how the program has affected them. That's really the way that impacts us most because we get to hear that in their actual voice. …
… homes are built on the foundation of wisdom and understanding. And Paul prays in Philippians 1.9, he says, I pray that your love will keep on growing because of your knowledge and insight. Now I want you to circle in those verses the words wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and insight. Because that's what it takes to keep your marriage growing. It takes wisdom and understanding. It takes knowledge and insights. Marriages do not automatically grow. It's not like, I got you, babe, and now for the rest of our lives, it's going to just keep on growing. No, it takes skill. It takes effort. It takes knowledge. It takes wisdom. Good marriages don't just happen. Marriages are what you make them. And if you put the effort into them, and you learn the right skills, and you learn the knowledge and wisdom it takes to build a great relationship, you can have a fantastic relationship, no matter what it's been up to this date. So today, we're going to look at what the Bible says about how to keep a marriage growing. …
… Flow now, let me show it to you in the word because some of y'all just looking at me and you think i'm doing a good example Okay, let's go to philippians 1 9 and this is my prayer for you and my prayer for every person in this room I pray that your love will overflow Wow. More and more. What kind of what kind of more and more like overflow? OK, it's already over, but I want you to overflow more and more and that you will keep on. What's this word grow? Everybody say it again. It's not OK for you to be at the same point that you started out with God and it's been seven years. God's not mad at you, but his prayer for you is that you would keep growing. in the, here's our two words again, knowledge and what? Understanding. I love the Bible. so okay p mike my love is overflowing no no the reason you got to learn learn this men men of god men of god listen to me the reason why i worship is because when god overflows in me there's little people under me there's a wife under me that when i worship god what happens is they get the runoff oh you don't hear me this is why it's time for men to start worshiping. This is why it's not time for us to just yell at basketball games, but shout out, God, I love you. God, you're worthy. Oh, y'all don't hear me. We have to become men and women …
… You know, in Philippians 1-9, Paul prayed this. He said, I pray that your love would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. See, he was saying, I don't want you to just love one way. I want you to love deep. I want you to love strong. I want you to love committed. I want you to have smart love. If it's going to have knowledge to it, it's going to have to have some smarts to it. It's going to have to take time to study, to understand. You know, love is really a complicated thing. But we can love with that depth, because God put the love in our heart. Before we knew any love, God loved us. And He said, when you accept me, I'm going to put that same love that I love you with in your heart. See, God doesn't just love us when we're doing well. He loves us at all times. His love doesn't change. It's unconditional. Even when we don't love ourself, God still loves us. …
… don't do that you don't need to inflict yourself like that the Bible says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 9 Philippians 1 9 says and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment that's a Greek word that will match up against the Hebrew word very very similar but look at the Greek definition out of the Greek New Testament to have clear perception, to see vividly. I like that. That which is needed to know, discernment. God will say, this is what you need to know. And it's available. Always available. Verse 4 tells us, if you seek her, that is wisdom, as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasure, go after her. I'm going to pick up the pace, but the word seek simply means to beg. Begging. Strong word, right? That word's offensive. I get it. But what brings a person to having to beg is strong desire. What a powerful word. That if you seek her, I am in my life. …
… how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and with all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent. and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit and the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Philippians is a letter that Paul wrote to a little church that he loved. The first church, in fact, he had planted in Europe, the first ever church in Europe. The story of that little church's founding is recorded in Acts 16. It's the one where Paul gets unexpectedly redirected into Philippi. And there Paul sees three people come to faith in Christ. The first is Lydia. She's a young up-and-coming female entrepreneur, a businesswoman. The second is a demon-possessed slave girl. …
That's the goal. Philippians 1.9, Paul prays that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all insight. because you can't love people the way you ought if you don't have any insight. If you don't know God, if you don't know what love is, if you don't know the dynamic workings of the Holy Spirit, if you don't have insight into the workings of God through the Bible, you can't love people as you ought. And we want our people to love people. I mean, church is just pointless if our people go out and don't love people. If they just respond to the political situation the way everybody else responds, what do you say that same with worship chapter 4 verse 23 the hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth because the father is seeking such to worship him God is seeking worship with insight he's not seeking worship with no insight it doesn't honor God when people worship without insight into God What are they even worshiping? …
… having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he's called you. prayers like Philippians 1 9 to 11 Colossians 1 9 to 12 2 Thessalonians 1 11 spiritual prayers for spiritual good in our own lives and others third pray out loud or in writing it really helps to form and finish thoughts not just let it be amorphous here in the head but somebody else is in the house whisper them on your lips you can write them down form and finish your prayers finally pray with others maybe one of my favorite quotes here from Tim Keller's book on prayer has to do with praying with others he says by praying with friends you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived. Praying with others is an amazing way to pursue our enjoyment of Jesus, to know him better, hear of glories that we haven't been inclined to see, hear how they approach him, what they ask of him, a chance to know him. …
… tell what is real. A, I think it's being connected to Jesus and B, I think it's being saturated in his word, but it's praying for discernment. This is Paul's prayer in Philippians 1. And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. This is what Paul's praying for these believers. So that you may be able, this would probably be a good text to memorize, to discern what is best. Not what is biggest and brightest and most bold, but what is best, what is the best thing here? And may be pure and blameless for the day. There it is, there's revelation of Christ. filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. I'm praying for you that you may abound in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best. best. You will not go wrong this year by praying every single day, asking God for the gift of discernment to be strengthened in your life. So that when you're sitting in a meeting at work, and the conversation is happening, you don't need to have like a little red flag in your pocket and go, hello, nope, don't believe that. But in your mind, you're like, yeah, I don't think so. …