Love Abounding - Philippians 1:7-11 (Dec 10) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission, the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, you can open it up to Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a copy of God's Word, uh, you can stick your hand in the air, and their ushers are going to be making their way to the back of the worship center, and they will get a copy of God's word into your hands.

And if you don't own a copy of God's word, we would love for you to keep this.

This is the true reality, as factual as the person who's sitting beside you, is that God has spoken.

He's spoken to us.

This is his word, and we want to know it.

We want you to know it too.

We're going to be in Philippians chapter 1, verses 7 to 11 this morning.

Philippians 1:7–11

And I want to ask you as you're turning there to reflect on your life.

And I want to ask you this question.

It's true of me, so I'm curious if it's true of you.

Are there activities in your life where you kind of know like if you get this thing in place, everything else will kind of fall in line?

For me, it's like waking up early.

I know if I just get like a good hour before the craziness of three young daughters emerges in my house, if I just get like a good hour, I know that that is gonna give me everything I need, especially as I spend that time in the Word and in prayer.

It's gonna give me everything I need to make it through the day and be a remotely reasonably decent father.

I wonder if you have activities like this as well.

Well, psychologists have actually studied these things, and if you read any literature about habits and how to develop them and some of the science behind developing habits, it's likely that you've run into something that psychologists call the keystone habits.

And these are habits that if you participate in, it kind of has like this domino effect where if you start this one thing, all these other things will fall into place.

And these habits are especially powerful because they have this way of aligning everything else in your life that is really important.

Well, as we approach Philippians 1, 7 to 11, Paul wants to talk to us about really the keystone of the Christian life.

Really the most important thing that must be in place in your life if everything else is going to fall in place.

And as we hear what Paul has to say to us, really about the keystone of the Christian faith, what I want this to do for you is kind of like to take some pressure off, because Paul is really pointing our minds to one thing.

He's saying, if you have this one thing and it is abounding in your life and you are growing and deepening in it, then everything, really everything else is going to fall into place.

Paul is confident that if you have this in place, everything else in your life will, much like a domino effect, fall into place.

And that thing is a deepening, a deepening affection for Jesus.

And so let's read this together.

Let me show you what Paul's talking about here.

And I think the core, the meat of what Paul is speaking about here really is in verse 9, and so pay special attention to that.

But let me start from verse 7.

Paul writes to the Philippian church, It's right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart.

For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

For God is my witness 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 all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Jesus Christ, filled with the fruit that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and the praise of God.

These verses that we've studied over these last weeks, we've we've already seen that Paul, he's got this remarkable love for the Philippian church.

You see it in verse 3, don't you?

You remember when we were there and kind of how remarkable it is that Paul can say, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.

He looks to this church and he says, You give me so much joy as I think about your faith, as I think about your growing, that every time I remember you, I'm filled with thankfulness, I'm filled with joy.

Verse 7, Paul's talking about these feelings that he has for them, and we and we understand that these are feelings of thankfulness and joy, and in verse 6, this especial confidence that these Christians are going to make it to the end.

And so something that this keystone kind of fuels Paul's prayer.

And as it is his desire in verse 6 that the Philippians make it to the end, that the good work that is begun in them is brought to completion at the day of Jesus Christ, Paul is going to direct our attention to the one thing that is necessary for us if that is going to happen, if we are going to make it.

Paul says that your love may abound, that your love may deepen, that your Christian walk may be a daily deepening, of abounding in love more and more and more and more.

This is the keystone of the Christian faith.

This is the fundamental foundation that is required for all those who Paul says who will stand pure and blameless on the day of Jesus Christ to the glory of God.

It is that you have a heart filled with love for Jesus that is abounding more and more in love for Jesus.

In other words, we could say this love for Christ is the single most important possession of Christians who will endure to that final day.

And another way we could say it is this that an abounding love for Jesus is the only thing that, with like this sort of magnetic attraction, will bring things of eternal value into your life.

And so long as your heart lacks this abounding love for Jesus, you will attract all these things that at the end of the day, when all is said and done, have no eternal significance.

A love for Jesus that's too small will be the greatest destruction to the lives of some of us.

And so this morning, it's all about simplifying.

It's all about simplifying our faith and all about asking this fundamental question: Is our love for Jesus abounding?

See, Christianity, it's not a 20,000-step process.

In and of itself, it is not complicated.

It is very simple.

And it is really bound up in the words that Jesus, when he's resurrected, asked to Peter, that he asked to us this morning, this is Peter, do you?

And what God is asking me this morning is this Miles, do you love me?

And with that same gaze, he's looking to you and asking these questions.

Do you love me?

Well, I want you to see here then that as Paul prays about this, he's really showing us four commitments of an abounding love.

If your love is abounding, here are four commitments you must partake in.

And the first is this I'm going to seek his grace.

I'm going to seek his grace.

If I'm committed to abounding in love for Jesus Christ, I am going to seek his grace.

Now, I truly think that this is one of those passages that we read and we allow like the Christianese we've sort of like downloaded into our own personal dictionary to like come front and center, and we read this and miss that this is really like an astounding, jaw-dropping verse.

In fact, in preparation for preaching through Philippians, I read through Philippians time and time again, probably hundreds of times, reading through Philippians, just preparing myself for preaching through.

And this was the passage that I could not wrap my mind around.

Now look at what Paul says.

He says, It's right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart.

Paul here is describing this love he has for the Philippians, but there's a this real jaw-dropping moment when he kind of defines the intensity of that love in verse 8.

Look at what he says, for God is my witness.

Now hit the pause button there, because anytime you need to call, you know, God as your witness, you're saying something that's about to be like unbelievable.

You remember like in the playground, you're like, you know, I swear on my mother's grave, it's like, oh man, okay, what's he gonna say now?

Like, you cannot, that that's like serious.

And God's what Paul does is he invokes God to say, listen, this is gonna sound unreal, but it's so true.

And look at these words that Paul says in verse 9.

How I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Do you know, Christian?

Do you know that there is a way for you to live in which you will become a vessel which Christ's love pours through so that those around you will experience an affection from you that is entirely supernatural.

They will look at you and say, this love, it's like otherworldly.

There's no way that a human being, like a person could possibly embrace this kind of love and show this kind of love.

It's a supernatural love, and what God is showing us this morning is that there is a way that we can become vessels of the very affection of Jesus Christ.

Like, think about this for a moment.

This is what Paul says.

I'm loving you with the same intensity that Jesus Christ loves you with.

And in my mind, I you know, I'm reading this and preparing for this and thinking, like, I can't do that.

But I want to.

Like, I'm thinking about my, you know, my role as a pastor.

And thinking, like, listen, I want to love the sheep.

But if I have a choice between loving the sheep with like as intensely as I can love them and loving you all as intensely as I can love you, and loving you with the very affection of Jesus Christ, well, well, the choice is so clear.

And as a husband, I'm thinking about, you know, if I could show my wife my own love, you know, which is so often flawed, it's like so often selfish, it's so often covered with like this pride, it's so often filled with anger, or I could, you know, show my family the very affection of Jesus Christ.

Well, what I want them to see in me is the affection of Jesus Christ.

It's so pure, there's nothing like it.

God is showing us a way that we can live where Christ's love flows through us.

And my question for you is do you desire that?

Like, isn't the in the heart of every Christian, isn't the Holy Spirit like creating the same yearning Paul has of like, yes, that's what I want.

I don't want to love with my love if like Christ's love is an option.

I want to love people with the very affection of Jesus Christ.

I mean, for a moment, will you think about the comparison?

Think about your own love for a moment.

I mean, at its very nature, isn't your love for people finite?

There are people in your life right now that at one time you like really loved, and like they've just grown far away from you.

And you realize there is like there is a level of love there, but it was not this infinite love.

And don't you ever feel like, you know, even the per people that you love the most, you just feel like, oh man, like this, this, there, the, my, this world can't contain the amount of love I have for you.

And that's a reality of like the that your love is limited.

You don't know what it's like to fully and infinitely love someone.

Well, Jesus, he does know what that's like.

Jesus' love is infinite.

This is why, as Scripture talks about the love of God, you know what he says?

Scripture doesn't just say, like, you know, God, God, he's really good at loving.

It doesn't say like God he loves a lot.

Scripture actually has no way to like categorically define God's love apart from to say this: God is love.

So that Jesus is love that is clothed in flesh.

It is an infinite love, it is a love that flows infinitely from God.

And so listen, the Christian has it has a possibility to be a vessel, to be a funnel of a love that is infinite, that is so much larger than themselves.

And so my question then is how?

How?

I want to be like Paul.

I I want to show people the very affection of Christ Jesus.

How do I get that to flow through me?

But Paul tells us exactly how he came to love the Philippian church like this.

Notice that he says in verse 7 that the reason he feels this way, you see these words here, for you are all partakers with me of grace.

See, the fellowship that Paul and the Philippians share is that they both have sought, and they both have found the very grace of God.

Now, there are many ways that you can experience God's grace, but Paul points us specifically to how the Philippians and himself experienced it.

He says, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

In other words, these things became the way in which Paul and the Philippians had experienced the very grace of God.

Now, again, I don't want us to get caught up in the Christian ease here.

We hear a word like grace, we hear it like a million times a day.

Oh, we're gonna say grace.

Oh, we grace to you.

We need grace for other people.

And I want us to really think about what does this word mean at its very heart?

It's kind of become like this Christian buzzword, hasn't it?

And so what does it mean to be a partaker of grace?

Well, at its heart, grace is undeserved favor.

To have God's grace poured out on us is the very heart of the gospel.

It's that God looks favorably upon us, even though in our sin we don't deserve that.

Where we deserve condemnation, the gospel says grace is that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

This is grace.

In God, we are receiving something that we do not at all deserve.

And so here's what God is showing us very practically this morning.

The fuel for otherworldly, supernatural love is experiencing a love towards you that you don't deserve.

In other words, I recognize God's love for me, and this is exactly what Mark had prayed through this morning.

I recognize God's love for me, and that drives me then to love other people.

It is loving with the very affection of Christ Jesus.

This is why John also says, and you know this verse, we love because he first loved us.

It is this recognition that we are loved by God, we are forgiven by God, we are given undeserved favor by God, and therefore, out of the experience of that love, we then love others with the very grace, love, and affection for God.

Now listen, we are on the brink here of something that if you right now can internalize this truth in your life, there is freedom here.

There is freedom here.

Because you know what often happens in our Christianity?

It's often our motivation to walk for Christ, it becomes not grace, but law.

You know what the law says?

The law is self-preservation.

The law takes the things that you do for God and you say, and it says, I gotta read my Bible so that God is pleased with me.

It's like this self-preservation.

If I don't do this, then this is gonna be removed from me.

But grace, grace is totally different.

Grace is self-recognition.

Grace is when you recognize that you have been given something by God that you do not deserve.

And so grace says, I'm gonna read my Bible not because I need to please God, but because I already am pleasing God through Jesus Christ.

And what is absolutely most necessary in your life is this fact that you come to this deeper and deeper recognition that in Jesus Christ you are offered something that you do not at all deserve.

This is what we need.

You and I this morning need to experience deeper and deeper experiences of his grace.

I recognize that as a preacher right now.

As I prepared this message, I you know, I always think, what do these people need?

Like, what is gonna give them the joy that they are seeking, the hope that they are seeking?

And you know what I recognize it is?

It is an experience of God's grace, which Paul says in Ephesians 1 is lavished on you in Jesus Christ.

So this is the preacher's prerogative.

They preach Christ and they preach all the favor that is then poured out to you through Jesus Christ, and they say, Come to Him.

Come to Him.

I want you to experience the grace that is in Jesus Christ.

And you and I, we we need that.

We need the good news that I've been forgiven.

Not because of anything I have done, but because of what Jesus has done.

We need that good news pressed deeper and deeper into every square inch of our inner being, into every fiber of our being.

See, Jesus' love through me will abound when I see more clearly Jesus' love to me.

So what do we do?

What do we do?

Well, you and I, what we need to do is seek out God's grace.

Christianity is not about doing so that you can earn favor.

If you are here this morning in this very seat in this very room because you think like, oh man, I'm getting points with God, you are totally missing it.

The Bible says, if that's your attitude, that even your most righteous acts are like filthy rags to God.

But there's a whole different experience when you come to this place seeking his grace and you say, God, I know I don't deserve to be here, but man, it is so good to be here and to proclaim your truth that there is freedom in Christ.

And to celebrate alongside Sandra that the freedom that comes when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and trust in him as Savior and Lord.

We come to seek his grace.

And so I ask you this question: what are the practices that you participate in?

Hopefully, that you've even participated, if not today in this week, where this is a practice that you participate in in order to see God's undeserved favor for you and to experience that.

Isn't it true?

It's one thing to know the gospel, it is another thing to regularly experience the freedom that is offered to you in the gospel.

And so let me ask you that.

How do you practically seek his grace?

I'm asking you, what are you doing practically, weekly, daily, to seek a deeper experience of the favor that is offered to you in Jesus Christ?

There are certainly a number of ways that we could answer this.

Obviously, the top of the list should be Bible reading and prayer, where we open up God's word and hear his voice, and we pray to him and he hears our voice.

There are countless ways to seek his grace, and let me just personally maybe share some of the ways that I regularly do that.

One of the ways that has become essential to me is reading.

And I'm not talking about Bible reading here.

That's the foundation of all reading, but I'm talking about reading like good Christian books.

One of the things that most regularly shows me God's grace towards me is when I open up a book, and whether it's theology or a Christian living or a biography about a great Christian who has lived before me, I'm regularly reminded of how good God is and of what his love practically is.

And I find myself reading and getting to these points in these books where I just can't go any farther because I'm in this kind of like place of worship and saying, God, thank you so much for this reality.

Thank you so much for the gospel, thank you so much for what I'm learning.

Another way is through conversation.

There is something that happens when you not only internalize truth, but then vocalize truth, there's something that like pushes that truth deeper down into your being.

And there's something about having sort of like this gospel saturated conversation with someone that really pushes the love of God deeper into you.

I know another way for me is listening or reading to sermons.

Like the reality is that the point of preaching.

is to take God's truth and to push it deeply into your heart.

And so I find myself often just going on the internet, and I would challenge you to do this.

I trust you're going to be blessed if you do this.

You go onto Google and you just type in Spurgeon sermons.

And then you just let the Holy Spirit, like close your eyes, let the Holy Spirit, you just do the Holy Spirit mouse click, you know, click anywhere on Google.

And if you read any one of those sermons, I've never spent, you know, half an hour reading a Spurgeon sermon and not been blessed by it.

Like that has always been profitable time to me.

I have always seen God's grace so clearly in his preaching and there are countless preachers that are like that.

All that to say we must be seeking his grace.

We must be seeking his grace if we want to be abounding in love to God.

Well the second thing that Paul then is showing us if we're committed to this abounding in love is that we must not be okay with complacency.

This is our commitment.

I'm not okay with complacency.

This is our second point right now.

So notice then that as Paul gets into his prayer, not only is this prayer that we we would love, but you notice there that the prayer is that our love would abound more and more.

Now my question as I read this is this my love for who?

The very nature of love is that it requires a something or a someone in order to be possible.

And so what is Paul talking about?

Is this like love for God?

Is this love for people?

And as we so often find in scripture the answer to that question is yes.

This is both.

Paul has just laid this out hasn't he talked about how he's a partaker of God's grace right he recognizes God's love for him and so he then loves with the affection of Jesus Christ.

And so what Paul is pointing our mind to is this that if we abound in love to God, we will then abound in love to other people.

We'll be filled with a yearning for other people with the very affection of Jesus Christ.

We know this because as Paul goes on he's going to say that this love leads to a fruit of righteousness and this righteousness comes not from other men but from God himself.

So this is a vertical love that Paul is talking about.

And the call here then is for our love to increasingly grow.

You see that in verse 9 my prayer is that your love would abound more and more.

And so what Jesus is calling you to this morning is to wade more deeply into his love.

He's not content with your current experience of it.

Haven't you ever felt this for someone have you ever felt for someone like you love them so much like there's just no Christmas gift is going to cut it.

And sometimes like the only way you can express it is like I just cannot express it but I just love you so much.

And you recognize that because Jesus's love for you is infinite he is never content with your experience with it.

It's like he's always in heaven he's saying go deeper.

Go deeper.

You haven't even began to scratch the surface yet you haven't even began to scratch the surface of how deep my grace is for you.

You think you're a sinner listen I know way more I know how far away your your heart is from me and yet my grace is for you and yet my compassion is for you.

Jesus is looking for at each of us and he's saying that the level to which you have experienced my love is nothing compared to what you are to experience in eternity to come.

You've only scratched the surface I mean it's just like I'm not good at math but if Jesus' love is infinite for his people how deep into it are you?

Not deep enough.

And Jesus is never looking at us and saying oh man this guy's getting a little too jacked up about my love.

Like he's he's taken it a little too far.

I don't love him that much like you know you remember that uh that first kind of dating relationship you had in high school where it's like the one person is like super clingy the other person's like oh man like this person's got some wrong ideas.

That is not Jesus for you.

You have never you have never begun to wade into the depth of Jesus's love to to the degree that Jesus is calling you to kind of remind me of a family tradition we have around Christmas.

I was reminded of this this must have happened in like 1995 that someone in my family gifted this belt but it wasn't just any belt.

Like it was a belt with a CD case on it.

You know what I'm talking about?

You remember like CD players?

Some of you guys like yeah like those were like technology for me okay I was all about the walkmen and then others of you are like yeah well I'm still on the record player.

But anyways I was the CD player generation.

And so this was an amazing gift at the time where it's like this belt and you know you could put all your CDs in it and I'd be walking to school you know I'm listening to like boys to men but then all of a sudden I'm like well you know I should put some backstreet boys in and so I put it in.

I lost a lot of respect probably for some of that but it's honest you know I put it in and and all my CDs are right there with me.

It's like this amazing gift.

Now my mom was one of those people I'm not like this at all but she was one of those people that like she always kept the boxes.

In fact she's like she would like you know and she still does this you know cut the tape of the wrapping paper and then refold it up like it's ever going to be used again.

I never saw any of that wrapping paper again but we always saved boxes.

And so the next year this box came out again and someone had bought a gift but kind of put a different something different in it.

You ever get a gift like that?

And I joke you not for 20 years still to this day this Christmas this box will come out and someone is going to open a gift and they're going to say oh great a belt with a CD case in it.

This is great.

You ever get a gift like that?

You're like oh man wow all right well thank you.

But then you realize there's something better inside of it.

And this is the love of God for you.

You have not gotten to the middle of it yet.

Every time you get deeper every time you feel like you're on the brink of understanding God's deep deep love and grace for you you realize that there is more to discover that this is not the gift in its fullness that Jesus is calling you into a deeper recognition of it.

He's calling you to abound in your love for him and recognize the grace that has been poured out to you.

And so here's my here's my question for you here here is what I see all throughout my life and it's as I consider Christ's love in this respect for a moment and meditate on this this is so disheartening to me in my own life but I not only see it in my own life I see it all throughout the church my question is this have have you grown complacent in your understanding of the gospel have you accepted the level of knowledge and experience that you have right now of the gospel as though that is all there is really to know?

Because let me tell you I like if you have then you should be the pastor of this church and you should be preaching up here next Sunday.

Because in many ways I just feel like I'm beginning to scratch the surface of it.

Like I feel like I haven't even begun to even start to know the depth of Jesus' love for me.

In fact I know that Paul is with me because look at what Paul says in chapter three of Philippians.

Flip over to this with me in chapter three of Philippians.

An iPhone scrolling it's all good.

One of the sounds is better but they're all good and I won't tell you which one but you know Philippians 3 verse 7 whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ listen to this church indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Philippians 3:7

For his sake I suffered the loss of all things.

I count them all as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Listen to this church listen to these words from the Apostle Paul like arguably the greatest Christian next to Jesus of all time and this is at the end of his life that I may know him that I may know him.

Paul says I just want to know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead and listen to this this is the opposite of complacency not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect but I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ has made me his own Paul is living his life with a daily greediness to understand and know God and his grace Paul says I live daily to press on into the fullness of the knowledge of God and some of us live as though like we understand it.

Yeah I know Christianity rose again you know Christmas baby in the manger really cool I know it all like I understand the gospel and there is this whole side of Christianity that we are missing this this desperation for more this this this like thirst that should consume every Christian you know that thirst where it's like you are so thirsty you just cannot get enough water you you are so parched you are just drinking down as much as you can as quickly as possible as you can and it is that that is to be the feeling of the Christian I have not experienced this yet I need to experience it more there's a difference between knowing and experiencing you can know everything there is about the gospel in two minutes less than that.

But man it's gonna take an infinite amount of time and all of glory to truly experience it.

Well the third commitment we then make is this I'm doing what I know is right.

I'm doing what I know is right.

So notice next that Paul says this love is filled you see this in verse 9 of Philippians 1.

He says this love that is to be abounding is with knowledge in all discernment.

Now knowledge is the intimate awareness of truth love's always filled with knowledge.

You can't love something that you don't know.

Discernment then is not only the knowledge of that truth but the proper application of that truth.

These two things they go hand in hand.

First you must know what is right but then you must do what is right.

You must know the truth and you must apply the truth.

Now this is fundamental to our walk with the Lord.

We all know someone who has all the knowledge but they do not apply it.

On the other hand we know other people who who like they really are trying to apply it but they don't really know what God said.

I reminded of a person I once talked to they told me you know that God had told them to be a construction worker.

They had received sort of this vision to be a construction worker and I said oh well how do you like it they said I hate being a construction worker.

And I said I think you're probably applying something that God actually never said and you're ruining your life because of it.

And so there are these two realities we we know the truth and we apply the truth.

We discern how to live according to the truth now what God is doing here is giving us the how to to grow our love for him.

How do we grow our love for him?

Well he says that if your love is abounding it is going to be abounding with knowledge and truth.

So we're beginning to understand like practically what does an abounding love look like?

Well it looks like growing in a knowledge of the truth but not stopping there also applying the truth.

Can I just like really simplify my job for you for a second in preaching?

That's all the preaching is preaching is taking God's truth and then applying it to the 21st century.

That's all it is and this is all the Christ to the Christian life is you read God's truth you know God's truth you come to understand God's truth and then you live your life according to it.

Now the grammar here is so important.

Notice that Paul says that our love abounds with knowledge and all discernment so this is how it abounds it is that you know the truth and then apply it and as you're doing this you're going to be growing this love for Jesus Christ.

But notice that in verse 10 he says so that you may approve what is excellent.

See our love it is growing with this constant feeding of application of truth.

And when that happens when we are constantly living in the truth and seeking to understand the truth but not only seeking to understand the truth also seeking to apply the truth what happens is our love begins to be transformed so that we then approve what is excellent.

I want you to notice here that in verse 10, look at that verse with me when he says so that you may approve what is excellent this really is the language of affection what Jesus is saying here is that when you seek to know the truth and then you apply the truth, what happens is your heart is actually changed so then instead of being inclined or approving of the things that actually dishonor God, you are inclined and approve the things that bring honor to God.

This is the very function of you know biblical theology of the heart this is how the heart functions your heart inclines you to certain things and it disinclines you to other things.

This is who we are as human beings.

This is why it's so interesting getting to know other people because as human beings we have different hearts that are inclined to different things and disinclined to other things.

We approve of certain things and we disapprove of other things.

And so every person in here at the very core of their being who they are in their heart is different because they approve and disapprove of other things.

Whether it's on a you know very surface level you know the fact that most of us approve that McDonald's is the greatest fast food chain of all time and one of the greatest ways we can experience God's glory and also one of the greatest pains that we can experience as well or whatever other surface shallow argument you might have.

But it's also on a deep level on a very spiritual level this is why you sin at its very core is because there's this brokenness of the heart that inclines you to these things that are actually disobedient to God and lead to your death.

That is our brokenness that's our sin that at a heart level we approve of things that are not excellent.

We approve of things and are inclined to things that actually lead to our death that's why you've never sinned and been like oh man I really don't want to do this.

Oh man I'm being forced into this instead how do you sin?

We sin joyfully we walk right into it this is what I want this is going to be good for me because at a heart level we have this brokenness that inclines us to these things that are broken or wrong.

And so in the garden this isn't this what happened?

Like Adam and Eve they're they're created and they are put in a garden and God says to them you can eat of every tree and it will be good for you.

And the the sense of the Garden of Eden is that it's the garden literally of delight and they can walk in and they see all this good food everything that God has created created is screaming his glory and they recognize God's goodness and they live in this understanding of God has created all these good things in order that my heart might be inclined to it.

But God also puts a tree in the very middle of the garden and he says if you eat of this tree you will die and they understand too then when they're living with God that that part of life is also avoiding the right things not being inclined to the things that will lead to your death and so every day in the garden if they had walked in faithfulness they would walk by the tree of the knowledge of evil and death and they say man God is so good isn't he?

Like he told us not to eat of this tree that will kill us.

That's great.

You know if I bought 20 pizzas and I said hey this one's poisoned all of you would skip that pizza and say great all right miles is awesome I'm really glad he let us know kind of concerned about why he brought the poisonous pizza in the first place but glad that he let us know.

God has done this for us.

Our life is to be lived out in being inclined to the right things and pushed away from the wrong things.

And so I want you to understand the process here.

God is calling you to hear his truth and then to apply his truth and then to experience the heart change so that at a very heart level you are inclined to the things that lead to life this is what God desires is this transformation to take place in us this inner transformation I know truth I apply truth I am changed by truth this is a Romans 121 faith.

Paul says in Romans 121 do not be transformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect.

What Paul is saying here is that you and I as human beings we're always being formed.

Whether we are being conformed to the things of this world or being transformed by the renewal of our mind according to God's word you and I are always being formed.

Every decision you make every day no matter how small or menial it is it always forms you as a being and it always either forms you closer to God and to having a heart that is inclined to the things that brings God glory or it pushes you farther away.

This is our theological reality there is nothing neutral in this world we are either always being formed in the image and likeness of God or we are being conformed to the world to look nothing like God at all.

This is why the psalmist says about idols, he says in Psalm 115 those who make them become like them, so do those who trust them.

Do you understand this?

That idolatry it actually shapes you as a human being and so the image here is that you are like this lump of clay and as a human being no matter what you're doing you are always on a potter's wheel and you know that wheel it's spinning around you are always be you're like a lump of clay that is always being shaped either to look more like the image of Jesus Christ God's Son or to look less like him to look more like Jesus or to look more like the world and so the question for us now is to look back even on our week and say what what potter's wheel have we been on?

What have we been shaped by this week?

Have I placed my hands in God's hands and asked him to shape me to be like his son?

Or have I kind of like mindlessly and distractingly been shaped by this world the fearful reality for many of us is that we just don't think about putting ourselves in the place where we will be formed to be the image of God's son and so we kind of just naturally come to this place where we're being shaped by these things that we don't even really know or think about.

Maybe for some of us the potter wheel that we've been on this week has been Netflix.

And maybe you're like I don't have Netflix I got Disney Plus I got Paramount I got Apple TV I got Hulu I got Stacked TV I got Amazon Prime and all these things I mean I'm probably missing like 40 of them and you're like no I'm free you didn't mention mine one but you understand what I'm saying.

Like your 15 minutes of Bible reading cannot compete with the shaping that is happening when you consume all of this media it can't compete.

Like what what do you have in a week?

If you you read the Bible for like 15 minutes a morning you come to church for like an hour on Sunday you go to maybe you go to small group and so you're in a really good place.

You're up to like four hours maybe that's if you're really pushing it and yet so many of us for hours and hours a day are consuming this this media that that it's it is shaping you it is it's transforming you.

It's changing the way you think whether you like it or not this is a theological reality you're like well I don't watch evil stuff I only watch the good stuff and yet the reality is that you're always being formed or transformed.

What about social media?

This is terrifying that the most powerful technology of our day is all pointed at getting your attention and every time you scroll on Instagram or TikTok or Facebook or whatever other social media some of you guys are trying to avoid this application like no but Snapchat for me you didn't say it any other thing every post you see it nudges you and listen there's a lot of great things on social media But do you understand that you're being shaped by these things?

Every single post is nudging you in a certain direction.

And it doesn't matter how weak a little nudge is, if it happens a thousand times over the day, it's gonna change the course of your entire life over a year.

For others, it's the potter's wheel of busyness.

You're just so busy with work, you're just so busy with family, you're just so busy with this.

They're all good things.

And yet, what it has done is made it so that you are never on the right wheel.

You're never being shaped by God.

You're too busy for God, you're too consumed with these other things.

Because you lack the wisdom to say no to the lesser, things of lesser importance, you are not being transformed by the gospel.

We need to understand this.

We're being transformed.

And the one who's growing in affection says this, I want to be transformed by God.

I want to do the things that get me on God's potter wheel and in which he is shaping me and transforming me according to the image of his own son.

I want to do the right things.

Lastly, I want to see I want you to see this that those who are committed to abounding love seek a greater glory.

Notice the outcome here.

Paul says in verse 10 that when our love abounds, he says it will prove what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Can I ask you this question as you prepare for this day?

Paul is obsessed with this day, isn't he?

Remember in verse 6 he talked about the day of Christ.

And here again in verse 11, he's talking about the day of Christ, at verse 10, he's talking about the day of Christ.

Paul was obsessed with this day, that that the this historical, factual day that is coming, in which every human being will stand before the Lord.

And Paul is asking us to reflect, are you living now in a way in which when that day comes, you will be ready to be presented to God in all of the glory and praise and splendor in which he has been preparing you through sanctification?

It's such an important day in Paul's mind.

It consumes all of his thoughts.

We have days like this, don't we?

Those of us who are married or have are um about to be married, you know what it's like to have like this big day coming, right?

You're engaged and everyone's asking you, are you ready for the day?

Have you sent out invites for the day?

Are you prepared for the day?

Why?

Because it's a really big deal.

Like it's this really special thing where the groom stands on, you know, whatever the stage, and the bride is presented to the groom in all of her glory.

In all the days leading up to this day, all the love that has been stirred up in both of these people's hearts.

They're preparing for this day because it's such a beautiful thing.

It's such an important day.

It's such a special day where the groom gets to receive the bride.

It's kind of like this trend that's been happening in weddings.

I I've noticed in my own life at least, that people are less and less interested about the bride, which is probably a really big mistake, and more and more interested in that moment as the bride's walking down, uh, you know, about the groom.

Can you put your hand up?

Who are you looking at?

If you're looking at the groom, can you put your hand up for me?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Okay, so a few of us, more than back in the day.

Right?

You're looking at the groom.

Oh, is he crying?

Oh, is he saying the right thing?

You know, some of you guys are looking at both.

Okay, that's fine.

Is he standing the right way?

We don't know.

Like, is the groom receiving the gift the way that he should be?

And doesn't it fill your heart when the groom's like receiving the gift the way that it that he should?

He's so filled with joy, you know, tears are streaming down his face.

Like he's not looking anywhere else.

He's not that distracted, he's ready for that day.

He wants to receive this gift in all of her love.

And she's all you know, dressed up and wearing like the most unfunctional dress in the whole entire universe.

And the groom is receiving this beautiful gift.

How um groom had been prepared for that day in every way, filled with love for his bride.

How brutal would it be if on that day that groom was standing there and this gift is being presented, and you know, he's on his phone.

He's scrolling, and he's, you know, he's making a joke with his best man, and they're laughing, and he's all distracted.

There's not like this love, there's not this love for this person coming down the aisle.

And you look at this and you'd be like, there's a serious problem here.

Like, are you not excited?

Isn't this not like the most important day of your life?

Were you not prepared for this moment?

So many of us on that day, I truly we're living right now where that day's gonna come and it's like we have no care for it.

We've been so caught up in the things of the world that Jesus comes and we just don't care.

We don't have any love for him.

All of our love is seated here, and so Jesus comes and we're like, where are the cupboys?

Where are my things?

Where are the kids?

Because we never had a love for Jesus, we had a love for the things of this world.

And God is calling you right now.

It's in a moment of clarity, he's calling you right now.

Is there any day that is more important than that day when you finally see Jesus Christ?

Is there any more important day?

Is your heart at a point where you're abounding with such love that every day you think about that day, where you will see Jesus Christ and listen to these words, you will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes from him, and you will say to Jesus, Jesus, I have nothing here, everything I have is yours.

You are all I want.

And there's nothing on heaven and earth that I desire besides you.

God's preparing us for this day.

And he's preparing us by right now calling us to have an abounding love for him.

And so we turn back to the question.

The question that Jesus has asked us this morning.

Do you love me?

Let's pray.

Father, we uh bow in this place to confess, Lord, we love you.

And God, we want to love you more.

And God, we confess how distracted we get.

God, even as we think about the ways that we spend our time and the different things that often form us, Lord, I just pray that there's really a spirit of conviction in this place and a spirit of clarity.

Lord, that we would know what is so wasteful and destructive to our souls.

And God, that with knowledge and discernment we would know your love and of your grace.

And that God, we would be increasingly prepared for that day.

Where if we abound in love with knowledge and discernment, Lord, we will be presented to Jesus as a pure and spotless bride filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes only through him, not through us, but through him.

And it will be to your praise and to your glory.

God, this is all grace.

We don't deserve it at all.

And so, God, we pray right now that today, God, even as we respond in the song, Lord, that today you would be our all-consuming vision, that we would want to know nothing but you.

Help us to experience this reality, Lord.

God, we pray this in the name of your son.

Amen.