Lifestyle

Abounding Love
Philippians 1:9-11

We have a wonderful opportunity before us, this morning. In just a few moments we are going to gather at The Lord’s Table to meet our God…Almighty God…the Creator of Life and Sustainer of the Universe…the Great I Am…the One True God who is worthy of all our praises…the Only God who is High and Lifted Up Above all Others…our Heavenly Father. This very morning, our Father invites all of His children…all of us who have been made right with God through our faith and trust in the Jesus Christ…all of us who confess that Jesus is Lord; this very morning, our Heavenly Father invites His children to meet Him here at this Table of Remembrance.

It’s an awesome honor and amazing blessing to be welcome at this table. In fact, it’s such a tremendous honor and blessing that we must never allow ourselves to take it lightly. This is not a time to switch on our spiritual autopilot and just go through the motions because we’ve done it so many times before. This is not the kind of place that we should come to unprepared. So, before we gather at the Lord’s Table, this morning, I want us to take the time to prepare our hearts for a fresh encounter with God.

And to help you prepare, I want to pray for you. I’m going to offer a prayer that was first prayed by Paul for the church at Philippi. It’s found in Philippians 1:9-11.

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more…”
I can’t imagine a more appropriate spirit…a more appropriate heart attitude to bring to this Table than a spirit of abounding love. Abundant love. Especially when we realize that it’s not just any kind of love that we’re praying for here. The Greek word translated here as "love""And “agape” love is the God kind of love. It’s the kind of love that God manifests. It’s the kind of love that flows from the heart of God. It’s the way that God loves us.

So, what does God’s love look like? Well, take a good long look at this Table; contemplate the broken body and shed blood of Jesus and you’ll see exactly what God’s love looks like.

--It’s a self-sacrificing love.
--It’s an other-centered love.
--It’s a serving kind of love.
--It’s an undeserved love.
--It’s an unreserved love.
--It’s an unconditional love.
--It’s a forgiving love.
--It’s a merciful love.
--It’s a grace filled love.
--It’s a love that will go to any extreme for the good of the one who is loved.
--It’s the kind of love that moved God to allow His only Son to die on a cross while we were still sinners so that we could be saved.

--And no matter how far we run from the Father, the moment we turn back to Him we discover that God is and always has been waiting for us to come back…not so He could humiliate us or rub our faces in our sin…but so He could surround us with His love, once again. It breaks our Father’s heart when His children reject His love and it fills His heart with joy when we are willing to receive His love, once again.

--It’s a love that never, ever runs dry.

And, “I pray that your love may abound more and more.”

Now, I want us all to pray. I’ll lead, but I hope each of will quietly pray the same prayer along with me.

“Oh, Father, as I prepare to meet you at this Table, fill me with an abundance of Your love. Love that is bigger than anything I could possibly manufacture on my own. Fill me supernaturally with the love that only You can give. As I come to this Table with my brothers and sisters may Your love drive from my heart any thing that might in any way keep me from loving You or loving my brothers and sisters..

Lord God, as You sacrificed so much for me, I sacrifice my right to hold on to any trace of anger or bitterness against my brothers and sisters. My only desire is to love them the way that You love them and to love You with all my heart and soul. Father, I pray that Your love may abound more and more in me.”

Now, as we return to the text, notice that Paul also prays that our love will be mature. He says, I pray “…that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight…” In other words, this love that we are asking God to pour into us is much more than just an emotion. Yes, there’s an emotional element to love that’s very important. There’s no way to fully experience the love of God at this Table and not be emotionally engaged. God’s love for us moved Him to sacrifice the life of His Son. But the love that leads to a fresh encounter with God at this Table is also a love that is filled with knowledge and insight and understanding.

As you stand at this Table you must know this—that God’s heart-rending sacrifice and Jesus’ life-giving obedience accomplished its God intended purpose.

--Through this sacrifice our sins have been forgiven.

--Through this sacrifice we have been saved.

--Through our faith in the sufficiency of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the old life that we used to live…that life which was totally bound to the weakness of our sinful flesh and our fallen nature…that old life is gone and we have been made brand new. As Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” And that means that, day-by-day as we submit ourselves to the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, He is growing in us the mind and character of Christ.

And because God’s passionate desire is to continue this on-going work of conforming us to the image of Christ, Paul now prays, “…that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best…”

This is far beyond the ability to simply know the difference between right and wrong and good and evil. The point here is that we would be so filled with God’s love that it would drive from our hearts and minds any interest in lesser things so that we can be completely focused on those things that truly matter; that God’s love would be so abounding in us that in us that we would not allow our lives to be consumed by trivial pursuits; that we would come to this Table today so full of the knowledge and insight and understanding that grows from God’s love that we could focus wholeheartedly only on those things that matter most to God.

--Sin matters to God.

--Obedience matters to God.

--Our holiness matters to God.

--The quality of our relationships with one another matters to God.

--The quality of our personal, individual relationship with God matters to God.

And so, we pray: “O, God, as we experience Your love manifest at this Table help us to discern what is best.”

And as the abounding love of God in us enables us to focus our lives on those things that matter most to God, Paul then prays that we, “…may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ…”

The word, “pure,” is rooted in the world of metallurgy. It speaks of that process used to remove impurities from precious metals.

The word, “blameless,” means that you live your Christian life in such a way that you don’t stumble and fall yourself and that your example doesn’t cause others to stumble or fall.

And when you put those two words together, “pure” and “blameless,” you are painting a picture of a Christian life that rings true. This is the real deal. This is authentic Christian living. This is what life looks like when it is transformed by the love of God.

And so, we pray: “O, God, when I come to this Table and linger in Your presence may You always see in me that which is authentic; that which rings true; a life genuinely transformed by Your love.”

And while that transformation shows itself in many ways, one of the most significant traits of a life transformed by the love of God is growth in righteousness. So Paul concludes his prayer by asking that our lives would be, “…filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”

Now, folks, notice that this “fruit of righteousness” is not something that we can produce on our own rather it “comes through” our connection to, “Jesus.” Now, let’s think about what that means.

--It means that we don’t need to concern ourselves with trying to produce more fruit—our only concern, is to stay closely connected to Jesus. If we stay closely connected to Jesus, He will produce in us the “fruit of righteousness.”

--And it also means that if we don’t see in our lives the kind of moral character and right living that is consistent with the life of Jesus we can know with absolute certainty that the way to get our lives heading in the right direction is to immediately begin to do those things that strengthen our connection to Jesus so that He can begin to produce in us what we are powerless to produce on our own.

And that means that even when the “fruit of righteousness” is revealed in our living, we can’t take any credit for it because we didn’t produce it. God did. And because God produced it, all the glory and all the praise for all the righteousness in our lives belongs to Him.

“So, Father, we come to Your Table the grateful recipients of Your transforming love and we offer You the fruit of our lives to Your glory and Your praise.”
And all of God’s people said, “Amen.” Let it be so, Lord. Amen.