July 28, 2025 • 28 mins
What would leadership look like if we truly held people in our hearts? When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians from prison, he made a radical statement—"I have you in my heart." Not just in his thoughts or on his ministry checklist, but in his heart. This wasn't passive sentiment but a conscious choice that transformed his leadership even in chains.
This episode explores how prayer evolves from obligation to joyful communion as we mature spiritually. Paul distinguishes between quick "breath prayers" scattered throughout our day and deep, consecrated times of focused intercession. Both are essential to spiritual formation, yet many believers gravitate toward one while neglecting the other.
Perhaps most transformative is Paul's emphasis that character development flows from connection rather than striving. Just as trees don't strain to produce fruit but simply stay connected to their source of life, Christians develop the fruit of righteousness not through moral effort but through deepening their relationships with Christ. This perspective revolutionizes our approach to discipleship, shifting focus from behavior modification to authentic connection.
My hope is that this podcast helps grow your faith and equips you to accomplish your dreams and goals!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to another part of my Philippian study that
I have been doing with ourstaff at Staff Chapel.
If you haven't listened to theother parts, you might want to
go back deeper into my podcast,check out those episodes and
catch yourself up to join wherewe're at today.
Check out those episodes andcatch yourself up to join where
(00:30):
we're at today.
Okay, so we started out inPhilippians last week and we
talked about how we're going tobe on a journey through the book
of Philippians and I think wemade it to verse 6, and so we
made a long way.
And so just a quick recap thebooks of the Bible are broken up
from God's law, god's people,god's wisdom, god's prophets,
(00:53):
which is God calling back hispeople, and God's son, god's
church and God coming back, andso with that we kind of went
through one, through six, andtoday we're going to pick it up
on verse seven, verse seven, andit says everybody's turn there.
And it says, just as it isright for me to think this of
(01:18):
you all because I have you in myheart and as much as both in my
chains and in the defense andconfirmation of the gospel you
all are partakers with me ofgrace.
I love this in verse 7.
He's not holding anger in hisheart, he's not holding
(01:40):
resentment in his heart, he'snot holding bitterness in his
heart.
He's consciously made thechoice to hold others in his
heart.
And as leaders, I think this isthe most difficult thing when
we're going through difficulttimes.
Remember, is Paul riding thison a beautiful island?
No, where is he?
(02:02):
He's in prison, right, he's inchains.
And he's saying I'm not, I'mnot resenting the season I'm in,
I'm not like, I'm not gonnawaste this season, I'm not gonna
waste this space, I'm not gonnawish it away.
But he said he's made theconscious choice of I'm gonna
hold you in my heart.
And so I want to say this andand I know we say this often but
(02:24):
your heart's, yourresponsibility and your team,
are you holding them in yourheart?
Like, have you let them intoyour heart?
I think a lot of times we're sobusy leading externally that we
never really let people in.
And Paul, I'll just say, ifwe're going to lead people
biblically, we have to let themin.
(02:46):
And Paul says I've held you inmy heart.
He made a conscious decision tohold others, people close.
As leaders, it's really easy tomake people feel like they know
you and they never actually seeyou.
And we got to give space andplaces where we allow people to
(03:08):
come into our heart and we wantthat deep connection.
Paul had this deep connectionwith the church at Philippi,
again going back to when he leftthem the last time.
It's gripping in the book ofActs.
They held each other and theywept aloud and what it is is.
It's echoing the same way.
Jonathan and David grabbed eachother and they wept aloud and
what it is is.
It's echoing the same way.
Jonathan and David grabbed eachother and they wept aloud
(03:30):
whenever they left each otherthe last time.
And it's that kind of love andyou don't have that kind of love
if you've never let them inyour heart.
And so I'll just say, if teamleaves and it never impacts your
heart, you never let them in.
And something that TD Jake saidyears ago and it's always kind
(03:50):
of stuck with me and I know it'sprobably controversial to even
bring him up now, but can wejust acknowledge that people
deposited good things in us,even if they're flawed and have
failures?
Is that okay?
Okay, because if we're not okaywith that, then we need to take
Solomon out of our Bible, davidout of our Bible, cause they
(04:11):
still had good contributions,right and so.
But he said he goes.
If you ever leave a service andyou feel like I've shown them
too much and you feel like man,I think I just showed them too
much, I think I told them toomuch, I think I've divulged too
much, he said that's when you'vegiven them your heart.
He said if you leave like acoffee or you leave something
(04:33):
and you don't feel that way, yougave them your head.
And I think we have a lot ofleaders that give their head and
we want them to give us theirheart.
And Paul says I've held you inmy heart and so I love this.
Just something for you toremember is justice is I get
what I deserve, grace is I getwhat I don't deserve.
(04:54):
And mercy is I get more than Ideserve.
And I love how Paul is writinghere and he talks about the
mercy of God, the goodness ofGod.
So it says in the next verse itsays for God is my witness, how
greatly I long for you, withall the affection of Jesus
Christ.
(05:15):
And the original Greek, how it'sliterally read, is for God.
It says how greatly I longafter you all in the bowels of
Jesus Christ?
I don't know.
I mean, I'm glad they didn'tput that in there because it's
kind of weird.
But like the bowels, like theintestines of Jesus Christ, does
(05:38):
that feel weird to anybody else?
Has anybody been like?
Have you ever seen aValentine's card?
I love you from my bowels?
No, that's not on the hallmark.
Anybody want to write aValentine's card for that?
How about an anniversary card?
I love you with my whole bowels.
Oh, you'll do it.
Emily's going to do it, great.
But the Strong's word.
(05:58):
There is Strong's number 4968.
And it's spilagnon in the Greekand it's literally where we get
the word spleen.
And so, and now scientists havetold us that our gut is
literally our second brain forour body.
So we have our brain, but thenwe have our gut and it's
(06:21):
actually like the second brainfrom our body.
And so he says I'm missing you,based on the love of Christ and
not what you can do for me.
And so he's saying, like theheart is the center of our
feeling, our brain is the centerof our thinking and gut is the
center of instinct.
So think about this like the.
(06:43):
I think we've got a slide forthat.
Heart is the center of ourfeeling and this is literally
what doctors are saying at thispoint.
The brain is the center of ourthinking, but the gut is the
center of our instinct.
And he's saying I've gotten sounited with who christ is that
loving you is instinctual to me,like I don't have to put a
(07:04):
checklist item of to text you orto love you or to affirm you or
pray for you.
It's like it's instinctual tome, it's like it's coming out of
my bowels, it's just part ofwho I am.
And Luke 1 78, it says becauseof the tender mercies of God
that tender mercies is the samething.
It's from the gut of God, likefrom the tender mercies from the
(07:27):
gut of God, like it's becominginstinct to us.
And I would encourage you themore I become like Christ, the
more it is my instinct to loveother people, the more it's just
the overflow.
I don't have to like like hypemyself up Okay, I've got to talk
to three new people this Sundayand like if people are still a
checklist for you, you're notyet made into Christ's image.
(07:47):
Because when you get made intoChrist's image, your instinct is
that Does that make sense?
You're being made like him.
And so it's out of my gut.
It's not just my brain thinkingit, it's out of my gut.
I can't help it Like I've gotsomething on the inside of me
that draws me to them.
He's like I love you, that'swhere I'm loving you from is
from this core of who I am.
(08:08):
It's this deep overflow.
And so the ideas support Paul'sthese ideas.
There's three ideas, rather,that support what Paul's trying
to say here.
He's saying I always pray withjoy verse 1-4.
He says I'm confident of thisin 1-6.
And he says it's right for meto feel this way in verse 7.
(08:28):
So the structure of thissection of Paul's prayer is this
it's a joyful prayer, it's aconfident prayer and it's a
proper prayer.
I think we have a slide forthat.
It's a joyful prayer, it's aconfident prayer and it's proper
prayer.
So I love this because the morewe're made like Christ, the
(08:49):
more my prayer time becomesjoyful.
It's not, it's not obligation,it's not a checklist.
Again, I'm moving from the brain, I'm going into the gut.
Does this make sense?
It's like instinctual.
I'm not like going through asituation.
I'm like, oh dang, I forgot topray.
No, it's like my first instinct.
Does that make sense, andthat's why, the more time I
spend in the word, the more timeI spend in worship, the more
(09:10):
time I spent connected to God'speople, the more I'm beginning
to be changed into who he is.
And then there's thisconfidence in prayer that begins
to come forth, and then it'sproper, it's like it's, it's my,
it's my right service to bringback to God.
Does this make sense?
So, um, verse nine, verse ninehe says and this I pray, that
(09:31):
your love may abound still moreand more in knowledge and all
discernment, more and more.
Okay, so notice that, uh, thatwhenever there's repetition,
repetition reveals authorialintent.
So keep in mind, kind of likewhat we talked about last week,
the way we do stories in Westerncivilization is we start out in
(09:56):
the beginning and we work allthe way to an end conclusion.
Hebrew narrative works like this.
It goes in a spiral and it'sall around the same ideal and
it's building upon it again andagain, and again.
So now he's talking aboutprayer again, because he
mentioned it first in verse four.
But what's interesting is hesays here he says this I pray
(10:19):
that your love may abound stillmore and more.
So there's two words for love.
I'm sorry, hold on.
Let me go to prayer first.
So in verse four it talks abouta prayer, but it talks about a
like fast prayer.
It's like a quick prayer.
So he says I thank my God uponevery remembrance of you, always
(10:40):
in every prayer of mine andmaking requests for you all with
joy.
That word for prayer.
If you really want to go on afun Bible study this is a fun
Bible study and I could do awhole thing just off of this Go
to Blue Letter Bible and look atthat word that's used for
prayer there in verse four.
And every time it's said it's afast prayer.
(11:03):
It's the kind of prayer thatJesus prayed at Lazarus' tomb.
That's the same prayer that heprayed.
It's like a fast prayer.
It's like almost like as quickas your breath.
It's just quick.
It's not an intentional longamount of time of prayer.
But he says here in this verse9, it says and this I pray, this
word in the Strongs is Strongsnumber 4336.
(11:25):
And this I think we have aslide for this it's in Matthew
544.
When Jesus says to pray for ourenemies, it's a different kind
of prayer.
And in Matthew 544, he says topray for your enemies.
This word for prayer is a deep,intentional time of prayer
where the other is like, likefast, like a breath, and I think
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sometimes we think aboutpraying for our enemies fast,
like a breath, like Lord, blessthem, teach them how to drive
right Like I'm done.
No, the Lord's saying a deep,intentional kind of prayer when
in Matthew 26, 42, that sameword for prayer is used and it's
when Jesus is in the garden andhe's sweating drops of blood.
It's a deep, intentional timeof prayer.
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It's like a consecrated time.
It's a focus time.
It's a time where I go in andI'm not here just for a moment,
but I'm here in deep, my mind isfocused, like I'm going after
God with everything I have.
And I'll say that we need both.
Right, because Paul begins itand he says I have a quick,
intentional time of prayer foryou.
I have a quick, like breathtime of prayer for you, but I
(12:32):
also have a deep, intercessiontime of prayer for you.
I'll say is your life full ofboth?
Like, do you have time whereit's like you're just going
through your day and you're likethank you, jesus, for this
meeting I'm about to walk into,lord, I thank you that, your
hand's on it and then.
But then you also have, on theother end, you have times where
it's a deep focus, time ofprayer, where you're going into
(12:53):
the throne room of grace thatyou're seeking the hand and the
face of God and Paul is lettingthem know here for both.
But I think it's interesting hesays this I pray that your love
may abound still more and morethe word love.
I know that we know this, but Ithought it was interesting
because I was doing a deep diveon this and I thought it
(13:14):
interesting that love is.
There's two different meaningsfor love.
There's the phylos love andthere's agape love, phylos love
and agape love, love, phyloslove and agape love.
And phylos is different thanagape.
Phylos does not contain anyelement of mutuality.
That's found in it, meaning Idon't do anything with hope of
(13:37):
anything in return.
And agape love goes both ways,right, like there's agape love
that goes both ways.
But phylos goes I give, withoutany worry about anything being
returned.
And the word he uses here is aphylos love.
So Paul's, paul's emphasizing um, a, a self-sacrificial, like a
(14:01):
laying down of the full selfkind of love.
And he's, like you've knownlove where it's give to get.
But I want you to begin to knowa love where it's.
I give and I don't care if Iget.
And he says and I want you togrow more and more.
And you think about this church, the church at Philippi, that
(14:23):
here they are, they're the onesthat send Epaphroditus not just
down to Buc-ee's to turn aroundto get to the church.
How many miles did Epaphrodituscome with the letter?
800.
Okay, so he went a longdistance.
I would say that this churchknows love pretty well.
Right, they took up an offeringthat Paul didn't ask for.
They're very giving, they'revery benevolent, like they're,
(14:51):
they're like a sacrificial.
But Paul says you still haveroom to grow.
And I'll say this you neverarrive in your Christian walk
and I think sometimes, if we'renot careful, we just start
saying putting it on coast andgoing.
Man, I'm really good in thisarea.
But Paul says I want you to growmore and more.
And he says I want you to growin knowledge and in discernment.
And I wish I would have donethe slide for this, but it'll
(15:11):
just bless you anyways.
But knowledge is the word here,is to know the correct
theological truth, and the greekword is epic gnosis.
And oh great, emily's doing itright now.
She's just that good.
And wisdom is.
I know how to apply what I'velearned.
(15:31):
So how many of you guys we needmore wisdom?
Right, like we need to know howto apply what we've learned.
Acting in wisdom is knowledgeapplied.
So it's like I say this oftenbut we don't need more podcasts,
you don't need more podcasts,you don't need to read more
books.
You just need to actually applywhat you're listening to and
what you're reading.
And a lot of times we're justnot good at that and so, and
(15:52):
then discernment is being ableto see the truth from a lie.
And so he's talking to them andhe says I want you to that your
love may abound more and morein knowledge and in all
discernment.
So he's saying I want you toknow the correct theological
truth, the epikinosis.
Your doctrine matters, what youbelieve matters.
(16:13):
Here's the thing is that canyou defend your faith if
somebody says what's thedifference between Christianity
and being a Mormon?
And if you can quote theApostles' Creed, it's just drop
mic and then you can defend yourfaith around every single one
of those lines and your doctrinematters.
And the problem with theChristian church is we didn't
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emphasize on doctrine and weemphasized on entertainment and
nobody knows how to defend theirfaith.
And he's like guys, you need aknowledge, like you need to have
a correct theological, likecompass, that you know what you
believe and why you believe whatyou believe.
And so this word with knowledgeis talking about theological
truth, and so I think it's goodfor us to like wield our sword.
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And so what?
The Apostles' Creed?
They don't know when theApostles' Creed was written
because it was just incirculation for so long that the
early patristic fathers have itin their writing.
So they don't know when itstarted, but it started because
they needed people to be able todefend their faith, because
there was all these heresiescoming into the church.
Do you think we're still theretoday?
Yes, and so I would say that weneed it more than ever, and so
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you're able to defend your faith, and so you're able to defend
your faith.
And so wisdom, we're applyingwhat we have, but discernment,
being able to see the truth froma lie.
And if you don't know the truth, come on, you'll fall for a lie
every time, and that washappening in this church.
And so if we exalt discernmentwithout knowledge, then I will
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validate what is not of God.
If I valid.
Come on if I exalt discernmentwithout knowledge.
Oh, we need to teach our peoplediscernment.
You don't teach themdiscernment without teaching
them the truth.
And and it's just like Iremember there was a message
that pastor Brian preached andhe talked about a hundred dollar
bill and about how the ladyheld it up to the light to see
if it was the marker that hadthe mark on it.
And then she took the pen anddid the mark on it and he goes
(18:04):
isn't it interesting?
She had the tools that sheneeded to know if it was real or
not.
And a lot of us don't have thetools we need to know truth from
a lie.
And we're asking God to grow usin discernment, but we haven't
even equipped ourselves.
And so Paul's letting them knowhey, guys like you, got to grow
more and more in knowledge andin discernment.
And verse 10, it says that youmay approve the things that are
(18:27):
excellent, that you may besincere and without offense
until the day of Christ.
And so he's letting them knowthat the more that they grow in
the theology, the more I willbegin to be able to discern what
is accurate and scripturestandard of living.
And Christostom, he was in theearly church.
(18:47):
He was an early church fatherin the third and fourth century.
If you're looking for a namefor your kid, christostom, it's
a great one.
He prayed this he said thatthey will not receive any
corrupted doctrine under thepretense of love.
Can we just let this sit for asecond?
That his prayer was that thechurch would not receive any
(19:10):
corrupt doctrine under thepretense of love.
What are we seeing mostprevalent right now in society?
You're not fighting new battles.
We think we've got specialunicorn complex, as though we're
the only generation that'sfought this.
No, third and fourth generation.
They were of Christianity, likethe New Testament church.
They were fighting the samething.
(19:31):
And he's like listen, guys,don't buy into anything just
because it's under the pretenseof love.
Well, love is love.
We've got to include everybody,we've got to make sure that
we're accepting to all.
And yes, but love withoutchange is not love.
Like, it's just not love, if Iknow, like Brian yesterday,
(19:51):
braylee, he walked out and sawthat her tire was flat, and so
he aired up her tire and butthen he came inside and said hey
, braylee, your tire's flat,there's probably something wrong
with it.
It only had 10 pounds of air,and so you need to go straight
to the tire place and get itfixed.
What our culture would calllove is we aired up the tire,
(20:16):
but we never told them theproblem Love is.
I'm helping you by telling youthat there's something wrong and
we've got to have the tensionof both.
And Christostom says we got tobe careful about this, that we
don't accept false doctrinesunder the pretense of love.
So there are doctrines that arecentral to who we are, most of
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which laid out for us in thecreeds, but, like I said, most
of the church doesn't even knowessential doctrines.
They don't even know what makesthem different.
And I'll say, as leaders of onechurch, you need to know this.
Like as you're stewardingsomebody that's having
existential crisis in theirfaith and they're like, what
makes us different thanJehovah's Witness, what makes us
(20:58):
different than Latter-daySaints?
What makes us different thanthe Catholic church?
Like what makes us different.
You've got to have something onthe inside of you that you
cannot just say, well, we loveJesus and one church is really
great.
We have at the movies that'snot going to get it done.
Like, you got to have somedoctrine on the inside of you
and you've got to be able todefend your faith.
Charles Spurgeon says this thechurch does not determine what
(21:19):
the Bible teaches.
The Bible determines what thechurch must teach.
Fire, fire, holy Ghost, fire.
So there's no part of this bookthat we're ashamed of, nor that
we pull away from.
We're unapologetic with it and,again, like we're not going to
be crass, we're not going to berude, we're never in your face.
(21:40):
But when I come toe to toe withsomebody, I'm standing with the
word every time and I'm goingto stand with what the Bible
says.
And there should be no part ofthis book that we ever shy away
from.
Thus Acts, chapter five,ananias and Sapphira.
No, I'm just kidding.
Probably not.
Probably wouldn't be good, allright.
So he says that you may approvethe things that are excellent,
(22:02):
that you may be sincere withoutoffense till the day of Christ
Again, that's speaking back toPhilippians 1.6, that he who
began a good work in you will befaithful to complete it.
It's echoing back to that verse,and we know that Philippians
1.6 now isn't about you startingyour business or you writing
your book or like running yourhalf marathon.
What is Philippians 1.6 about?
(22:23):
Salvation, but even more sosanctification?
It's about your consecrationright.
It's about living a life that'sset apart, or sanctification,
becoming more like Christ.
And so we live in an overflowof the virtues of Christ.
Most Christians spend theirentire lives trying to be better
people.
He says this in verse 11,.
(22:44):
He says being filled with thefruits of righteousness which
are by Jesus Christ, to theglory and praise of God.
So he's saying, guys, I don'tneed to teach you virtues, you
need to become connected to thevirtuous one and you begin to
display virtues.
We don't need to teachcharacter, we need to get
connected to Christ, andcharacter flows out of us.
Does this make sense?
(23:05):
And this because of our secularsociety.
We stopped connecting people toChrist and so instead we
started trying to teach morality, and it doesn't work.
Guys Like, get people connectedto Christ man, get them to fall
in love with his word, get themin a place where the spirit of
God is moving, and in a momenthe'll begin to touch things in
their heart and their life.
(23:26):
So my main role as a Christianis stay connected to Christ, and
his job is to produce fruitthrough me.
A tree isn't sitting in anorchard comparing what fruit
other trees have, wondering howthey can produce more fruit.
They just stay connected to thetree, they're just stay planted
in the ground.
Fruit is an overflow.
Your lack of fruit in your life, fruit of the Spirit.
(23:49):
Isn't that you need to read abook on self-control?
Isn't that you need to read abook on love?
You need to get connected tothe vine, and the more you're
connected to the vine, the morethat fruit just comes out of you
, the more I begin to produce it.
So this is interesting.
It may serve you, it may not.
I thought it was reallyinteresting.
Philippians 1, 9 through 11 andColossians 1, 9 through 11.
(24:11):
They're like nearly exactly thesame.
But you just see how Paul likethis was a continual emphasis
for him Prayer, abound inknowledge, growing in knowledge,
and all discernment and wisdomand understanding being filled
that you may be filled Fruit ofrighteousness.
He calls bearing fruit gloryand praise a power of his glory,
(24:33):
a good work, and he says everygood work.
So you see that Paul's likemessaging is consistent.
Even though it's differentchurches, it's still the same.
And so I'll say for us, likeour message, we may be thousands
of years removed from when Paulwrote it, but our message is
still the same, it's stillrequests.
And so, even for us.
I think the church and we weretalking about this after Javen
(25:11):
spoke the church has lost whatit is to do discipleship we
became.
We know how to grow teams, weknow how to grow movements, we
know how to get people to cometo our community group, but we
don't know how to disciplesomebody.
And Paul was really clear inhow to disciple somebody, and he
was.
You connect them to Christ, youlive a life of prayer, you let
(25:33):
them in your heart, you do lifewith each other and like we want
to, we want to create disciples.
Without those things, I don'twant to do life with you.
I'll see you at church.
Don't come to my house.
Don't want to have dinner withyou, church, don't come to my
house.
Don't want to have dinner withyou, all right.
(25:54):
So don't try in all of this,this fruit, he says, being
filled with all the fruits ofrighteousness.
So I don't have to try to be inpeace, I don't have to try to
walk in love, I don't have totry to grow in self-control.
I just spend time with Jesus.
And out of my time with Jesus Iproduce peace, I produce love,
I produce self-control.
It's just an overflow of who Iam, and so when I'm seeing fruit
is lacking, when I seebitterness Creeping in, I could
(26:17):
get focused on what ava said tome.
I'm picking on you, ava.
Or I can say actually thebitterness I have towards ava
shows I'm not connected to thevine, because if I was connected
to christ, love would just flowout of me.
This bitterness wouldn't beable to stick.
Is this good?
Chris Austin again says he isnot speaking here of a kind of
uprightness or virtue that triesdespairingly to grow without
(26:40):
Christ, so he's talking about anuprightness that is dependent
upon Christ's very nature.
We're going to finish righthere, I'm almost done.
So 6 and 10, both of these areeschatological verses, and
eschatological verses basicallymeans talking about end times,
(27:03):
or like our final moments, likewhen we go into glory with
Christ.
And your eschatology impactshow you live every day.
So what I believe abouteternity and how I'm going to
show up there impacts myeveryday living, and we see Paul
here.
He's shaping it here in verse 6.
He refers to the process ofsanctification won't be complete
(27:24):
until Jesus comes again.
Process of sanctification won'tbe complete until Jesus comes
again.
And then in verse 10, it saysthat you may be approved of
things that are excellent, thatyou may be sincere and without
offense till the day of Christ,and so living our lives in such
a way where we have an overflowof righteous living, and so both
of these are tied in together.
So if salvation to you meansthat I can live my life however
(27:48):
I want, then you have a wrongeschatology.
And when your eschatology getsright, that man now I live this
life of sanctification that hewho began a good work in me,
he's going to be faithful tocomplete it to the day of Jesus
Christ I'm going to become moreand more like him.
I'm not going to reachperfection on this side of
eternity, but I'm going tobecome more and more like him.
(28:08):
I'm not going to reachperfection on this side of
eternity, but I am going toproduce righteous works because
of the connection I have toChrist, and so that completes
this middle part, and so nexttime we get together, we'll pick
it up in verse 12.
So I love you guys.
Thanks so much for hanging outhere on my podcast.
Do me a favor and hit thesubscribe button if you haven't
done so already, so you nevermiss out on anything here on my
(28:30):
podcast Also one of the bestways for us to begin to reach
other people is by you sharing.
So if you do me a favor andshare this podcast with a friend
, family member or maybe on yoursocial media.
Help us get the word out so wecan help others.
Welcome to another part of my Philippian study that
I have been doing with ourstaff at Staff Chapel.
If you haven't listened to theother parts, you might want to
go back deeper into my podcast,check out those episodes and
catch yourself up to join wherewe're at today.
Check out those episodes andcatch yourself up to join where
(00:30):
we're at today.
Okay, so we started out inPhilippians last week and we
talked about how we're going tobe on a journey through the book
of Philippians and I think wemade it to verse 6, and so we
made a long way.
And so just a quick recap thebooks of the Bible are broken up
from God's law, god's people,god's wisdom, god's prophets,
(00:53):
which is God calling back hispeople, and God's son, god's
church and God coming back, andso with that we kind of went
through one, through six, andtoday we're going to pick it up
on verse seven, verse seven, andit says everybody's turn there.
And it says, just as it isright for me to think this of
(01:18):
you all because I have you in myheart and as much as both in my
chains and in the defense andconfirmation of the gospel you
all are partakers with me ofgrace.
I love this in verse 7.
He's not holding anger in hisheart, he's not holding
(01:40):
resentment in his heart, he'snot holding bitterness in his
heart.
He's consciously made thechoice to hold others in his
heart.
And as leaders, I think this isthe most difficult thing when
we're going through difficulttimes.
Remember, is Paul riding thison a beautiful island?
No, where is he?
(02:02):
He's in prison, right, he's inchains.
And he's saying I'm not, I'mnot resenting the season I'm in,
I'm not like, I'm not gonnawaste this season, I'm not gonna
waste this space, I'm not gonnawish it away.
But he said he's made theconscious choice of I'm gonna
hold you in my heart.
And so I want to say this andand I know we say this often but
(02:24):
your heart's, yourresponsibility and your team,
are you holding them in yourheart?
Like, have you let them intoyour heart?
I think a lot of times we're sobusy leading externally that we
never really let people in.
And Paul, I'll just say, ifwe're going to lead people
biblically, we have to let themin.
(02:46):
And Paul says I've held you inmy heart.
He made a conscious decision tohold others, people close.
As leaders, it's really easy tomake people feel like they know
you and they never actually seeyou.
And we got to give space andplaces where we allow people to
(03:08):
come into our heart and we wantthat deep connection.
Paul had this deep connectionwith the church at Philippi,
again going back to when he leftthem the last time.
It's gripping in the book ofActs.
They held each other and theywept aloud and what it is is.
It's echoing the same way.
Jonathan and David grabbed eachother and they wept aloud and
what it is is.
It's echoing the same way.
Jonathan and David grabbed eachother and they wept aloud
(03:30):
whenever they left each otherthe last time.
And it's that kind of love andyou don't have that kind of love
if you've never let them inyour heart.
And so I'll just say, if teamleaves and it never impacts your
heart, you never let them in.
And something that TD Jake saidyears ago and it's always kind
(03:50):
of stuck with me and I know it'sprobably controversial to even
bring him up now, but can wejust acknowledge that people
deposited good things in us,even if they're flawed and have
failures?
Is that okay?
Okay, because if we're not okaywith that, then we need to take
Solomon out of our Bible, davidout of our Bible, cause they
(04:11):
still had good contributions,right and so.
But he said he goes.
If you ever leave a service andyou feel like I've shown them
too much and you feel like man,I think I just showed them too
much, I think I told them toomuch, I think I've divulged too
much, he said that's when you'vegiven them your heart.
He said if you leave like acoffee or you leave something
(04:33):
and you don't feel that way, yougave them your head.
And I think we have a lot ofleaders that give their head and
we want them to give us theirheart.
And Paul says I've held you inmy heart and so I love this.
Just something for you toremember is justice is I get
what I deserve, grace is I getwhat I don't deserve.
(04:54):
And mercy is I get more than Ideserve.
And I love how Paul is writinghere and he talks about the
mercy of God, the goodness ofGod.
So it says in the next verse itsays for God is my witness, how
greatly I long for you, withall the affection of Jesus
Christ.
(05:15):
And the original Greek, how it'sliterally read, is for God.
It says how greatly I longafter you all in the bowels of
Jesus Christ?
I don't know.
I mean, I'm glad they didn'tput that in there because it's
kind of weird.
But like the bowels, like theintestines of Jesus Christ, does
(05:38):
that feel weird to anybody else?
Has anybody been like?
Have you ever seen aValentine's card?
I love you from my bowels?
No, that's not on the hallmark.
Anybody want to write aValentine's card for that?
How about an anniversary card?
I love you with my whole bowels.
Oh, you'll do it.
Emily's going to do it, great.
But the Strong's word.
(05:58):
There is Strong's number 4968.
And it's spilagnon in the Greekand it's literally where we get
the word spleen.
And so, and now scientists havetold us that our gut is
literally our second brain forour body.
So we have our brain, but thenwe have our gut and it's
(06:21):
actually like the second brainfrom our body.
And so he says I'm missing you,based on the love of Christ and
not what you can do for me.
And so he's saying, like theheart is the center of our
feeling, our brain is the centerof our thinking and gut is the
center of instinct.
So think about this like the.
(06:43):
I think we've got a slide forthat.
Heart is the center of ourfeeling and this is literally
what doctors are saying at thispoint.
The brain is the center of ourthinking, but the gut is the
center of our instinct.
And he's saying I've gotten sounited with who christ is that
loving you is instinctual to me,like I don't have to put a
(07:04):
checklist item of to text you orto love you or to affirm you or
pray for you.
It's like it's instinctual tome, it's like it's coming out of
my bowels, it's just part ofwho I am.
And Luke 1 78, it says becauseof the tender mercies of God
that tender mercies is the samething.
It's from the gut of God, likefrom the tender mercies from the
(07:27):
gut of God, like it's becominginstinct to us.
And I would encourage you themore I become like Christ, the
more it is my instinct to loveother people, the more it's just
the overflow.
I don't have to like like hypemyself up Okay, I've got to talk
to three new people this Sundayand like if people are still a
checklist for you, you're notyet made into Christ's image.
(07:47):
Because when you get made intoChrist's image, your instinct is
that Does that make sense?
You're being made like him.
And so it's out of my gut.
It's not just my brain thinkingit, it's out of my gut.
I can't help it Like I've gotsomething on the inside of me
that draws me to them.
He's like I love you, that'swhere I'm loving you from is
from this core of who I am.
(08:08):
It's this deep overflow.
And so the ideas support Paul'sthese ideas.
There's three ideas, rather,that support what Paul's trying
to say here.
He's saying I always pray withjoy verse 1-4.
He says I'm confident of thisin 1-6.
And he says it's right for meto feel this way in verse 7.
(08:28):
So the structure of thissection of Paul's prayer is this
it's a joyful prayer, it's aconfident prayer and it's a
proper prayer.
I think we have a slide forthat.
It's a joyful prayer, it's aconfident prayer and it's proper
prayer.
So I love this because the morewe're made like Christ, the
(08:49):
more my prayer time becomesjoyful.
It's not, it's not obligation,it's not a checklist.
Again, I'm moving from the brain, I'm going into the gut.
Does this make sense?
It's like instinctual.
I'm not like going through asituation.
I'm like, oh dang, I forgot topray.
No, it's like my first instinct.
Does that make sense, andthat's why, the more time I
spend in the word, the more timeI spend in worship, the more
(09:10):
time I spent connected to God'speople, the more I'm beginning
to be changed into who he is.
And then there's thisconfidence in prayer that begins
to come forth, and then it'sproper, it's like it's, it's my,
it's my right service to bringback to God.
Does this make sense?
So, um, verse nine, verse ninehe says and this I pray, that
(09:31):
your love may abound still moreand more in knowledge and all
discernment, more and more.
Okay, so notice that, uh, thatwhenever there's repetition,
repetition reveals authorialintent.
So keep in mind, kind of likewhat we talked about last week,
the way we do stories in Westerncivilization is we start out in
(09:56):
the beginning and we work allthe way to an end conclusion.
Hebrew narrative works like this.
It goes in a spiral and it'sall around the same ideal and
it's building upon it again andagain, and again.
So now he's talking aboutprayer again, because he
mentioned it first in verse four.
But what's interesting is hesays here he says this I pray
(10:19):
that your love may abound stillmore and more.
So there's two words for love.
I'm sorry, hold on.
Let me go to prayer first.
So in verse four it talks abouta prayer, but it talks about a
like fast prayer.
It's like a quick prayer.
So he says I thank my God uponevery remembrance of you, always
(10:40):
in every prayer of mine andmaking requests for you all with
joy.
That word for prayer.
If you really want to go on afun Bible study this is a fun
Bible study and I could do awhole thing just off of this Go
to Blue Letter Bible and look atthat word that's used for
prayer there in verse four.
And every time it's said it's afast prayer.
(11:03):
It's the kind of prayer thatJesus prayed at Lazarus' tomb.
That's the same prayer that heprayed.
It's like a fast prayer.
It's like almost like as quickas your breath.
It's just quick.
It's not an intentional longamount of time of prayer.
But he says here in this verse9, it says and this I pray, this
word in the Strongs is Strongsnumber 4336.
(11:25):
And this I think we have aslide for this it's in Matthew
544.
When Jesus says to pray for ourenemies, it's a different kind
of prayer.
And in Matthew 544, he says topray for your enemies.
This word for prayer is a deep,intentional time of prayer
where the other is like, likefast, like a breath, and I think
(11:48):
sometimes we think aboutpraying for our enemies fast,
like a breath, like Lord, blessthem, teach them how to drive
right Like I'm done.
No, the Lord's saying a deep,intentional kind of prayer when
in Matthew 26, 42, that sameword for prayer is used and it's
when Jesus is in the garden andhe's sweating drops of blood.
It's a deep, intentional timeof prayer.
(12:11):
It's like a consecrated time.
It's a focus time.
It's a time where I go in andI'm not here just for a moment,
but I'm here in deep, my mind isfocused, like I'm going after
God with everything I have.
And I'll say that we need both.
Right, because Paul begins itand he says I have a quick,
intentional time of prayer foryou.
I have a quick, like breathtime of prayer for you, but I
(12:32):
also have a deep, intercessiontime of prayer for you.
I'll say is your life full ofboth?
Like, do you have time whereit's like you're just going
through your day and you're likethank you, jesus, for this
meeting I'm about to walk into,lord, I thank you that, your
hand's on it and then.
But then you also have, on theother end, you have times where
it's a deep focus, time ofprayer, where you're going into
(12:53):
the throne room of grace thatyou're seeking the hand and the
face of God and Paul is lettingthem know here for both.
But I think it's interesting hesays this I pray that your love
may abound still more and morethe word love.
I know that we know this, but Ithought it was interesting
because I was doing a deep diveon this and I thought it
(13:14):
interesting that love is.
There's two different meaningsfor love.
There's the phylos love andthere's agape love, phylos love
and agape love, love, phyloslove and agape love.
And phylos is different thanagape.
Phylos does not contain anyelement of mutuality.
That's found in it, meaning Idon't do anything with hope of
(13:37):
anything in return.
And agape love goes both ways,right, like there's agape love
that goes both ways.
But phylos goes I give, withoutany worry about anything being
returned.
And the word he uses here is aphylos love.
So Paul's, paul's emphasizing um, a, a self-sacrificial, like a
(14:01):
laying down of the full selfkind of love.
And he's, like you've knownlove where it's give to get.
But I want you to begin to knowa love where it's.
I give and I don't care if Iget.
And he says and I want you togrow more and more.
And you think about this church, the church at Philippi, that
(14:23):
here they are, they're the onesthat send Epaphroditus not just
down to Buc-ee's to turn aroundto get to the church.
How many miles did Epaphrodituscome with the letter?
800.
Okay, so he went a longdistance.
I would say that this churchknows love pretty well.
Right, they took up an offeringthat Paul didn't ask for.
They're very giving, they'revery benevolent, like they're,
(14:51):
they're like a sacrificial.
But Paul says you still haveroom to grow.
And I'll say this you neverarrive in your Christian walk
and I think sometimes, if we'renot careful, we just start
saying putting it on coast andgoing.
Man, I'm really good in thisarea.
But Paul says I want you to growmore and more.
And he says I want you to growin knowledge and in discernment.
And I wish I would have donethe slide for this, but it'll
(15:11):
just bless you anyways.
But knowledge is the word here,is to know the correct
theological truth, and the greekword is epic gnosis.
And oh great, emily's doing itright now.
She's just that good.
And wisdom is.
I know how to apply what I'velearned.
(15:31):
So how many of you guys we needmore wisdom?
Right, like we need to know howto apply what we've learned.
Acting in wisdom is knowledgeapplied.
So it's like I say this oftenbut we don't need more podcasts,
you don't need more podcasts,you don't need to read more
books.
You just need to actually applywhat you're listening to and
what you're reading.
And a lot of times we're justnot good at that and so, and
(15:52):
then discernment is being ableto see the truth from a lie.
And so he's talking to them andhe says I want you to that your
love may abound more and morein knowledge and in all
discernment.
So he's saying I want you toknow the correct theological
truth, the epikinosis.
Your doctrine matters, what youbelieve matters.
(16:13):
Here's the thing is that canyou defend your faith if
somebody says what's thedifference between Christianity
and being a Mormon?
And if you can quote theApostles' Creed, it's just drop
mic and then you can defend yourfaith around every single one
of those lines and your doctrinematters.
And the problem with theChristian church is we didn't
(16:34):
emphasize on doctrine and weemphasized on entertainment and
nobody knows how to defend theirfaith.
And he's like guys, you need aknowledge, like you need to have
a correct theological, likecompass, that you know what you
believe and why you believe whatyou believe.
And so this word with knowledgeis talking about theological
truth, and so I think it's goodfor us to like wield our sword.
(16:57):
And so what?
The Apostles' Creed?
They don't know when theApostles' Creed was written
because it was just incirculation for so long that the
early patristic fathers have itin their writing.
So they don't know when itstarted, but it started because
they needed people to be able todefend their faith, because
there was all these heresiescoming into the church.
Do you think we're still theretoday?
Yes, and so I would say that weneed it more than ever, and so
(17:20):
you're able to defend your faith, and so you're able to defend
your faith.
And so wisdom, we're applyingwhat we have, but discernment,
being able to see the truth froma lie.
And if you don't know the truth, come on, you'll fall for a lie
every time, and that washappening in this church.
And so if we exalt discernmentwithout knowledge, then I will
(17:41):
validate what is not of God.
If I valid.
Come on if I exalt discernmentwithout knowledge.
Oh, we need to teach our peoplediscernment.
You don't teach themdiscernment without teaching
them the truth.
And and it's just like Iremember there was a message
that pastor Brian preached andhe talked about a hundred dollar
bill and about how the ladyheld it up to the light to see
if it was the marker that hadthe mark on it.
And then she took the pen anddid the mark on it and he goes
(18:04):
isn't it interesting?
She had the tools that sheneeded to know if it was real or
not.
And a lot of us don't have thetools we need to know truth from
a lie.
And we're asking God to grow usin discernment, but we haven't
even equipped ourselves.
And so Paul's letting them knowhey, guys like you, got to grow
more and more in knowledge andin discernment.
And verse 10, it says that youmay approve the things that are
(18:27):
excellent, that you may besincere and without offense
until the day of Christ.
And so he's letting them knowthat the more that they grow in
the theology, the more I willbegin to be able to discern what
is accurate and scripturestandard of living.
And Christostom, he was in theearly church.
(18:47):
He was an early church fatherin the third and fourth century.
If you're looking for a namefor your kid, christostom, it's
a great one.
He prayed this he said thatthey will not receive any
corrupted doctrine under thepretense of love.
Can we just let this sit for asecond?
That his prayer was that thechurch would not receive any
(19:10):
corrupt doctrine under thepretense of love.
What are we seeing mostprevalent right now in society?
You're not fighting new battles.
We think we've got specialunicorn complex, as though we're
the only generation that'sfought this.
No, third and fourth generation.
They were of Christianity, likethe New Testament church.
They were fighting the samething.
(19:31):
And he's like listen, guys,don't buy into anything just
because it's under the pretenseof love.
Well, love is love.
We've got to include everybody,we've got to make sure that
we're accepting to all.
And yes, but love withoutchange is not love.
Like, it's just not love, if Iknow, like Brian yesterday,
(19:51):
braylee, he walked out and sawthat her tire was flat, and so
he aired up her tire and butthen he came inside and said hey
, braylee, your tire's flat,there's probably something wrong
with it.
It only had 10 pounds of air,and so you need to go straight
to the tire place and get itfixed.
What our culture would calllove is we aired up the tire,
(20:16):
but we never told them theproblem Love is.
I'm helping you by telling youthat there's something wrong and
we've got to have the tensionof both.
And Christostom says we got tobe careful about this, that we
don't accept false doctrinesunder the pretense of love.
So there are doctrines that arecentral to who we are, most of
(20:36):
which laid out for us in thecreeds, but, like I said, most
of the church doesn't even knowessential doctrines.
They don't even know what makesthem different.
And I'll say, as leaders of onechurch, you need to know this.
Like as you're stewardingsomebody that's having
existential crisis in theirfaith and they're like, what
makes us different thanJehovah's Witness, what makes us
(20:58):
different than Latter-daySaints?
What makes us different thanthe Catholic church?
Like what makes us different.
You've got to have something onthe inside of you that you
cannot just say, well, we loveJesus and one church is really
great.
We have at the movies that'snot going to get it done.
Like, you got to have somedoctrine on the inside of you
and you've got to be able todefend your faith.
Charles Spurgeon says this thechurch does not determine what
(21:19):
the Bible teaches.
The Bible determines what thechurch must teach.
Fire, fire, holy Ghost, fire.
So there's no part of this bookthat we're ashamed of, nor that
we pull away from.
We're unapologetic with it and,again, like we're not going to
be crass, we're not going to berude, we're never in your face.
(21:40):
But when I come toe to toe withsomebody, I'm standing with the
word every time and I'm goingto stand with what the Bible
says.
And there should be no part ofthis book that we ever shy away
from.
Thus Acts, chapter five,ananias and Sapphira.
No, I'm just kidding.
Probably not.
Probably wouldn't be good, allright.
So he says that you may approvethe things that are excellent,
(22:02):
that you may be sincere withoutoffense till the day of Christ
Again, that's speaking back toPhilippians 1.6, that he who
began a good work in you will befaithful to complete it.
It's echoing back to that verse,and we know that Philippians
1.6 now isn't about you startingyour business or you writing
your book or like running yourhalf marathon.
What is Philippians 1.6 about?
(22:23):
Salvation, but even more sosanctification?
It's about your consecrationright.
It's about living a life that'sset apart, or sanctification,
becoming more like Christ.
And so we live in an overflowof the virtues of Christ.
Most Christians spend theirentire lives trying to be better
people.
He says this in verse 11,.
(22:44):
He says being filled with thefruits of righteousness which
are by Jesus Christ, to theglory and praise of God.
So he's saying, guys, I don'tneed to teach you virtues, you
need to become connected to thevirtuous one and you begin to
display virtues.
We don't need to teachcharacter, we need to get
connected to Christ, andcharacter flows out of us.
Does this make sense?
(23:05):
And this because of our secularsociety.
We stopped connecting people toChrist and so instead we
started trying to teach morality, and it doesn't work.
Guys Like, get people connectedto Christ man, get them to fall
in love with his word, get themin a place where the spirit of
God is moving, and in a momenthe'll begin to touch things in
their heart and their life.
(23:26):
So my main role as a Christianis stay connected to Christ, and
his job is to produce fruitthrough me.
A tree isn't sitting in anorchard comparing what fruit
other trees have, wondering howthey can produce more fruit.
They just stay connected to thetree, they're just stay planted
in the ground.
Fruit is an overflow.
Your lack of fruit in your life, fruit of the Spirit.
(23:49):
Isn't that you need to read abook on self-control?
Isn't that you need to read abook on love?
You need to get connected tothe vine, and the more you're
connected to the vine, the morethat fruit just comes out of you
, the more I begin to produce it.
So this is interesting.
It may serve you, it may not.
I thought it was reallyinteresting.
Philippians 1, 9 through 11 andColossians 1, 9 through 11.
(24:11):
They're like nearly exactly thesame.
But you just see how Paul likethis was a continual emphasis
for him Prayer, abound inknowledge, growing in knowledge,
and all discernment and wisdomand understanding being filled
that you may be filled Fruit ofrighteousness.
He calls bearing fruit gloryand praise a power of his glory,
(24:33):
a good work, and he says everygood work.
So you see that Paul's likemessaging is consistent.
Even though it's differentchurches, it's still the same.
And so I'll say for us, likeour message, we may be thousands
of years removed from when Paulwrote it, but our message is
still the same, it's stillrequests.
And so, even for us.
I think the church and we weretalking about this after Javen
(25:11):
spoke the church has lost whatit is to do discipleship we
became.
We know how to grow teams, weknow how to grow movements, we
know how to get people to cometo our community group, but we
don't know how to disciplesomebody.
And Paul was really clear inhow to disciple somebody, and he
was.
You connect them to Christ, youlive a life of prayer, you let
(25:33):
them in your heart, you do lifewith each other and like we want
to, we want to create disciples.
Without those things, I don'twant to do life with you.
I'll see you at church.
Don't come to my house.
Don't want to have dinner withyou, church, don't come to my
house.
Don't want to have dinner withyou, all right.
(25:54):
So don't try in all of this,this fruit, he says, being
filled with all the fruits ofrighteousness.
So I don't have to try to be inpeace, I don't have to try to
walk in love, I don't have totry to grow in self-control.
I just spend time with Jesus.
And out of my time with Jesus Iproduce peace, I produce love,
I produce self-control.
It's just an overflow of who Iam, and so when I'm seeing fruit
is lacking, when I seebitterness Creeping in, I could
(26:17):
get focused on what ava said tome.
I'm picking on you, ava.
Or I can say actually thebitterness I have towards ava
shows I'm not connected to thevine, because if I was connected
to christ, love would just flowout of me.
This bitterness wouldn't beable to stick.
Is this good?
Chris Austin again says he isnot speaking here of a kind of
uprightness or virtue that triesdespairingly to grow without
(26:40):
Christ, so he's talking about anuprightness that is dependent
upon Christ's very nature.
We're going to finish righthere, I'm almost done.
So 6 and 10, both of these areeschatological verses, and
eschatological verses basicallymeans talking about end times,
(27:03):
or like our final moments, likewhen we go into glory with
Christ.
And your eschatology impactshow you live every day.
So what I believe abouteternity and how I'm going to
show up there impacts myeveryday living, and we see Paul
here.
He's shaping it here in verse 6.
He refers to the process ofsanctification won't be complete
(27:24):
until Jesus comes again.
Process of sanctification won'tbe complete until Jesus comes
again.
And then in verse 10, it saysthat you may be approved of
things that are excellent, thatyou may be sincere and without
offense till the day of Christ,and so living our lives in such
a way where we have an overflowof righteous living, and so both
of these are tied in together.
So if salvation to you meansthat I can live my life however
(27:48):
I want, then you have a wrongeschatology.
And when your eschatology getsright, that man now I live this
life of sanctification that hewho began a good work in me,
he's going to be faithful tocomplete it to the day of Jesus
Christ I'm going to become moreand more like him.
I'm not going to reachperfection on this side of
eternity, but I'm going tobecome more and more like him.
(28:08):
I'm not going to reachperfection on this side of
eternity, but I am going toproduce righteous works because
of the connection I have toChrist, and so that completes
this middle part, and so nexttime we get together, we'll pick
it up in verse 12.
So I love you guys.
Thanks so much for hanging outhere on my podcast.
Do me a favor and hit thesubscribe button if you haven't
done so already, so you nevermiss out on anything here on my
(28:30):
podcast Also one of the bestways for us to begin to reach
other people is by you sharing.
So if you do me a favor andshare this podcast with a friend
, family member or maybe on yoursocial media.
Help us get the word out so wecan help others.
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