This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our look at Philippians together and daily drive time devotions.
We're looking at Philippians chapter 1 this week. Today we're looking at verses
7 to 11.

You might remember yesterday we began a look at how you find joy in
relationships. Relationships can steal our joy or they can give us joy depending
on how we look at them and what we do with them. And so yesterday we talked
about the fact that you have to start by putting people in your thoughts.

If you don't think about people, if you only think about yourself, if you only
think about things, if you only think about money and getting ahead, you're
never going to have joy because joy is found in our relationships. So you put
people in your thoughts, you intentionally thank God for them, you intentionally
take joy in people. And there's two other ways we're going to look at today that
you can find joy in relationships is by putting people in your heart and putting
people in your prayers.

You put people in your heart. Joy is impossible if you don't put people in your
heart. Sometimes in seeking not to be hurt, in deciding not to waste the energy
to get involved with people, we rob our heart clean of joy.

The minute you decide to keep people out of your heart, you're also deciding to
keep joy out of your heart. But Paul brought people into his heart. In verses 7
and 8 in Philippians 1 he says, "It is right for me to feel this way about all
of you, since I have you in my heart.

For whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you
share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the
affection of Christ Jesus. " There's two key words in those verses about how I
can put people in my heart, partnership and fellowship.

Partnership is when you decide to do something with someone. Now, does that
always result in joy? Of course not.

You may have been involved in a partnership that resulted in a devastating sense
of loss or grief. So what is the kind of partnership that does result in joy?
Well, Paul says in these verses, it's a partnership where you share in God's
grace.

That's where it comes from. "Whether in chains," he says, "or whether defending
and confirming the gospel, joy works no matter what the weather," spelled
W-E-A-T-H-E-R, "no matter what I'm going through in my life, Whether chains or
defending the gospel, when I focus on God's grace," that's where the joy is.
"Whether I agree or disagree with you on this issue, we share God's grace, and
that is the partnership that results in joy.

" Now, Paul talks here about defending and confirming the gospel. Interesting
words, defending the gospel, apologetics, the idea of making a good argument for
the truth of the gospel. Confirming the gospel, that has the idea of building
up, encouraging the truth of the gospel in people's lives.

And Paul says we're a partner in both because of God's grace. That's one of the
places that we put people in our heart, through partnership, doing together what
God has given us to do because of his grace, founded on his grace. The other way
to put people in your heart is through fellowship.

We use that word a lot, but what does it mean? Let me get at what that word
means, that word "fellowship" with a question. What is the difference between
friendship and fellowship?

A lot of people would say, well, there's really no difference. One of them is
done at church, the other not at church, but they're sort of the same thing. But
that's not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches that there's a depth to our relationship in fellowship.
There's a commitment to each other that's going to last through this life and
into eternity that is much stronger than simply friendship. And what's the
difference?

The main difference is in the source. The real source of fellowship is different
than the source of friendship. The source of friendship is, I like you.

We're like each other. We enjoy being with each other. But the source of
fellowship, Paul says, "The source of my fellowship with you," in verse 8, "is
that I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

" The source of fellowship is the affection of Christ Jesus. Now, in the Greek
language, the literal word there for affection is the bowels. That's a confusing
word to us.

In the Greek culture, the idea of love wasn't just limited to loving somebody
with all of your heart. They would sometimes use all the organs of the body.
They would talk about the upper intestines and the bowels and the liver.

So it was sort of, I love you with all my bowels. Sort of a strange concept to
us, I admit. But to get to what it really means, the idea here is, I've got to
love so strong, so real that I can feel it physically.

And Paul says, "I long for you with the affection of Christ. " Affection is not
just something in a romantic relationship. Paul reminds us here that I really
love you.

I want to be around you. It's an interesting phrase, the affection of Jesus
Christ. Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus Christ has affection
towards you?

You may have thought about the fact that he loves you, God so loved the world.
But have you thought about the fact that he has affection for you? He told his
disciples, "I want you to be with me where I am.

" He talks about the fact that he rejoices in our being present with him. That
affection that Jesus has towards you is to be shared with others, and that is
fellowship. You put people in your heart.

Paul also in these verses talks about putting people in your prayers. If I had
to choose one practical thing to do to add more joy to my life, it'd be to If I
had to give you advice about one practical thing to do when it comes to your
relationships, to add more joy to your life, it would be to pray for others.
What do you pray about?

Well, I'm glad you asked because that's what these verses are about. In fact,
what I would like to invite us to do is to pray as we walk through this. I don't
want to just talk about it and then invite you to do it sometime during the day.

Why not do it right now? Why not, as we read these verses about how to pray for
other people, get somebody in mind right now that you want to pray for, and pray
for that person right now as we walk through these verses. Paul says in verse 9,
this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and
depth of insight.

What do you pray for for that person you have in mind right now? Pray for
people's growth. I pray that your love may grow, may abound more and more in
knowledge and depth of insight.

So pray that their love might grow. I would like my love to grow, I'm sure you'd
like your love to grow, and I would love it if anyone would pray for me to grow
in love. Pray for that person you have in mind right now.

Pray for their growth, becoming more like Christ, loving more of the people that
are around them. God help them to grow. Take a minute right now in your mind to
pray for them.

In verse 10, Paul goes on to say, "So that you may be able to discern what is
best. " Pray for people's growth, but also pray for people's choices for that
person you're thinking of right now. Pray that they would be able to discern
what is best.

It's an interesting word there. It's a word used for testing metal to see that
it's genuine, the real thing. Help them to see the real thing, Jesus.

We've all got a thousand choices to make every day. Pray that that person you're
thinking of right now will know how to make the best choice, to choose the real
thing. Instead of spending so much time worrying about the worst in people's
lives, spend more time praying for the best in people's lives.

Pray for people's growth, pray for people's choices. In the last part of verse
10, he says, "I pray that you might be pure and blameless until the day of
Christ. " Pray for people's character, purity and blamelessness he talks about
here.

The word "purity" here in one language has the idea of "sun-tested. " And it
comes from fine pottery that was made and that might get a tiny crack in it. And
a potter would take some wax and put it into that crack and then paint over it
so that when you bought it, you thought it was fine.

But if you would take that pot and you'd hold it up to the sun and you would see
this light shining through the cracks, shining through that wax, you would see
the reality of what it was. It was sun-tested, S-U-N-T-E-S-T-E-D. Well, we're to
be sun-tested, S-O-N-T-E-S-T-ED.

We're to be tested by the light of Jesus Christ in our lives. Don't settle for
anything less than that. And pray for the person you're thinking of right now.

God, help them not to settle for anything less than being tested by the light of
Jesus Christ. It's easy to settle in this life. Give them more.

Help their character to grow in you. Purity and blamelessness. Blamelessness has
to do with our relationship with others, how others see us.

It has to do with your purity being the kind of purity that's attractive to the
world. It's a real purity. Others can't find fault in it.

Pray for people's character. Take a moment right now to pray for that person
you're thinking of, their character, their purity, their blamelessness. Paul
gives us one other way to pray for people in verse 11.

He prays that they will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes
through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Pray for their
effectiveness. That person you're thinking of right now, pray for their
effectiveness.

And pray for the kind of effectiveness that this verse talks about. It talks
about the fruit, the results of righteousness, righteousness, the right
relationship that we now have with God. Pray that that would happen in people's
lives.

There's all kinds of effectiveness in this world. There's effectiveness in
people's eyes. There's effectiveness in my own eyes.

There's effectiveness monetarily. There's effectiveness, popularity. Paul says
don't settle for that.

Pray for the kind of effectiveness that is to the glory and praise of God. That
it's going to last for all of eternity and echo through all of eternity to the
glory and praise of God. That person you're thinking of right now, pray with
faith.

And pray, God, help them make choices today. And that the fruit of those choices
would be glory to you, praise to you, not only in this world, but also that
echoes all the way into eternity. Lord, we do pray.

Pray for people. First, we pray for our own growth, for our own choices, for our
own character, for our own effectiveness. We wouldn't dare to pray for someone
else without praying for ourselves.

We need all of those things. I need all of those things. But Lord, you've also
taught us to pray for others, not to be selfish with our prayers.

And so we bring again to mind that person that we've been thinking about. And
Lord, we do pray for their growth today, their choices today, their character
today, and their effectiveness today. Help them to get to know you.

Lord, thank you for your willingness to be at work in our lives. In your name we
pray, Jesus. Amen.

And join us tomorrow. We're going to be looking at verses 12 to 19 of
Philippians chapter 1.