Philippians is a letter from Paul the Apostle to one of the churches in the city of Philippi,
which was called Little Rome.
And he begins this letter by addressing them and then letting them know his prayer for
the church.
So today we'll read our sermon text, which is really verses 7 through 11, but I'd like
to read the entire prayer.
Philippians 1, verses 3 through 11.
And I read this trusting that it is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear, and sufficient
word.
It's God's very own word for you, his people.
When I'm done reading, I'll say this is the word of the Lord and you can respond, thanks
be to God.
Paul prays this way in verse 3.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making request
for you all with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete
it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, in
as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are
partakers with me of grace.
For God is my witness how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.
in this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,
that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere without offense till
the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness that are by Jesus Christ,
blessed to the glory and praise of God.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
You may be seated.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Let's pray.
Lord, it's truly a mystery.
How much you love us.
If it weren't for your word telling us so plainly, so clearly,
of the abounding love of Jesus for his church, we would have no way of even receiving this glorious truth.
We thank you, Lord, that you are so loving and in your love you have not been silent,
but you have been clear and you have spoken a strong word of assurance and abounding affection
that Jesus puts in his people.
And we pray today, Lord, that by the power of your Holy Spirit, ministering your word in the Bible to every true believer,
Lord, that you will strengthen our faith, that you will help us to receive even more of your love today.
Lord, for those here today who are still in darkness, who know nothing but emptiness on the inside,
I pray, Lord, that your abounding love will break through and capture them, Lord.
For your glory we ask.
Amen.
Well, last week, the word was Philippians 1.6.
I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
And I stood up there and I told you that quote by Robert Murray Machine about assurance.
For every look you give to yourself, take ten looks at Christ.
And I need to confess that as I was preparing for this sermon today, I was struggling to do that.
Because I read this prayer of Paul and I just was so convicted.
I don't have this kind of affection for the church.
I don't have this longing in my heart.
I don't have this abounding love.
And I feel like I'm just the opposite.
So how am I going to not be a hypocrite and minister the truth of this prayer?
And very late last night, the Lord, again, washed over me with his grace.
I'm taking ten looks at myself and my shortcomings.
And with his help, I just need to receive the abounding love of Jesus once again myself.
And that's been my prayer for you as well, that you can receive it today.
If you look at Philippians 1.8, Paul says this love that fills his heart, notice who is the source of it.
In verse 8, it's the affection of Jesus Christ himself.
Paul didn't muster up or generate more love for the church.
It's the love that Jesus has had all along that he puts into Paul.
It's the affection of Jesus Christ.
And with that love in his heart, he prays, verse 9, this I pray that your love may abound still more and more.
You and I love because he first loved us and gave his son for us.
So, beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I want to show you today six glorious truths about how the love of Jesus abounds for you.
How the love of Jesus abounds for you.
First, the love of Jesus strengthens your faith beyond sight.
The love of Jesus is what strengthens our faith beyond our sight.
Christians are told to sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron.
And I want to talk to you about the love of Jesus strengthening and sharpening your faith like iron.
I know nothing about science, so I had to look this up.
How is iron even made?
I know that if you're driving toward Aspen, there's a place called Carbondale.
And just after that is Redstone.
And you can see old iron furnaces.
And what they do is they take the iron ore and they apply extreme heat to it, a heat furnace.
They just blast it with heat.
And that puts all the particles in motion.
But then they have to hammer the iron.
And the hammering, it makes those particles separate.
And it's removing the impurities that are mixed in.
So how do you make strong iron?
It's heat and hammering.
And look at what Paul in his life is experiencing.
You could say he's experiencing extreme heat spiritually.
And extreme hammering.
And as a result, it strengthens the faith and the love inside of him.
Why do we say spiritual heat?
Well, notice he talks about the chains he's wearing.
He's a man under persecution.
He's been arrested for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And in verse 7, he says, I have you in my heart.
And verse 8, he says, it's how greatly I long for you.
I long for you all.
So here's a man in chains, in prison.
Neglected, abandoned by the church in Rome.
Because people were preaching Christ for very selfish motives.
Neglecting Paul.
And he feels the heat of persecution.
A longing to be with the people of God.
You've been through a time without a church.
You've been through those seasons.
And it's one of the worst things to go through.
Growing up, my parents were missionaries in a very remote part of the world,
in northern Brazil.
We didn't really ever have a church from when I was 10 years old to 16.
And I just remember getting to Oklahoma where I met my wife.
And I didn't really care what church it was.
It's a church.
There are Christians here that believe in Jesus Christ.
I'm with my family.
And I remember that feeling of,
this is what I've been missing out on for all these years.
And Paul longs for that because he's isolated.
It's the worst kind of imprisonment.
It's solitary confinement.
And he's in chains longing to be with the church.
That's the heat that God is lovingly applying to Paul's life.
What about the hammering?
Paul's getting hammered.
He's got the Praetorian Guard, the elite Roman guards all around him.
And even in this position of being a prisoner,
he is having to defend the gospel.
He's getting accused.
He's getting attacked.
He's having his own faith questioned and challenged,
not to mention the spiritual hammering he's receiving.
Satan accusing him.
Satan provoking him.
He's missing out on taking the Lord's Supper with God's people.
He's missing out on someone else ministering the Word of God
to remind him and to help him rest in the truth of the gospel.
He's under extreme hammering.
I told you I want to encourage you that the love of Jesus
strengthens your faith beyond your sight.
This was true for Paul.
It's against all visible evidence.
There's no earthly reason that Paul had to hope.
And yet he says,
I pray for you with confidence that God will finish what he started in his church.
He says that this heat and hammering, so to speak,
it produced two things.
A confirmation in verse 7 and confidence in verse 6.
So as he's being attacked and having to defend the gospel,
God is giving him confirmations that this gospel prevails.
In verse 7, it reminds me of what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4.18.
We do not look at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporary,
but the things which are not seen are eternal.
And God is building this strong faith into him on the world that is unseen.
Jesus Christ on the throne,
extending his kingdom over all the earth,
through all the cities,
through all the peoples, nations, tribes, and tongues,
from the islands to the coastlands,
believing in the advance of Jesus and his gospel.
And he wrote,
you are partakers with me of grace.
In his chains, longing to be with the church,
he's reminded,
this is what we have in common.
This is what I truly long for.
It's not just the friendship.
It's not just the softball,
or these other things that are wonderful blessings,
or the hobbies, or the great food.
It's not just that.
It's the partaking of Christ's grace together.
Father, that's what I really long for and miss.
James Montgomery Boyce,
a wonderful pastor,
he had shared this thing he got to witness at a conference
for a lot of pastors from all over the world
that was held in Europe years ago, decades ago.
And he just remembered, you know,
as people are coming into this conference center,
there is this guy from Africa
that looked very distinctive.
He had the tattoos on his face,
and he had scars from being in wars.
And he was a partaker of this grace
that Paul's talking about,
sitting there with all these other pastors
from all these other nations.
Well, at one point in the conference,
these two believers from Central America
came up and told their testimony.
One of them shared how he was one
with a spear in his hand
who had killed innocent people,
including missionaries,
who had come to bring them the gospel.
And God broke him down,
tore his heart open,
and flooded him with grace.
And as these men from Central America
are telling their story,
when that session ended,
everybody's going off for the next event.
This man,
before it was even announced
that you are dismissed,
from Africa,
who had the scars on his face,
came running down the stairs,
running down the aisle,
and he wrapped his arms around
this brother from Central America.
And he said something to the effect
that I am you.
He means,
I know this grace you're talking about.
I'm an enemy of God.
I'm a partaker of grace with you.
And he wouldn't let him go,
and he hugged him for so long.
That's what it means to be a partaker of grace.
You know, just like Paul,
I'm the chief of sinners.
And we have Christ, Jesus,
as our Savior.
And He is the King.
We serve willingly in His army.
And it's such a joy.
And that's why Paul writes,
it's correct.
It's in alignment with God's moral law.
It's righteous.
Verse 6,
for me to be confident
that God will complete His work.
Romans 5, 9-11 says,
much more will we,
having now been justified by His blood,
we can know that we shall be saved
from wrath through Him.
For if we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son.
Much more than having been reconciled,
shall we be saved by His life.
And not only that,
but we also rejoice in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received
the reconciliation.
The love of Jesus
strengthens your faith
beyond sight.
Do you see, church,
how the love of Jesus
abounds for you too,
you who are a partaker
of His grace?
I don't know what you're going through,
what's in your sight right now.
Maybe some of you feel like
God is putting you through
heat and hammering.
And I pray that you will not
bear that burden alone.
Paul's laying out his heart
to the church here,
so they can also pray for him.
And that you will remember,
God is working in you
an iron-strong faith,
because it's not rooted
in anything you bring to God.
It's rooted in the covenant faithfulness,
the steadfast love
of the Lord
for you, His people.
His abounding love
through Jesus Christ
to His church.
Well, the second truth
in this passage
is that though your outer man
is crumbling,
the love of Jesus
sustains your inner man.
Though the outer man
is crumbling,
the love of Jesus
sustains your inner man.
Now, this point,
it has to be inferred,
but I want you to look
at verse 8.
In verse 8,
Paul says,
God is my witness
how greatly
I long for you all
with the affection
of Jesus Christ.
In verse 7,
he says,
I have you in my heart.
The Greek word here
for heart,
it really refers
to the seat
of reflection
and thought.
So God has put the church
in my reflection.
And when he says next
in verse 8,
that I long for you
with all the affection
of Jesus Christ,
the word here
is the inner words
of Jesus.
The inner parts,
the seat of emotions
are stirred up in Paul.
So he's very in tune
with his inner man,
his heart,
his affections,
his inner being.
It's being sustained
by the abounding love
of Jesus.
And we do know
from the book of Acts
and especially
2 Corinthians,
what was going on
in Paul's outer man
because this is
a prison epistle.
Paul by this time
would be a very old man,
most likely in his,
well, I won't even say it
because I just said very old
so I don't want to make
anyone feel bad,
but probably early 60s,
which today it's a little
different than back then.
But you know,
the life expectancy
in the first century
Roman society
was age 25.
If anyone's around 25 here,
you'd be middle-aged in Rome.
And so for Paul
to be in his early 60s,
he was called,
in Philippians 1, 9,
he actually called himself
aged.
We know that he wrote
the letter to the Galatians
with large letters
so that it could be proof
it was his own handwriting
because he had failing eyesight.
And that was an early book.
How bad are his eyes now?
In 2 Corinthians,
we read that Paul
was beaten with rods
three times.
Some of us have gotten injured
brushing your teeth
or something like that
you throw out
a part of your back.
Imagine the ligaments
and the muscles
without physical therapy,
without medicine
that we have today.
A beating like that
three times with rods
on the body
of an old minister.
On top of that,
his skin and muscles
and tendons
were lashed
five times.
He wrote of having
an ongoing thorn
in the flesh.
Most likely,
according to his letter
to the Corinthians,
the second one,
he said that he fought
with wild beasts.
Maybe like you'd picture
a gladiator,
but here it's an old minister
with bad eyesight
being thrown
to the wild beasts
and God sparing his life.
He summarized it as,
I daily face death.
That's what's going on
with Paul and the outer man.
But to the Philippians,
they don't need him
to rehearse
any of those credentials.
They know,
they respect him,
they love him.
He simply says,
in two words,
my chains.
That's how I'm doing physically.
And still,
in verse 8,
because of the affection
of Jesus Christ
for me
and in me,
in my inner man,
I long for you,
church,
in my heart.
It's the affection
of Jesus Christ
who loved us
and washed us
from our sins
in his own blood.
Revelation 1.5.
Paul's confidence
is in the inner man
sustained
by the affection
of Jesus Christ,
according to Romans 8.38.
He says,
I'm persuaded
that neither
death nor life,
nor angels,
nor principalities,
nor powers,
nor things present,
nor things to come,
nor height,
nor depth,
nor any other
created thing
shall be able
to separate us
from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
That's what sustains us
in the inner being.
And his message
to all the churches
and to you and me today,
2 Corinthians 4.16,
therefore,
we who are partakers
of grace,
we do not lose heart.
Even though our outward man
is perishing,
yet the inward man
is being renewed
day by day
for our light affliction,
which is but for a moment,
is working for us
a more exceeding
and eternal weight
of glory.
Though your outer man
is crumbling,
the love of Jesus
sustains the inner being
of every true believer.
Some of you
are living with
chronic pain
and all the problems
that raises.
When you don't get
enough sleep,
it affects everything
in your life,
doesn't it?
The inner man
will be sustained
by Jesus Christ.
and one day
you'll receive
a glorified body
just as Jesus
in his glorified body
will never perish.
You'll receive
this same body
that's crumbling
all around you.
It will be resurrected
and made perfect
and you'll get a walk
with Jesus Christ
and follow the Lamb
wherever he leads you
one day.
So trust him.
By faith,
he will sustain
your soul,
your inner being
until that day.
Oh, how the love
of Jesus,
it abounds for you
and me
just as it did
for Paul.
The third truth
I see in this passage
is that
the love of Jesus,
it flows
through you,
through Paul,
through a Christian
to his church.
The love of Jesus
doesn't come to a life
and stay like a pond
that gets stale
and stagnant.
The love of Jesus,
it's living waters
that flow through
a believer
like Paul
and like you
and like me.
It flows through you
to his church
and to everyone
who believe.
Notice in verse 9
he says,
this I pray
that your love,
the affection
of Jesus in you
may abound
still more and more.
Do you remember
how John the Baptist
spoke of Jesus Christ?
He said,
He, Jesus Christ,
must increase.
How does that happen?
As I decrease.
What Paul is saying is
the love of Jesus
increasing in you
abounds more
and more and more.
It goes from good
to better
to great.
Excellent.
The love of Jesus
is not decreasing.
It's not a diminishing returns.
It's a never ending supply
of the affection,
the love of Jesus
poured through
his believers.
And it increases
still more
and still more
every day
by his grace.
I've had to think
a lot about
this relationship
of how
the love of Jesus
flows through us
in such a way
that God gets
all the glory
and we don't touch
any of the glory.
but yet it's
through his people.
I don't know
that I'll get it
quite right today
but what was helpful
as an illustration
to me
came from one
of the commentaries.
All good works
depend on God
filling you
with his love.
So the love of God
is like the pressure
behind anything loving
that you will do.
And the love of God
flowing through
a life
that is increasingly
free
of two things
evidences itself
for God's glory
as fruit,
the fruits of righteousness.
So the illustration
it's from the field
of electricity.
Something I also
don't know anything about.
But he says that
when you're running
an electrical current
through a wire
or through a system
you can have two things.
You can have resistors
and condensers.
Resistors
impede the flow.
They're blocks
that are blocking
the flow of electricity.
And then condensers
are holding on
to the flow of electricity
for their own use.
So if the pressure
or the currency
flowing through this channel
is the love of God,
as God sanctifies me,
he's removing things
in my life
that are resistors
to his love
flowing through me
to his church.
And he's also
convicting me
and causing me
to repent
and give up
other things
that might be condensers
where I'm holding on
and some of the love
he's shown me
that's intended
for his church
but I was holding on
to it for my own purposes.
He says,
I pray
that your love
may abound
still more
and more
so the Spirit's
making you
a better
and better channel
of his love
flowing through you
for his church.
He says that
this is a type of love
that flows through you
that abounds
more and more
in knowledge
and all discernment.
Verse 10,
that you may approve
the things
that are excellent.
So it's a love
that is a discerning love.
It's a love
that is informed
and given
by the Holy Spirit
to help you understand
how God designed
for love to operate.
The word discern
is used also
for testing money
or a currency
to see if it's counterfeit.
It was used
in the ancient world
to describe
political testing
to see if a candidate
is credible
and commendable
for a political office.
So this love of Christ
is a divine love
governed by
biblical principles
based on the knowledge
of God's word.
It's a love
that is according
to knowledge.
It's a knowledge
that describes
a spiritual,
relational knowing
of God.
Knowing truth.
Knowing sound doctrine.
And you only can do that
through the study
of God's word
with his people
by the help
of the Holy Spirit.
It reminds me
of what he wrote
in Romans 12,
verse 2.
The purpose
of God's ministry
of the word
and growing us
in knowledge
is that we will
be transformed
by the renewing
of our minds
so that we can
test and approve
what is God's will.
His good,
pleasing,
and perfect will.
So the love of Jesus,
it flows
through true believers
to his church.
And it does so
as we grow
in our knowledge
of God
through his word
by the help
of the Spirit.
You see how loving
Jesus is
that he transforms
you and me.
He makes his love
to abound.
He removes resistors
and condensers
so that we can be
an even more
suitable vessel
of his love
as it flows.
The fourth truth
I see here
in verse 10
is that the love
of Jesus
in you
proclaims
he is your king.
The love of Jesus
in you
proclaims
he is your king.
In verse 10
he says,
I pray that you
may be sincere
and without offense
till the day
of Jesus Christ.
And all of this
in verse 11
is for the glory
and the praise
of God.
So,
as God purifies
his church,
as the church
is sincere
without offense,
God is praised
and glorified.
Right now
the kingdom
of God
is ministered
over his people
spiritually
by faith,
not by sight.
And so it's
through the lives
and through the love
of Christ
in his church
that he shows
here's my kingdom.
Here's a place
where I rule.
And when Jesus Christ
comes on that
great day,
his church
bears witness
in word
and in our lives
his transforming us
that he is
the king of kings.
He says,
I pray that you
may be sincere.
The word sincere,
it means that
it's not
been patched together
by your own efforts.
Sincere,
even in the English,
the root here
is without wax.
Sin means without
and then sire
is wax.
And so
if you go to
a museum
you can see
these pieces of pottery
from all over the world
in all different
time periods.
The ones that last
were cheaper
because they're very thick.
The most expensive
pottery
is very thin pottery
and it's very rare
to find a piece
that didn't just crumble
over the decades
and centuries.
And the thinner
a piece of pottery was
the more likely
it would be to break.
So when a very expensive
thin piece of pottery
was made
and it would
accidentally break
or crack
they would
take it and fill wax in
to make it as smooth
as they could
and then paint over it
and still try to sell it
at full price.
So to be sincere
is to be
hiding something
that when it gets
exposed
in the heat
the wax would melt away
and you can see
what it was
or they would hold it up
to the light
and you can see
the light coming
through the wax.
And he's saying
that I pray
that you may be sincere
that when your life
gets held up
to the light of Christ
yes you're a broken vessel
but it won't be an offense
to the name of Jesus.
It'll be a testament
that God took
those parts of you
that are cracks
and broken
and he filled them solid.
There's nothing man's
trying to put in there
and cover up.
This is a true work of God.
You're bearing witness
he is your king.
It reminds me of Jude 1.21
where he prays
that they will keep themselves
in the love of God
looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life.
So your love of Jesus in you
proclaims that he is your king.
Here's where I want to try
to be extra careful.
Jesus was the king
of the criminal
on the cross.
He met the one condition
to have eternal life
which was to believe.
Do you see
your good works
they add nothing
to your standing
with God.
I love how our confession
makes really careful statements
that clarify errors
we could go
in numerous directions.
listen to these words
about the good works
that God does
in the life
of his people
making us sincere
without offense.
These good works
done in obedience
to God's commandments
are the fruits
and evidences
of a true
and lively faith
and by them
believers manifest
their thankfulness
strengthen their assurance
edify their brethren
adorn the profession
of the gospel
stop the mouths
of adversaries
and glorify God
whose workmanship
they are
created
in Christ Jesus
thereunto
that having their fruit
unto holiness
they may have
the end
eternal life.
this is a summary
of what scripture
teaches
for example
Ephesians 2.10
for we are
his workmanship
he is the one
beginning the work
and completing the work
in his people
we are created
in Christ Jesus
for good works
which God has prepared
beforehand
that we should walk
in them
we don't go out
trying to find
good works
to do
to make ourselves
more good
you are in Christ
you are a new creation
he already has prepared
those things
you will do
so then when you
when you realize
look God used me
as a channel
of his love
you give him
all the glory
God already knew
this was going
to be a way
he would use me
praise the Lord
he gets all the glory
I get none
as it should be
Hebrews 6.11
we desire
each one of you
to show
the same earnestness
to have the full
assurance of hope
until the end
so that you
may not be
sluggish
but imitators
of those
who through faith
and patience
inherit the promises
well where does
the patience
and where does
the faith
and the strength
and the energy
to endure
where does that
even come from
that comes from
the Lord Jesus Christ
it's his
abounding love
that he puts
in his people
so the love
of Jesus in you
it proclaims
he is working
in my life
oh how the love
of Jesus
abounds for you
and me
the fifth truth
here is that
the abounding
love of Jesus
it does fill
his people
with the fruits
of righteousness
look at verse 11
being filled
with the fruits
of righteousness
which are
by Jesus Christ
to the glory
and praise
of God
notice he says
in verse 11
you Christian
are being filled
with
it's happening
to you
in the passive
tense
in the fruits
of righteousness
it's not something
you make up
or I make up
it's what God
has already shown
in the Bible
to be pleasing
to him
our confession
says again
in another paragraph
our ability
to do good works
is not at all
of ourselves
but wholly
from the spirit
of Christ
who enables you
to do good work
besides the graces
you have already
received
there is also
necessary
an actual
influence
of the same
Holy Spirit
to work in you
to make you
to will
and to do
of his good pleasure
yet you are not
bound to perform
any duty
unless upon
a special
motion
of the spirit
he will stir you up
he will
he will cause you
to be overflowing
with the love of Christ
to do
that thing
he is calling you
to do
he will sustain
you in obedience
not under the principle
of works
adding anything
to your salvation
but all Christians
ought to be diligent
in the stirring up
of the grace of God
that is in you
you bring yourself
to be with God's people
you sit under the ministry
of his word
you come by faith
week after week
to take the Lord's supper
and you trust
he will stir up
this love
inside of you
it begins with him
and he will use
the means he's ordained
to sustain it
in his people
as well
2 Corinthians 3 5
in ourselves
we are not able
to claim
anything for ourselves
the power to do
what we do
comes from God
the best summary
of all
it's really
the kernel
that everything else
is opening up
and fleshing out
it's from the words
of Jesus himself
John 15 5
whoever abides in me
and I in him
he it is
that bears much fruit
apart from me
you can do
nothing
not even a little
but as the abounding
love of Jesus
dwells in you
and teaches you
to abide in him
he does
bring into your life
fruits
of righteousness
well the sixth
and final truth here
is back to verse 9
and it's that
the love of Jesus
it abounds
still more
and more
in you
verse 9 says
this I pray
that your love
the same love
Paul has
the affection
of Jesus Christ
may abound
still more
and more
Paul has used
that phrase
in other places
one is
Romans 5 20
God gave his law
that your sins
might abound
in other words
it needs to be
abundantly clear
that you fall short
of God's glory
your sins need to be
heavy upon you
to drive you
to the Savior
in repentance
and faith
again and again
and again
his law
exposes your need
of the Savior
but Paul wrote
in Romans 5 20
where sin
abounded
grace abounded
much more
the love
of Jesus
abounds
more and more
in you
I read of
Lawrence of Arabia
and this story
illustrates so perfectly
the abounding love
of Jesus
for his people
these folks
he had met
in Arabia
in the Middle East
they had the opportunity
to travel back
with him
and they went
to Paris
and in Paris
he tried to take them
to see all these
tourist sites
you know
the great feats
of architecture
and culture
but the thing
that they were
most impressed by
was in the hotel room
how you can
turn on a faucet
and water
just continues
to flow
endlessly
and the shower
the sink
the water
just with a faucet
never stops flowing
and so when it was
time for these
visitors from Arabia
to travel back
to their country
he was waiting
for them
and he couldn't
find them
so he went up
to check in their room
and they were
trying to unscrew
the faucet
out of the wall
they wanted to take
this magic faucet
back with them
to Arabia
they say
we live in the desert
and what we lack
is water
and finally
we found an invention
from this little
invention
flows water
without end
if we think about that
that's often how we
try to live
the Christian life
isn't it
I'm just going to
carry the faucet
around with me
and the supply
of water
that will come
endlessly out of
this faucet
in this illustration
it begins with
the rainfall
and the snow
on the Alps
the glorious
green mountains
and from there
it fills the rivers
and it flows
to the ocean
and that cycle
will never end
the rain
and the snow
covering these mountains
flowing
keeping these rivers
full
it will always supply
so that every faucet
that is tied
into this entire
system of water
without end
it will never run dry
the love of Jesus
abounds
still more
and more
in you
it will never
run out
the supply
is endless
why do you think
God made the rain cycle
why do you think
he made our bodies
to need water
many times a day
it's to teach us
he is the living water
and he abounds
to you
and to me
still more
and more tomorrow
than today
and even more
the next day
than today
if that's possible
and for all eternity
his love
abounds
because God
is love
you see church
how the love
of Jesus
it abounds
for you and me
let's rest
in this truth
let's soak him up
and praise him
for his
all sufficient
love for his people
again today
oh Lord
we praise you
we are such
broken vessels
Lord
but inside
these vessels
you put
the most glorious
treasure
you've allowed us
to have fellowship
and communion
and be partakers
of grace
and to abide
with Jesus Christ
and God
the holy God
our creator
Lord
may your
love
produce in us
the fruits of righteousness
so that you will be glorified
and that
as a congregation
you will find us
to be sincere
without offense
to your name
until the day of Christ
for each one of us
please preserve us
Lord
in holiness
for your sake
we ask
amen