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“Love
May Overflow”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Philippians 1:3-11
“And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with
knowledge and full insight…”
We are being given a vision that our church may have.
God calls us to ministry involved in the gospel of Jesus Christ. God calls for people who prepare the way for the spreading of
God’s ministry, and then God brings together congregations who
experience a unique kind of love in their lives that flows out of an
awareness and perception of what God is doing among them.
Advent is about the coming of Christ into our lives, and we are told in
Philippians “…that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion
by the day of Jesus Christ.”
Christ has already come into our lives, and his desires for us in
our lives will be accomplished by Him.
Our main coming together is in our worship.
Yet, even this does not start with us.
Worship starts with the person of Jesus Christ.
Worship is a gift to us from God.
It is not about us performing something for God; and God being
the audience. Worship
starts with Christ, standing in our place, and worshiping God perfectly
in a new resurrected human heart. And
the gift to us is that we are being given a share, a participation in
what Christ is experiencing by the Holy Spirit.
God the Father is the author of worship.
Christ is the one who initiates and performs the worship and the
Holy Spirit brings this to us, right here, the Spirit of what is going
on in God’s communion, in God’s life, in God’s love.
And as we begin to see this, feel this, believe this, and understand
this in our own hearts and minds, then we begin to realize the greatest
gift God has given us: “You shall love the Lord God
with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your might.”
That is what we have been given.
We begin to understand that what is desired of us from God is
provided for us by God in Jesus Christ and given to us within ourselves
by the Holy Spirit.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is astonishing. God comes to us in this
person. God does for us
what we cannot do for ourselves, and then God, the Holy Spirit in our
lives, lifts us up into where we experience this; experience what God is
doing for us in Jesus Christ. And
then we begin to have our whole lives changed because of what God has
already done for us in Jesus Christ, and what God is giving to us in our
lives here and now.And when we have these kinds of experiences in our
lives, it is such a blessing that we want to share it with other people.
That is the ministry of the church, to share with others the love
God is giving to us. There
are some of you sitting here right now who want this church to grow
because it is right here that you have experienced God’s love.
You know God loves you here and you want others to be blessed as
you have been blessed. You
would love to give that Christmas gift to someone.
It is interesting to me, that in our Bible reading this morning, we have
scriptures telling us of the ministry of John the Baptist, who was the
prophet of God called to initiate the ministry of Christ in this world.
God always starts a ministry.
The very church that we are a part of today was started in July 1854,
one hundred fifty-two and a half years ago, by the Rev. Richard Overton
Watkins, who was the first protestant minister to be licensed and
ordained in the Republic of Texas. The first ordained protestant minister in Texas was a part of
the beginning of the very church we are in today.
This church was started by God.
“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you
will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
It is also interesting to me that one of our readings this morning is
written by the last of Christ’s apostles, the Apostle Paul.
He is in prison. Many
years earlier he shared in the starting of the church in Philippi.
They have reached out to him in his confinement situation, and he
shares with them how much he prays for them, how thankful he is when he
remembers them, and how this brings joy to his heart.
He shares a prayer he has for them: “And
this is my prayer, that you love may overflow more and more with
knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best,…”
It may very well be, that the gift God has for us in this Advent season
is a vision of who we are as a church, and the very prayer that God has
for us, and to wait and look forward to what God is going to accomplish
for us and with us.
This church was started by God. The
passion of the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being given to
us. And this very prayer is
the prayer God has for us; that our love may overflow more and more with
knowledge and insight.
Our love is the love of God, the love known and experienced by God the
Father and Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
That is what is being given to us.
And for this love to overflow, means for it to flow out of the
doors of this congregation from these times of worship into the lives of
others. This may very well
be God’s vision for us.
And God’s vision for us is for this to happen based on knowledge and
insight. We are to recognize the love of God in our lives, and as we
see it, we desire to share it with others.
We are to learn to feel it and experience it and know it when it
happens; and God’s prayer for us is that God’s love will overflow
out of these times here in worship into other times in our lives with
other people.
A vision for our church: Started by God and experiencing the gospel of
Christ in new ways, and love out of this worship overflowing out of
these doors.
Let us pray…
Amen
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