Crystal Sparks' Podcast

186. [Philippians Study] Are You Giving People Your Head or Your Heart?

• Crystal Sparks

Share episode

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!

Follow me on Instagram
Follow me on Facebook
Follow me on TikTok

Speaker 1:

Welcome to another part of my Philippian study that I have been doing with our staff at Staff Chapel. If you haven't listened to the other parts, you might want to go back deeper into my podcast, check out those episodes and catch yourself up to join where we're at today. Check out those episodes and catch yourself up to join where we're at today. Okay, so we started out in Philippians last week and we talked about how we're going to be on a journey through the book of Philippians and I think we made it to verse 6, and so we made a long way. And so just a quick recap the books of the Bible are broken up from God's law, god's people, god's wisdom, god's prophets, which is God calling back his people, and God's son, god's church and God coming back, and so with that we kind of went through one, through six, and today we're going to pick it up on verse seven, verse seven, and it says everybody's turn there. And it says, just as it is right for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart and as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel you all are partakers with me of grace. I love this in verse 7. He's not holding anger in his heart, he's not holding resentment in his heart, he's not holding bitterness in his heart. He's consciously made the choice to hold others in his heart. And as leaders, I think this is the most difficult thing when we're going through difficult times. Remember, is Paul riding this on a beautiful island? No, where is he? He's in prison, right, he's in chains. And he's saying I'm not, I'm not resenting the season I'm in, I'm not like, I'm not gonna waste this season, I'm not gonna waste this space, I'm not gonna wish it away. But he said he's made the conscious choice of I'm gonna hold you in my heart. And so I want to say this and and I know we say this often but your heart's, your responsibility and your team, are you holding them in your heart? Like, have you let them into your heart? I think a lot of times we're so busy leading externally that we never really let people in. And Paul, I'll just say, if we're going to lead people biblically, we have to let them in. And Paul says I've held you in my heart. He made a conscious decision to hold others, people close. As leaders, it's really easy to make people feel like they know you and they never actually see you. And we got to give space and places where we allow people to come into our heart and we want that deep connection.

Speaker 1:

Paul had this deep connection with the church at Philippi, again going back to when he left them the last time. It's gripping in the book of Acts. They held each other and they wept aloud and what it is is. It's echoing the same way. Jonathan and David grabbed each other and they wept aloud and what it is is. It's echoing the same way. Jonathan and David grabbed each other and they wept aloud whenever they left each other the last time. And it's that kind of love and you don't have that kind of love if you've never let them in your heart. And so I'll just say, if team leaves and it never impacts your heart, you never let them in.

Speaker 1:

And something that TD Jake said years ago and it's always kind of stuck with me and I know it's probably controversial to even bring him up now, but can we just 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 okay with that, then we need to take Solomon out of our Bible, david out of our Bible, cause they still had good contributions, right and so. But he said he goes. If you ever leave a service and you 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 too much, I think I've divulged too much, he said that's when you've given them your heart. He said if you leave like a coffee or you leave something and you don't feel that way, you gave them your head. And I think we have a lot of leaders that give their head and we want them to give us their heart.

Speaker 1:

And Paul says I've held you in my heart and so I love this. Just something for you to remember is justice is I get what I deserve, grace is I get what I don't deserve. And mercy is I get more than I deserve. And I love how Paul is writing here and he talks about the mercy of God, the goodness of God. So it says in the next verse it says for God is my witness, how greatly I long for you, with all the affection of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1:

And the original Greek, how it's literally read, is for God. It says how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ? I don't know. I mean, I'm glad they didn't put that in there because it's kind of weird. But like the bowels, like the intestines of Jesus Christ, does that feel weird to anybody else? Has anybody been like? Have you ever seen a Valentine's card? I love you from my bowels? No, that's not on the hallmark. Anybody want to write a Valentine'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. There is Strong's number 4968. And it's spilagnon in the Greek and it's literally where we get the word spleen.

Speaker 1:

And so, and now scientists have told us that our gut is literally our second brain for our body. So we have our brain, but then we have our gut and it's actually like the second brain from 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 the heart is the center of our feeling, our brain is the center of our thinking and gut is the center of instinct. So think about this like the. I think we've got a slide for that. Heart is the center of our feeling and this is literally what doctors are saying at this point. The brain is the center of our thinking, but the gut is the center of our instinct.

Speaker 1:

And he's saying I've gotten so united with who christ is that loving you is instinctual to me, like I don't have to put a checklist item of to text you or to love you or to affirm you or pray for you. It's like it's instinctual to me, it's like it's coming out of my bowels, it's just part of who I am. And Luke 1 78, it says because of the tender mercies of God that tender mercies is the same thing. It's from the gut of God, like from the tender mercies from the gut of God, like it's becoming instinct to us. And I would encourage you the more I become like Christ, the more it is my instinct to love other people, the more it's just the overflow. I don't have to like like hype myself up Okay, I've got to talk to three new people this Sunday and like if people are still a checklist for you, you're not yet made into Christ's image. Because when you get made into Christ'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 thinking it, it's out of my gut. I can't help it Like I've got something on the inside of me that draws me to them. He's like I love you, that's where I'm loving you from is from this core of who I am. It's this deep overflow.

Speaker 1:

And so the ideas support Paul's these ideas. There's three ideas, rather, that support what Paul's trying to say here. He's saying I always pray with joy verse 1-4. He says I'm confident of this in 1-6. And he says it's right for me to feel this way in verse 7. So the structure of this section of Paul's prayer is this it's a joyful prayer, it's a confident prayer and it's a proper prayer. I think we have a slide for that. It's a joyful prayer, it's a confident prayer and it's proper prayer. So I love this because the more we're made like Christ, the more my prayer time becomes joyful. It's not, it's not obligation, it's not a checklist.

Speaker 1:

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 a situation. I'm like, oh dang, I forgot to pray. No, it's like my first instinct. Does that make sense, and that's why, the more time I spend in the word, the more time I spend in worship, the more time I spent connected to God's people, the more I'm beginning to be changed into who he is. And then there's this confidence in prayer that begins to come forth, and then it's proper, it's like it's, it's my, it's my right service to bring back to God. Does this make sense? So, um, verse nine, verse nine he says and this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, more and more. Okay, so notice that, uh, that whenever there's repetition, repetition reveals authorial intent. So keep in mind, kind of like what we talked about last week, the way we do stories in Western civilization is we start out in the beginning and we work all the way to an end conclusion.

Speaker 1:

Hebrew narrative works like this. It goes in a spiral and it's all around the same ideal and it's building upon it again and again, and again. So now he's talking about prayer again, because he mentioned it first in verse four. But what's interesting is he says here he says this I pray that your love may abound still more and more. So there's two words for love. I'm sorry, hold on. Let me go to prayer first.

Speaker 1:

So in verse four it talks about a prayer, but it talks about a like fast prayer. It's like a quick prayer. So he says I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine and making requests for you all with joy. That word for prayer. If you really want to go on a fun Bible study this is a fun Bible study and I could do a whole thing just off of this Go to Blue Letter Bible and look at that word that's used for prayer there in verse four. And every time it's said it's a fast prayer. It's the kind of prayer that Jesus prayed at Lazarus' tomb. That's the same prayer that he prayed. It's like a fast prayer. It's like almost like as quick as your breath. It's just quick. It's not an intentional long amount of time of prayer. But he says here in this verse 9, it says and this I pray, this word in the Strongs is Strongs number 4336. And this I think we have a slide for this it's in Matthew 544.

Speaker 1:

When Jesus says to pray for our enemies, it's a different kind of prayer. And in Matthew 544, he says to pray for your enemies. This word for prayer is a deep, intentional time of prayer where the other is like, like fast, like a breath, and I think sometimes we think about praying for our enemies fast, like a breath, like Lord, bless them, 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 same word for prayer is used and it's when Jesus is in the garden and he's sweating drops of blood. It's a deep, intentional time of prayer. It's like a consecrated time. It's a focus time. It's a time where I go in and I'm not here just for a moment, but I'm here in deep, my mind is focused, like I'm going after God with everything I have.

Speaker 1:

And I'll say that we need both. Right, because Paul begins it and he says I have a quick, intentional time of prayer for you. I have a quick, like breath time of prayer for you, but I also have a deep, intercession time of prayer for you. I'll say is your life full of both? Like, do you have time where it's like you're just going through your day and you're like thank 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 the other end, you have times where it's a deep focus, time of prayer, where you're going into the throne room of grace that you're seeking the hand and the face of God and Paul is letting them know here for both.

Speaker 1:

But I think it's interesting he says this I pray that your love may abound still more and more the word love. I know that we know this, but I thought it was interesting because I was doing a deep dive on this and I thought it interesting that love is. There's two different meanings for love. There's the phylos love and there's agape love, phylos love and agape love, love, phylos love and agape love. And phylos is different than agape. Phylos does not contain any element of mutuality. That's found in it, meaning I don't do anything with hope of anything in return. And agape love goes both ways, right, like there's agape love that goes both ways. But phylos goes I give, without any worry about anything being returned. And the word he uses here is a phylos love.

Speaker 1:

So Paul's, paul's emphasizing um, a, a self-sacrificial, like a laying down of the full self kind of love. And he's, like you've known love where it's give to get. But I want you to begin to know a love where it's. I give and I don't care if I get. And he says and I want you to grow more and more. And you think about this church, the church at Philippi, that here they are, they're the ones that send Epaphroditus not just down to Buc-ee's to turn around to get to the church. How many miles did Epaphroditus come with the letter? 800. Okay, so he went a long distance.

Speaker 1:

I would say that this church knows love pretty well. Right, they took up an offering that Paul didn't ask for. They're very giving, they're very benevolent, like they're, they're like a sacrificial. But Paul says you still have room to grow. And I'll say this you never arrive in your Christian walk and I think sometimes, if we're not careful, we just start saying putting it on coast and going. Man, I'm really good in this area.

Speaker 1:

But Paul says I want you to grow more and more. And he says I want you to grow in knowledge and in discernment. And I wish I would have done the slide for this, but it'll just bless you anyways. But knowledge is the word here, is to know the correct theological truth, and the greek word is epic gnosis. And oh great, emily's doing it right now. She's just that good.

Speaker 1:

And wisdom is. I know how to apply what I've learned. So how many of you guys we need more wisdom? Right, like we need to know how to apply what we've learned. Acting in wisdom is knowledge applied. So it's like I say this often but 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 apply what you're listening to and what you're reading.

Speaker 1:

And a lot of times we're just not good at that and so, and then discernment is being able to see the truth from a lie. And so he's talking to them and he says I want you to that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all discernment. So he's saying I want you to know the correct theological truth, the epikinosis. Your doctrine matters, what you believe matters. Here's the thing is that can you defend your faith if somebody says what's the difference between Christianity and being a Mormon? And if you can quote the Apostles' Creed, it's just drop mic and then you can defend your faith around every single one of those lines and your doctrine matters.

Speaker 1:

And the problem with the Christian church is we didn't emphasize on doctrine and we emphasized on entertainment and nobody knows how to defend their faith. And he's like guys, you need a knowledge, like you need to have a correct theological, like compass, that you know what you believe and why you believe what you believe. And so this word with knowledge is talking about theological truth, and so I think it's good for us to like wield our sword. And so what? The Apostles' Creed? They don't know when the Apostles' Creed was written because it was just in circulation for so long that the early patristic fathers have it in their writing. So they don't know when it started, but it started because they needed people to be able to defend their faith, because there was all these heresies coming into the church.

Speaker 1:

Do you think we're still there today? Yes, and so I would say that we need it more than ever, and so you're able to defend your faith, and so you're able to defend your faith. And so wisdom, we're applying what we have, but discernment, being able to see the truth from a lie. And if you don't know the truth, come on, you'll fall for a lie every time, and that was happening in this church. And so if we exalt discernment without knowledge, then I will validate what is not of God. If I valid. Come on if I exalt discernment without knowledge. Oh, we need to teach our people discernment. You don't teach them discernment without teaching them the truth.

Speaker 1:

And and it's just like I remember there was a message that pastor Brian preached and he talked about a hundred dollar bill and about how the lady held it up to the light to see if it was the marker that had the mark on it. And then she took the pen and did the mark on it and he goes isn't it interesting? She had the tools that she needed to know if it was real or not. And a lot of us don't have the tools we need to know truth from a lie. And we're asking God to grow us in discernment, but we haven't even equipped ourselves. And so Paul's letting them know hey, guys like you, got to grow more and more in knowledge and in discernment. And verse 10, it says that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ. And so he's letting them know that the more that they grow in the theology, the more I will begin to be able to discern what is accurate and scripture standard of living.

Speaker 1:

And Christostom, he was in the early church. He was an early church father in the third and fourth century. If you're looking for a name for your kid, christostom, it's a great one. He prayed this he said that they will not receive any corrupted doctrine under the pretense of love. Can we just let this sit for a second? That his prayer was that the church would not receive any corrupt doctrine under the pretense of love. What are we seeing most prevalent right now in society? You're not fighting new battles. We think we've got special unicorn complex, as though we're the only generation that's fought this. No, third and fourth generation. They were of Christianity, like the New Testament church. They were fighting the same thing.

Speaker 1:

And he's like listen, guys, don't buy into anything just because it's under the pretense of 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 without change is not love. Like, it's just not love, if I know, like Brian yesterday, braylee, he walked out and saw that her tire was flat, and so he aired up her tire and but then 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 it fixed. What our culture would call love is we aired up the tire, but we never told them the problem Love is. I'm helping you by telling you that there's something wrong and we've got to have the tension of both.

Speaker 1:

And Christostom says we got to be careful about this, that we don't accept false doctrines under the pretense of love. So there are doctrines that are central to who we are, most of which laid out for us in the creeds, but, like I said, most of the church doesn't even know essential doctrines. They don't even know what makes them different. And I'll say, as leaders of one church, you need to know this. Like as you're stewarding somebody that's having existential crisis in their faith and they're like, what makes us different than Jehovah's Witness, what makes us different than Latter-day Saints? What makes us different than the Catholic church? Like what makes us different. You've got to have something on the inside of you that you cannot just say, well, we love Jesus and one church is really great. We have at the movies that's not going to get it done. Like, you got to have some doctrine on the inside of you and you've got to be able to defend your faith.

Speaker 1:

Charles Spurgeon says this the church does not determine what the Bible teaches. The Bible determines what the church must teach. Fire, fire, holy Ghost, fire. So there's no part of this book that 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 be rude, we're never in your face. But when I come toe to toe with somebody, I'm standing with the word every time and I'm going to stand with what the Bible says. And there should be no part of this 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, all right. So he says that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere without offense till the day of Christ Again, that's speaking back to Philippians 1.6, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

Speaker 1:

It's echoing back to that verse, and we know that Philippians 1.6 now isn't about you starting your business or you writing your book or like running your half marathon. What is Philippians 1.6 about? Salvation, but even more so sanctification? It's about your consecration right. It's about living a life that's set apart, or sanctification, becoming more like Christ. And so we live in an overflow of the virtues of Christ.

Speaker 1:

Most Christians spend their entire lives trying to be better people. He says this in verse 11,. He says being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. So he's saying, guys, I don't need to teach you virtues, you need to become connected to the virtuous one and you begin to display virtues. We don't need to teach character, we need to get connected to Christ, and character flows out of us. Does this make sense? And this because of our secular society. We stopped connecting people to Christ and so instead we started trying to teach morality, and it doesn't work.

Speaker 1:

Guys Like, get people connected to Christ man, get them to fall in love with his word, get them in a place where the spirit of God is moving, and in a moment he'll begin to touch things in their heart and their life. So my main role as a Christian is stay connected to Christ, and his job is to produce fruit through me. A tree isn't sitting in an orchard comparing what fruit other trees have, wondering how they can produce more fruit. They just stay connected to the tree, they're just stay planted in the ground. Fruit is an overflow. Your lack of fruit in your life, fruit of the Spirit. Isn't that you need to read a book on self-control? Isn't that you need to read a book on love? You need to get connected to the vine, and the more you're connected to the vine, the more that 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 really interesting.

Speaker 1:

Philippians 1, 9 through 11 and Colossians 1, 9 through 11. They're like nearly exactly the same. But you just see how Paul like this was a continual emphasis for him Prayer, abound in knowledge, growing in knowledge, and all discernment and wisdom and understanding being filled that you may be filled Fruit of righteousness. He calls bearing fruit glory and praise a power of his glory, a good work, and he says every good work. So you see that Paul's like messaging is consistent. Even though it's different churches, it's still the same. And so I'll say for us, like our message, we may be thousands of years removed from when Paul wrote it, but our message is still the same, it's still requests. And so, even for us.

Speaker 1:

I think the church and we were talking about this after Javen spoke the church has lost what it is to do discipleship we became. We know how to grow teams, we know how to grow movements, we know how to get people to come to our community group, but we don't know how to disciple somebody. And Paul was really clear in how to disciple somebody, and he was. You connect them to Christ, you live a life of prayer, you let them in your heart, you do life with each other and like we want to, we want to create disciples. Without those things, I don't want to do life with you. I'll see you at church. Don't come to my house. Don't want to have dinner with you, church, don't come to my house. Don't want to have dinner with you, all right.

Speaker 1:

So don't try in all of this, this fruit, he says, being filled with all the fruits of righteousness. So I don't have to try to be in peace, I don't have to try to walk in love, I don't have to try to grow in self-control. I just spend time with Jesus. And out of my time with Jesus I produce peace, I produce love, I produce self-control. It's just an overflow of who I am, and so when I'm seeing fruit is lacking, when I see bitterness Creeping in, I could get focused on what ava said to me. I'm picking on you, ava. Or I can say actually the bitterness I have towards ava shows I'm not connected to the vine, because if I was connected to christ, love would just flow out of me. This bitterness wouldn't be able to stick. Is this good? Chris Austin again says he is not speaking here of a kind of uprightness or virtue that tries despairingly to grow without Christ, so he's talking about an uprightness that is dependent upon Christ's very nature. We're going to finish right here, I'm almost done.

Speaker 1:

So 6 and 10, both of these are eschatological verses, and eschatological verses basically means talking about end times, or like our final moments, like when we go into glory with Christ. And your eschatology impacts how you live every day. So what I believe about eternity and how I'm going to show up there impacts my everyday living, and we see Paul here. He's shaping it here in verse 6. He refers to the process of sanctification won't be complete until Jesus comes again. Process of sanctification won't be complete until Jesus comes again.

Speaker 1:

And then in verse 10, it says that you may be approved of things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, and so living our lives in such a way where we have an overflow of righteous living, and so both of these are tied in together. So if salvation to you means that I can live my life however I want, then you have a wrong eschatology. And when your eschatology gets right, that man now I live this life of sanctification that he who began a good work in me, he's going to be faithful to complete it to the day of Jesus Christ I'm going to become more and more like him. I'm not going to reach perfection on this side of eternity, but I'm going to become more and more like him. I'm not going to reach perfection on this side of eternity, but I am going to produce righteous works because of the connection I have to Christ, and so that completes this middle part, and so next time we get together, we'll pick it up in verse 12. So I love you guys.

Speaker 1:

Thanks so much for hanging out here on my podcast. Do me a favor and hit the subscribe button if you haven't done so already, so you never miss out on anything here on my podcast Also one of the best ways for us to begin to reach other people is by you sharing. So if you do me a favor and share this podcast with a friend, family member or maybe on your social media. Help us get the word out so we can help others.