Paul’s Prayer for the Church:
“That We Would Abound in Love and the Fruits of Righteousness”
Philippians 1:1-11
November 23, 2025
Philippians 1:1-11
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy
in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel
from the first day until now.
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 right for me to think this way about all of you,
because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me,
both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more
with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best,
so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless,
having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Some of you may remember Rick Washington.
Rick was our chef for a few years in the fellowship hall kitchen.
Rick was a big man with a big smile and a big laugh.
Rick loved to cook and, standing in his everpresent white apron,
he thoroughly enjoyed greeting all the people, especially the kids,
at the Wednesday night dinner serving line.
In addition to working as a chef, Rick served on the side as a volunteer prison chaplain.
One particular Wednesday night, when I was a bit tired,
I shared with Rick that I was feeling depleted.
Between the constant demands of the church and keeping with four kids
in three different Decatur schools and numerous sports teams and other activities,
I was tired. Rick pulled me aside.
Rick said: “Pastor Todd, you gotta work from the overflow.
If you let your pitcher get empty, it’s really hard to fill it back up.
You gotta let that pitcher fill up to overflowing, so you can then share that love with others.”
Rick’s image stuck with me. Within six months of that conversation, back in 2009,
I found myself on a pastor’s pilgrimage to Israel.
We spent two significant weeks in the Holy Land –
one week in Galilee and one week in and around Jerusalem.
It was my first pilgrimage to Israel and it was wonderful.
Our guide, Gus, called visiting the Holy sites “the fifth gospel.”
It was truly amazing the knowledge and insight we gained about Jesus and the Church
by spending time on the ground, among the people,
worshiping and breaking bread and studying Scripture together.
On the last night of our pilgrimage,
we gathered in a small stone chapel in the Old City of Jerusalem.
There’s a Lutheran congregation right in the midst of the Old CIty
and they allowed us to use their beautiful worship space.
We were all asked to prepare something about our journey with our fellow pilgrims.
When it was my turn to come forward,
I brought a glass pitcher and set it on a small stone table in front of the group.
I began to share with the group of pastors how much they had meant to me
and how much our experience over the last few weeks had “refilled my cup”.
I confessed that over that past year, there had been a number of times
when I felt that my cup had run empty, when I felt overly tired or a bit burned out
or just depleted from the daily pouring out in ministry, bit by bit by bit,
love and spiritual resources.
So, I started pouring water into the pitcher from a large water bottle.
I poured until the pitcher was completely full, and then, as I kept speaking and looking
at my fellow group of pastors, I just kept pouring.
The water flowed over the pitcher and onto the stone table,
and down onto the stone floor, and I just kept talking.
All my fellow pilgrims leaned inward and started pointing at the overflowing pitcher,
but I just kept on pouring.
I told my fellow pastors that my intention upon returning home was to work from the overflow.
My intention would be to not rely so much on my on strength or my own energy
or my limited spiritual resources, but that I would recommit myself to turning to God daily,
hourly, if need be, in order to refill my cup, so that I could, in turn,
continue to be present for and to love my family and my congregation and my community.
With an overflowing cup, I believed I would be able, even through difficult times,
even when I was tired, even when I was feeling depleted,
to continue to share the love of Jesus Christ.
That image of the full to overflowing pitcher has been important to me,
even if never fully realized.
I am fully aware that, on my own, I am weak and shallow. My own spiritual resources are thin.
But connected to the overflowing love of Jesus Christ,
the One who is the True Vine and the Living Water,
the spiritual resources available to me are deep and wide
and more than enough to sustain me – and all of us – through every trial.
I confess those resources are tested from time to time.
They have certainly been tested lately.
Over the last month, as we were wrapping up our joyous year of bicentennial celebrations,
we endured several sudden, unexpected deaths in our congregation.
We endured the relatively unexpected deaths of two dear souls in our church
who were 88 and 95 years old. They both happened rather suddenly.
And we have grieved with the families of Renie Hallford and Hikie Allen,
and we pulled on the resources of our spiritual reservoir,
even though those good men had enjoyed long and full and productive lives.
On the afternoon prior to the bicentennial weekend,
the sudden, unexpected death of a 19 year old,
and then the sudden death of a 26 year old this past week,
have not only taken my breath away, but have drained significantly
the spiritual reservoir that had been present in my “cup”.
The grief and loss we have all experienced is real, but I realize that it is nothing, nothing,
compared to what these two families are dealing with.
I trust that God is faithful. I know that God has been good to me
and has sustained me through difficult times.
I am fully aware of how God has worked through so many of you
to encourage me and lift me up and keep me going,
and you have done that so well over this past month.
I just pray that some measure of what I have received from Christ through you
will be available and present for the families of those who are grieving this holiday season.
Paul’s prayer for that beloved house church in Philippi
was simply that the love and joy of Jesus Christ would overflow,
more and more among them, with knowledge of God and insight into God’s will,
so that they would be able to discern together what is best,
what is good and acceptable and pleasing to God.
That prayer seemed to be answered for that Philippian congregation.
Their ideal of unity in the gospel in the midst of diversity has been has been passed down
to every generation of the church. Paul’s letter to them forever holds before us the ideal
that a church can overcome any potential divisions and produce fruits of righteousness
when they live from the overflow of Christ’s love.
Their ideal of rejoicing in the Lord always, “again, I say Rejoice!”,
which Paul wrote from a prison cell, has inspired Christians across the ages to worship,
even in the midst of crisis.
Their ideal of not worrying about anything but praying about everything, with thanksgiving,
has helped generations of the faithful come to know the peace of Christ,
the peace that passes all understanding.
Unity in Christ, joy deeper than happiness, peace that passes understanding –
all were experienced in that house church in Lydia’s home in Philippi so many years ago,
and those gifts are still available to the Church today.
On the 21st of November 1978, Adelaide Owens, a former member of the church,
wrote the following devotional.
Adelaide wrote this in her mid 50’s, about ten years after she and others
had started Pastor’s Aids and had been visiting shut-ins for years.
“At this Thanksgiving season, when try as we will to enumerate God’s good gifts to us,
we find that we can barely scratch the surface.
It becomes an impossible exercise unless we are aware of and thankful for
the ‘great cloud of witnesses around us’ every day of our lives.
I count among the great blessings of my life the people of God all around me
who witness to their faith in many ways.
We are surrounded by (them), people who are ‘walking sermons.’ They are all around us.
There are those who, having suffered great loss and sometimes real tragedy,
have learned to live with their grief and risen above self-pity by loving and serving others.
There are those who have looked death in the face and come to terms with it,
thereby giving us the peace and strength to deal with it, too, in spite of our grief for them.
There are those whose days and nights are spent with pain as a companion
and yet whose bright outlook on life cheers us by their attitude of trust and faith
in the midst of crushing adversity.
There are those whose wisdom, guidance and steadying influence we lean on and treasure.
There are those who brighten our days by their very presence
and by their happy ability to make even the unfunny happenings more bearable
by seeing the funny side of things and by making us laugh – even at ourselves.
How precious the gift of a sense of humor!
There are those who live out their lives behind the scenes, so to speak,
willingly doing the hard, tedious jobs nobody else wants to do,
and who by their simple faithfulness to duty and with love for their Lord,
shine like bright lights in a dark night.
The special gift these people possess and which they show to us
is the “abundant life” that God intends for each of us to enjoy.
They reflect God’s love in their lives, regardless of the circumstances.
to such an extent that they make us eager to know and to share
in the wonderful inheritance that is ours for the taking, if only we will accept it.”
Adelaide died three years ago at the age of 99 years old.
There is no doubt that she accepted that wonderful inheritance meant for us all,
the abundant life of love and service and good humor.
This is my prayer for you, Paul wrote to the Philippians,
that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight
to help you to determine what is best.
Paul knew if that their love was overflowing, that first church on European soil
would flourish and would make Paul’s joy in Christ because of them complete, full.
May our love, the love we receive from Jesus Christ, overflow among us,
with knowledge and full insight, so that we too may determine what is best,
so that we may continue to enjoy the wonderful fruits of righteousness
that make this loving congregation such a wonderful place to be.
Dear members and friends of Decatur Presbyterian Church,
I am confident of this – that God who began a good work in this congregation
200 years ago will continue this work for generations yet to come.
Let us turn to God each new day, each new hour, if need be,
in order to receive the love, grace and mercy that we are called to share with others.
And may our hearts be open enough to allow the love of Jesus Christ
to fill our cups to overflowing,
no matter what circumstances or challenges we may be facing.
On this Thanksgiving holiday and beyond,
may the overflowing love of Jesus Christ be ours, and ours to share.
Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church, Decatur, Georgia
