neurocareusa.com

Abounding Love

I. Introduction – Love that abounds more and more has two qualities inherent in it, that is growing within it – "knowledge and discernment."

Phil. 1:9-11 – And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Messiah, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Yeshua the Messiah, to the glory and praise of God. (NKJ)

A. Definition of Abounding– Abound means "to be plentiful, rich, well-supplied, or filled." From the Latin abundare < ab-off + undare – rise in waves, unda – a wave. A wave rises and falls. A crest is the top of a wave.

B. Definition of Tide – Tide is the rise and fall of the ocean every 12 hours caused by the attraction of the moon and the sun.

1. "Tide of opinion" – anything that rises and falls life the tide; "Turn the tide" – change from one condition to its opposite; "Tide over" – help for a time, carry a person as the tide does.

2. Word Derivation – Tide < Old English tid, originally meaning "time."

3. There is a definite quality of rhythm to time – the rise and fall of the tide.

4. Systole and Diastole – Jung calls this changing mode of external and psychic facts the systole and diastole of life, likening it to the beat and thus action of the heart. Systole is the outflow of blood to the body and diastole is the inflow of blood from the body to the heart.

II. Love and Tide

A. Love must rise, like a wave does to its crest, by maturing with knowledge and discernment. Though love is a positive feeling-tone that is pleasant, friendly, and warm, if it remains only a feeling-tone that it is infantile, or what is more likely, it dries up.

B. Paul alludes to this non-stagnant quality of true love when he uses the phrase, "abounding still more and more." Love needs to be like a wave that grows taller and taller, or perhaps that one, through knowledge understands its rhythm and influence by nature.

C. That which moves a person (affect, or the feeling portion of love) will ebb and flow (peak/crest and trough). While at the same time this gradient caused by the cycle brings with it the potential for work (energy transformation).

III. Love and Maturation

Phil. 1:10 – that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Messiah, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Yeshua the Messiah, to the glory and praise of God. (NKJ)

A. This maturation of love has a point to it:

1. Approval of "things that are excellent."
2. Sincerity
3. Not giving offense to another

B. In addition, the abounding love will:

1. Fill one with "fruits" – the works of righteousness.

The Turning of a River

Prov. 21:1 "The king's heart" is turned as God wills it; just as God creates rivers in a particular shape with turns and twists.

I. On Creating Rivers

A. The creation of rivers, their course through land, doesn't change rapidly, if at all. One gets the sense that the course of river has been relatively fixed since their creation. So, in the macro-sense, across a lifetime, God's control of a person's life (here it is a king) is a combination of destiny (that king was destined to rule from the "womb") and divine sovereignty to change the king's life.

B. The passage establishes a psychic fact – God is in control of that king, just as He is in control of the river's course.

II. Divine Sovereignty to Change the River's Course

A. In Dan. 2:21, Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar that God removes and sets up kings. This is a clear statement that God is active in the affairs of man.

B. In the idea of creation, some may think that God creates and then sits passively to watch what man will do with His creation. To a certain extent this is true, because of the principle of free-will.

C. On the other hand, this passage shows God as active, not passive. Our conclusion must be that God is both passive and active toward His creation.

III. Time – the unifying connector of these two psychic facts

A. Time is linked to God's sovereignty. The idea in both of these is that God is in control at all times.

B. However, the specific example of the river's course expresses the idea of God being in control across a longer period of time than the moment, such as His sovereignty over a generation or era.

C. This is much along the lines of the "spirit of an age" – the German zeitgeist – which seems to be a very real spiritual concept and psychic fact.

Eph 2:1-2 – And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience ...(NKJ)

D. NT Scriptures on Time

1 Corin. 15:7-8 – After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.(NKJ)

Jn. 7:8 – You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come. (NKJ)

Lk. 19:44 – and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation. (NKJ)

Lk. 16:16-17 – The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. (NKJ)

Lk. 12:56 – Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time? (NKJ)

Lk. 4:5-6 – Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. (NKJ)

IV. Teaching that is against the Lord

Prov. 21:30 – There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord.

A. When a philosophy, religion, or psychology is against the Lord, it must be judged as such.

B. Therefore, it is unable to impart true wisdom, understanding, and counsel. While parts of it may appear to be or actually be a piece of wisdom, et al., it cannot possess the lasting ability to impart, because, as a whole, it is against the Lord.

C. Certain things may help for a season – a moment of time – but without the Lord inhabiting that wisdom, it cannot last.