©1999 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
|
8/1/99
|
All Your Needs Pt. 2
|
Philippians 4:19
|
8/1/99 All Your Needs Pt. 2
Phil. 4:10 ¶ But I rejoiced in the Lord
greatly, that now at last you have revived
your concern for me; indeed, you were
concerned before, but you lacked
opportunity.
Phil. 4:11 Not that I speak from want; for I
have learned to be content in whatever
circumstances I am.
Phil. 4:12 I know how to get along with
humble means, and I also know how to live
in prosperity; in any and every
circumstance I have learned the secret of
being filled and going hungry, both of
having abundance and suffering need.
Phil. 4:13 I can do all things through Him
who strengthens me.
Phil. 4:14 Nevertheless, you have done
well to share with me in my affliction.
Phil. 4:15 And you yourselves also know,
Philippians, that at the first preaching of
the gospel, after I departed from
Macedonia, no church shared with me in the
matter of giving and receiving but you
alone;
Phil. 4:16 for even in Thessalonica you
sent a gift more than once for my needs.
Phil. 4:17 Not that I seek the gift itself, but
I seek for the profit which increases to your
account.
Phil. 4:18 But I have received everything in
full, and have an abundance; I am amply
supplied, having received from
Epaphroditus what you have sent, a
fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice,
well-pleasing to God.
Phil. 4:19 And my God shall supply all
your needs according to His riches in glory
in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 4:20 Now to our God and Father be
the glory forever and ever. Amen.
We come this morning
to a statement made by Paul
near the very end of his letter to the
Philippians.
It is a statement we have been approaching for
several weeks,
a statement we came right up to last week.
I mentioned last week
that it is one of those statements in Scripture
we tend to accept
and even frequently quote
without really believing it.
This morning I want us to spend our time
trying to understand why that is.
The statement is the one Paul makes
in Phil. 4:19 And my God shall supply
all your needs according to His riches in
glory in Christ Jesus.
We have looked closely at the context of this
statement during the past three weeks.
We have seen that Paul makes the statement
as part of his expression of gratitude
to his friends at Philippians
for their role in meeting his needs.
It would have been much easier for us to relate to
this verse
if Paul would have added
just two additional words to the statement.
If Paul would have said,
And I hope my God shall supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus...
or possibly,
And I pray my God shall supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus...
then we would have been on solid,
comfortable,
familiar ground.
If Paul would have worded this statement
in such a way as to make us think
he was simply saying,
"God has taken such wonderful care of me through
you,
and I do hope and pray He does the same for
you through someone else..."
we would have been fine with this
whole thing.
But that's not what's going on here.
Paul was not offering the Philippians
a hope
or a prayer,
he was offering them
a simple,
clear statement of fact,
a remarkable piece of truth
about God's commitment to the Christian.
Given what Paul was saying earlier in this passage
we shouldn't be too surprised
to find him making this statement here.
Just a few verses earlier
we saw Paul boldly affirming
that he could do all things in Christ,
and that even if they had not sent their gift
God would have found other means
through which to meet Paul's needs.
But it's funny how it is, isn't it?
Knowing God is carefully providing all of the
Apostle Paul's needs
seems right,
reasonable,
to be expected.
After all,
he was the APOSTLE PAUL!
He was important,
significant,
crucial to the whole Christian program.
I mean really! God used Paul to write part of the
Bible.
Of course He would be committed
to meeting Paul's needs.
But when Paul turns it around
and gives every Christian the same promise,
the same commitment from God,
we begin to run into trouble.
We would even do better with this statement
if Paul would have presented it
as being God's response
to their kindness to Paul.
If Paul would have said,
"And because you have met my needs so
abundantly, my God shall supply all your
needs according to His riches in glory in
Christ Jesus.
Even that we could handle.
"You were good to me,
so my God will now be good to you."
In fact, that is exactly what most of us expect
in this whole God-man relationship in the first
place.
The thought of a God
who would love us
and care for us
and treasure us
and give to us
even when there was absolutely nothing
in our lives to merit or justify it
simply does not make sense to us.
"Nothing comes from nothing.
Nothing ever could,
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good."
THAT we understand.
But a God who seeks us out
in the midst of our rebellion against Him
and draws us to Himself,
and then pours His kindness out upon
us,
even as we continue to muck around
in our confusion
and mistrust of Him...
that doesn't make any sense to us at all.
Now let's plunge into this statement
and see where it takes us.
And our first step is to allow ourselves
to be honest about what the verse says.
The statement is not complicated.
And that, of course, is the very thing
that causes us the most difficulty.
It is a simple,
clear,
straight-forward statement:
Phil. 4:19 And my God shall supply all
your needs according to His riches in
glory in Christ Jesus.
God Himself is taking upon Himself
the commitment
to meet ALL our needs.
And then, as if that isn't enough,
He strengthens this even more
by giving us a glimpse
of the reserve account
backing up that pledge.
He says that He will fulfill that commitment
on the basis of "His riches in glory in Christ
Jesus."
And even without doing
an extensive study
on all that is involved in "His riches in glory
in Christ Jesus",
it doesn't sound like He is going to have
any problem
being short on resources.
And it is right here, of course,
that we begin to run into problems.
Because the truth is
if we step out of our "Church mode"
and respond with what we honestly feel,
at any given time
many of us don't feel at all like
all of our needs are being met.
Of course we can do some creative things
with that word "needs",
suggesting that it really means
just the basic essentials for life -
food,
water,
oxygen,
shelter...
and since we are all alive,
our basic needs are then being provided,
and the statement must be true.
But somehow that approach
just doesn't seem to blend well
with the stuff in the last part of that verse
where Paul is talking about,
"... His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
Somehow that word "riches"
suggests something a little beyond
bread,
water,
and air.
So what do we do with this?
Well I think the next thing we do
is to begin looking
at a few of the reasons why
we have such a difficult time
accepting this verse
as being literally true.
You see, here we are once again
with this major collision between
what we believe we are experiencing
and what we hear God saying.
Both cannot be true.
And so our understanding of
one or the other must be wrong.
And I'd like to start
by mentioning some of the powerful forces
that cloud our understanding
of what we really need
for a truly fulfilled life.
And I'll mention just five of these forces
that came to mind to me immediately.
#1. First of all,
when we come to Christ
we bring with us a need framework
based upon our flesh-trained
mental and emotional operating
system.
And what does that mean?
OK, remember where we start this life
prior to our submission to Christ.
We start without the involvement
of a God who loves us,
without any resource for meeting our needs
beyond ourselves
and our own skills and abilities
in manipulating our surroundings
in ways that work to our
advantage.
We are the center of our own lives,
with an inner spirit-rebellion against
the only One who fully understands
what our needs are
and how those needs can be met.
Then, added to that,
we are handed by our society
a deeply flawed blueprint
of what brings true happiness
and fulfillment in life.
We've been here before
and I don't have time to dwell on it today,
but I'll just remind you of where we've been
with a little test.
Q. What does our society tell us will bring happiness
and fulfillment in life?
How about money, and good looks, for starters?
Now, I want you to think of the wealthiest person
you know personally.
Q. Are they the happiest person you know?
Are they happy at all?
Q. Now think of the best looking person you know.
Are they one of the happiest people you know?
You see, even in the face of constant proofs to the
contrary
the needs framework for happiness
pushed by our society will not change.
And my only point here is this:
Unless we invest tremendous growth energy into
rebuilding our mental needs framework,
we will automatically attempt
to superimpose that same flesh-based deeply
flawed needs system
onto our walk with Christ.
You see,
the simple truth is
that we cannot even begin to understand what
Paul means
when he says And my God shall
supply all your needs according to His
riches in glory in Christ Jesus...
until we first understand
what we truly need for a fulfilled life.
EX.
About two weeks ago
my dog found what he believed
was the key to doggie happiness.
He found a bag of garbage.
I was not there to warn him,
so he chewed open the bag
and then proceeded to gorge himself
on old banana peels,
and corn cobs,
and other bits and chunks of
undigestible filth and trash.
Then, for the next 12 hours,
he lived in hideous misery
as his little body found ways
of violently ridding himself
of all the indigestible crud inside
him,
while we followed along behind him
cleaning up his messes.
He did something that night
I have never seen him do
in his entire life.
Our dog knows that every night
when we finish dinner
he gets a little treat of "people food".
He literally lives for that one moment of the day.
Most nights he waits next to the table,
and as soon as I lay my fork down
he starts barking
and wagging
and running back and forth to his
dish.
That night, however,
when I finished dinner,
I looked out into the entry way
and saw Pepper laying motionless in the
entry way,
obviously in absolute misery.
He never wiggled,
never barked,
and by all appearances never wanted to eat
again.
If I would have been there
when Pepper found that bag of garbage
and if I would have pulled him away from
it,
he would have fought me as hard as he could.
He would have believed
that I was depriving him
of what he needed most in the world at that
moment
in order to be happy.
He would probably have even been angry with me,
and done his little growly thing,
telling me I had no business
and no right depriving him of happiness.
That is where we are
in our own relationship
to our understanding of our needs
when we come to Christ.
We have invested tremendous effort
and energy into developing
our own fleshly techniques
for meeting what we believe to be our
needs.
The fact that we are still not happy
or at peace with ourselves
doesn't phase us in the least.
We just tell ourselves
we haven't achieved enough
of whatever it is we are pursuing
in our efforts to meet our needs.
And the problem, of course, is two-fold:
First of all,
we have a twisted and distorted concept
of what our needs really are.
And second,
we have a twisted and distorted concept
of how those needs can be met.
And the combination of the two
cause havoc in our understanding
of what God is doing in our lives
and why.
When we come to Christ
we are not at all unlike my dog
standing over his bag of garbage
growling at anyone,
even at our Creator,
who attempts to take it away from
us.
In fact,
the very fact that at certain points
He DOES seek to pull
some of the garbage out of our mouths
contributes to our distrust of Him.
Obviously He doesn't understand,
or He doesn't care.
I NEED that relationship.
Without it I will die.
I NEED that position,
that job,
that title,
that income.
It is the key to my future,
my security,
my success.
I NEED that possession.
I KNOW it will make me happy,
satisfied,
fulfilled.
And how in the world
can I trust a God
who seems determined to thwart me
in my pursuit of the things
I know I must have for happiness?
So, the first, and for today the only barrier
to understanding this verse
we'll have time to look at
is that when we come to Christ
we bring with us a need framework
based upon our flesh-trained
mental and emotional operating
system,
a needs framework that,
even if we were to achieve it,
would be powerless to provide us
with the kind of abundant life our
spirit longs for.
We'll pick this up right here next week
and look at four other hindrances
to understanding this verse,
and then go on to see
what our Lord is really saying
when Paul says,
Phil. 4:19 And my God shall supply all
your needs according to His riches in
glory in Christ Jesus.