©1999 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

8/8/99 All Your Needs Pt. 3 Philippians 4:19

8/8/99 All Your Needs Pt. 3

We stopped last week
      in the middle of a study
            of a fascinating statement Paul makes
                  in the last part
                        of the last chapter of Philippians.

The section we have been studying
      is Philippians 4:10-20,
            and the specific verse
                  that has been our focus for the past several weeks
                        is Philippians 4:19.

The passage as a whole
      contains Paul's expression of appreciation to the Philippians
            for the way in which they reached out to him while he was in prison in Rome
                  and sent him supplies
                        to make his prison stay easier.

He has assured the Philippians
      that their gift meant a great deal to him
            and that he now had all that he needed and more.

Then, following his expression of gratitude
      for the way in which they have helped him,
            Paul says, Phil. 4:19 And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

And as we started to wrestle with this statement last week
      we saw that Paul was offering them
            a simple statement of truth
                  about God's commitment to the Christian.

Paul wasn't just saying that he was HOPING God would meet their needs.

He wasn't saying that he was PRAYING God would meet their needs.

He wasn't even saying that
      because they met HIS needs
            God would now respond to their kindness
                  by meeting THEIR needs.

He was simply saying
      that part of what we receive
            when we receive Christ
                  is a Father-child relationship
                        with God Himself,
a relationship in which God, as our Father,
      commits Himself to meeting our needs
            as His children.

This commitment on God's part
      is not something we earn.
It is not linked to our performance
      or our obedience
            or our level of maturity.
It is linked, rather, to the nature of the relationship we now share with God
      through Christ.

Through Christ
      we have become His people,
            His sons and daughters,
                  and as such He assumes a special,
                        personal oversight in our lives.

Sometimes it's easier
      when we look at a concept like this
             from the human perspective.

As human parents
      we do not meet the needs of our children
            because their performance justifies it.

We don't feed them
      and clothe them
            and shelter them only on the days
                  when they behave
                        or perform to our expectations.

If that were true
      there would be an awful lot of cold,
            hungry,
                  homeless 3 year (or 13 year old) children in the world.

We care for them,
      and provide for their needs
            simply because they are our children.

In fact, I find it interesting that
      one of the stronger statements of condemnation found in Scripture
            is directed at fathers
                  who refuse to meet the needs of their children.

In 1 Tim. 5:8 Paul tells Timothy,
"But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever."

And it really should not surprise us
      to hear Paul telling us here in Phil. 4:19
            that our perfect heavenly Father
                  commits Himself to parenting us perfectly.

And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

But as we began to study this verse last week
      we recognized that we bring with us
            into this Father-child relationship with God
                  some baggage that makes it very difficult for us to understand this statement
                        in Phil. 4:19 correctly.

I mentioned last week
      that at least five issues came to mind to me
            that make it difficult for us
                  to correctly relate to this verse.

And last week we looked at the first of those five.

If you were here
      you'll remember that the first one we looked at
            was the realization that
                  when we come to Christ
we bring with us a need framework
      based upon our flesh-trained
            mental and emotional operating systems.

Now, if you weren't here last week
      that is not going to mean a whole lot to you.

So by way of review
      I'll just say that we enter this world
            with three major forces working against us.
      Because we are separated from our Creator,
            and both unable and unwilling
                  to hear His voice speaking to us the truth,
      1. we don't know what are needs really are,
      2. we don't know how our needs
            can truly be met effectively,
      and 3. we are totally dependent upon ourselves
            and our own limited resources
                  in meeting those needs.

We look at the society around us
      to tell us what will make us happy
            or fulfilled,
and then we frantically attempt
      to pursue whatever goals
            our society has thrust upon us.

And the end result is disastrous.
      We spend all of our efforts
            chasing the wrong needs,
and even when we finally achieve them
      they don't satisfy.

We still feel empty,
      and aching,
            and pain-filled,
                  and we don't know why.

So,
#1. the first reason we run into problems
      understanding what Paul is saying
            when he says, And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus...
      is because when we come to Christ
            we bring with us a need framework
                  based upon our flesh-trained
                        mental and emotional operating systems.

#2. The second problem I want to mention
      that I see us running into
            when we come to this statement
                  in Phili. 4:19
is that when we come to Christ
      we also bring with us
            a basic distrust of God,
                  and it is a distrust that is sometimes intensified
                        by our distorted concepts
                              of what we really need.

Our mistrust of our Creator
      begins, of course, long before we come to Him.

In fact, it is at the heart of all of our sin against Him.

When Adam and Eve
      first chose to disobey God in the Garden of Eden,
            why did they do it?
They did it because
      they didn't really believe
            God had their best interests in mind.
They believed that when God told them
      not to eat of that tree
            He was depriving them of something really good.

In fact, it might be worth our taking
      just a couple of minutes
            to review those events in the Garden of Eden
                  because the same pattern of deception
and mistrust of God
      is repeated countless times in our own lives.
This is from Genesis chapter 3.
Satan appears to Eve
      in the form of a serpent...
Gen. 3:1 ... And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"

Now right there in that single statement
      is the hook.
He appears to be asking a simple question.
      But imbedded in that question
            is a calculated vicious attack
                  against the character of God.

Satan asks Eve,
"Did God really tell you
      that he has forbidden you to eat
            any fruit
                  off of any tree in the Garden?"

And implied in that question
      is the statement, "Can you really trust a God
             who would intentionally design you
                  with a daily need for food
                        and place within you
a keen sense of smell
      and ability to taste and enjoy food
            and surround you with all of these
                  incredible fruit trees
and then...
      and then make such unreasonable demands of you as to forbid you
            to eat from any of them?
Can you really trust such a God?
       I don't think so!"

Now Eve knows Satan has just misstated
      what God really said,
but she accepted the implied suspicion
      of God's trustworthiness.
Listen to her response:

Gen. 3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;...

She grudgingly acknowledges
      that God actually has given them permission
            to eat from most of the trees.
The real truth, of course,
      is that not only did God give them permission to eat from them,
      but He created them exclusively
            and specially for them.

But Eve has already bought the lie.
      She has already decided
            this God of theirs
                  is unreasonable in His demands.
And when she continues her response
      to Satan's question
            listen to what she says.

Gen. 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"

Did you see that?
      She misquoted what God had said.
God never said anything to her
      about touching the fruit.
He just said, "Don't eat it."

But Eve had already accepted
      Satan's suggestion that God was both
            unreasonable in His demands
                  and not to be trusted.
And so she expands God's command
      to make it sound arbitrary,
            illogical,
                  and unreasonable.

And as soon as Satan saw
      Eve's mistrust of God's intentions
            he knew he'd won the battle.
He responded immediately
      with the confirmation
            that indeed this is not a God
                  any sensible person would trust.
Now Satan can blast through
      with a full-blown lie,
            attacking God's love,
                  and His true heart intention for His creation.

Gen. 3:4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!
Gen. 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

"God is out to cheat you!
      So what if He's created
            this incredible world for you,
a world filled with more beauty
      and goodness
            and pleasure
than you could ever experience.
You can't trust Him,
      especially when it comes to His commandments.
He's trying to cheat you
      out of the really good stuff in life."

And the human race has been reproducing that same little drama ever since.

With each of us
      Satan seeks to cultivate that same tension and mistrust of God.

"Has God said sex is evil and you must have nothing to do with it under any circumstances?"

"Well, no, not exactly. But He did say it was only tolerated within marriage,
      and He obviously doesn't like it very much."

"What kind of God
      would create you with strong sexual needs
            and then forbid you to meet those needs?
Can you really trust a God like that?
      I don't think so!
            He's just trying to cheat you
                  out of the best stuff in life."

Never mind the fact
      that God Himself created the whole concept of sex
            and carefully designed
                  both it and us
                        in such a way that it fits perfectly
                              within the context
                                    of a life-time marriage commitment,
and every time we attempt
      to yank it out of that marriage context
            and plug it into some other type of human relationship
            those involved get hurt.

Now it is true
      that when we come to Christ
            we begin to discover God's love
in a way that helps defuse the power
      of some of Satan's lies.

But it is healthy for us to remember
      that we enter our relationship with God
            with a huge backlog of Satan's lies,
lies that continue to leave within us
      a residue of distrust of our Creator.

And when we come up against
      a statement like this one in Philippians 4:19
            where Paul says,
And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus...,
      there is a voice inside us
            that continues to say, "Yea, right! I'm not buying it until I see a little more proof!"

And there is one more point of tension
      that can often intensify
            our underlying distrust of God.

I just mentioned this in passing last week,
      but there are points in every Christian's life
            where our distorted perceptions
                  of what we really need in order to be happy
      or fulfilled
            collide with our trust in God
because there will be places
      where He will seek to remove from our lives
            something we are certain we need.

Remember my little dog last week
      with His bag of garbage?

Remember how he would have growled at me and mistrusted me
      if I would have attempted to take it away from him?

And there are times when what we think we need
      and what we see our God providing
            or what we hear Him asking of us
                  are in such sharp contrast
                        that it can create tremendous fear within us.

And that is the third issue that came to mind to me
      when I saw some of the problems we have with Paul's assurance that
our God shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

#3. We each bring our fears into this growing trust relationship
      between us and our God.

They are often fears that come out of
      our relationships with other human beings.

We are afraid God won't truly understand us.

We are afraid He really doesn't care.

We are afraid He may still be holding a little grudge against us for all those sins.

We are afraid His way of doing things
      would be a hideous way to live.

We are afraid He might try to squeeze us into a life we hate,
      or make us live in a place we don't want to be,
            with responsibilities we weren't qualified to fulfill.

We are afraid He will demand of us
      what we are not able to deliver.

We are afraid we will disappoint Him
      and He will disappoint us.

We are afraid He will cheat us
      out of the kind of life we just know we really need in order to be happy.

I felt some of those fears
      from the first day I came to Christ.

I've told you in the past
      about the fears I had
            when it first occurred to me
                  that God might want me to preach.

I mean really!
      How could I really trust a God
            who would want me
                  to invest my life
                        in something like that?

The truth us,
      learning to live in a Father/child relationship
            with a God who knows us far better
                  than we will ever know ourselves,
and loves us far more deeply
      than anyone else ever has
            or ever will love us
is very hard stuff for us.

We hear our God assuring us
      that He has committed Himself
            to meeting all of our needs.
But then we look around
      at what He appears to be doing
            or what He appears to have done
                  in other people's lives,
and we see that big issue He's dealing with in our life right now,
      that big chunk of garbage
            we've been clutching
                  and gnawing on frantically
                        convinced we have to have it
                              in order to be happy,
and even though we haven't dared
      put it into words to ourselves,
            we know our God is committed
                  to pulling it out of our lives,
and the truth is it scares us.

It scares us because even now,
      even at this point in our lives,
            we know enough about our God
                  to know that He deals only in truth
                        and only in reality.
Our distorted perceptions
      of what we think we need
            in order to be fulfilled
                  have no influence over Him.

And even without putting it into words
      we know that the beginning
            of God's commitment to meet our needs
      is His renewing our minds
            in a way that restructures our whole perspective
                  on what our needs really are.

What our minds think we want
      is a God who will take from us
            our twisted,
                  inaccurate,
                        often even self-destructive little list of needs
      and stamp it "APPROVED!".

But what our spirits really long for
      is what we truly have -
a God who begins His commitment to us
      to meet our needs
            by leading us through the sometimes painful process
      of reshaping our understanding
            of what we truly need for a fulfilling life,
      prying our fingers off the lies,
            and opening our hearts
                  to hunger and thirst for the truth.

We are still just part way through this whole thing,
      and so far we've just looked at 3
            of the 5 barriers to the truth I want to suggest.
So,
#1. When we come to Christ
            we bring with us a need framework
                  based upon our flesh-trained
                        mental and emotional operating systems.

#2. We also bring with us
            a basic distrust of God and His intentions toward us.

and #3. We bring our fears
      based upon all those areas
            where we have seen other people fail us in the past.

And rather than rushing through the last two on my list
      I think we'll save them until next week.