02-16-14 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 two weeks ago.

I mentioned the last time we were in this passage

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 in the past.

We have seen that Paul makes the statement

as part of his expression of gratitude

to his friends at Philippi

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.

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.

Is he or she the happiest person you know?

Are they happy at all?

Or just line up everyone you know personally

on the basis of their net worth.

Now line them all up on the basis of their joy in life,

and their sense of fulfillment,

and purpose.

Are the richest ones at the top of that list

and the poorest ones at the bottom?

I remember many, many years ago

when Sandee and I were staying alive financially

by managing an apartment complex in Soldotna.

We were driving a very old Ford Pinto

and I had to keep clamping Campbell’s soup cans around the tail pipe

to patch the holes so that it wasn’t so loud.

I was volunteering at Cook Inlet Academy as a counselor

and I’d built a friendship with a high school boy,

and he was telling me all the things he was going to own in the future -

nice car, all sorts of boy-toys...

Then I asked him if he thought that was going to make really happy.

He was certain of it.

Then I asked him two additional questions.

I asked him what adult in his life had less stuff than any other.

He thought probably it was me.

Then I asked him what adult in his life

seemed to be more fulfilled, happier than any other.

He thought probably that was me too.

He didn’t like where the conversation was going

and changed the subject.

And the same pattern fits with the good looks thing.

Think of the best looking people 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.

Many years ago we had a miniature Schnauzer named Pepper.

He was a wonderful part of our family,

but, to be honest, he wasn’t the brightest dog on the block.

I remember an incident in which

one day Pepper 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 undigestable 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 had never seen him do

in his entire life.

Our dog knew that every night

when we finished dinner

he would get a little treat of “people food”.

He literally lived for that one moment of the day.

Most nights he waited next to the table,

and as soon as I laid my fork down

he would start 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 on his little rug,

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.