03-30-14 All Your Needs Pt. 8

For seven weeks we have been looking

at a single statement made by Paul

in the 4^th chapter of his letter

to his friends at Philippi.

We find that statement in Philippians 4:19:

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

Along the way

we have seen a number of the reasons why it is difficult for us to hear correctly

what God is saying to us

in this statement.

We have talked about they way in which

we begin our relationship with our Lord

with a twisted and distorted concept

both of what our needs are

and of how those needs can be met.

We also bring our fears and distrust of God.

We know we need Him,

but we are not at all sure we can trust Him

or trust His intentions toward us.

We have all developed

a number of favorite hiding places,

tools we use to help us cope with the pain in life,

and we are not at all sure

what God would do with us

or with those hiding places

if He were allowed to have full reign in our lives.

Having spent our whole lives

running away from Him,

hiding from Him,

fearing Him,

blinded to His love,

we are now very skittish about

letting Him get too close

or giving Him

too much control.

And we have also talked about

the way in which each of us comes to God

bringing our NONNEGOTIABLES,

those places where we have drawn

our own mental line,

declaring to ourselves

and to our Lord

that His involvement in this area or that area is simply not an option.

To be honest,

I believe that

for the Christian

our nonnegotiables

are rooted most of all in our fears.

It isn’t that we don’t want to trust our Lord.

It isn’t that we don’t want to rest

in His love

and His leadership.

It’s that the thought of letting go

of our nonnegotiables

generates terror within us.

Having never seen His alternative

we simply cannot imagine

how we could survive

if we let go of whatever it is

we are clinging to.

And as we talked about those areas in this study

we saw that sometimes

the most loving thing God can ever do

is to remove whatever it is

that we think we cannot live without

so that we can finally discover

the true security

and freedom

He seeks to bring into our lives

a security rooted in God Himself -

His presence with us,

His love for us,

and His perfect understanding

of the deepest needs in our lives.

I don’t want to spend the morning

reteaching what we’ve already studied,

but I will just say that

some of the most difficult,

doubt-filled times in our lives

come at those times

when God’s love for us

motivates Him to reach into our lives

and wrench from our grips

some addictive

or destructive false foundation

that we just knew we could not live without

so that He can then rebuild

strong, solid footing under our feet.

When I was working on The Fisherman

and I reached that point at which Peter was faced with

his own utter failure during the final few hours of Jesus’ life on this earth

followed by the crucifixion and death of his Master

I had him put into words

the pain and frustration and confusion

that every growing Christian has felt at certain times in their life.

I had my imagined Peter say, “The love of God is poured out within us in so many different ways. At the time, walking the streets of Jerusalem that evening, unseeing and now almost unfeeling because of the numbing narcotic of ceaseless pain, the concept of the love of God was to my mind the ultimate absurdity. If ever I thought I had needed the miraculous intervention of a loving God in my own life, it was in that garden as I fought for the release of my King. If ever I knew with absolute and unquestioned certainty that our world desperately, urgently needed the miraculous intervention of a loving God, it was as I stood below that cross, watching Jesus die. And yet, there I was, having just witnessed what I would later come to recognize as the two greatest expressions of the love of God I would ever know yet possessing at the time not a glimmer of that love.”

And all of us have had those times in our lives

when we honestly believed our God has failed us utterly,

because we could not yet see

what He was doing or why.

It is at those times,

perhaps more than any others,

when we hear Paul say:

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

and we say inside, “I don’t see it!”

Only when the skillful hand of our God

has first removed

and then rebuilt that part of our lives

can we look back and say to ourselves,

and to our Lord,

“Now I understand.

Now I see.

Thank you, my King, for removing and rebuilding

what I could never have changed myself.”

All of these factors

and a number of others as well

exert tremendous pressure

on the needs agenda

we bring with us into our relationship with Christ.

And Paul’s assurance that

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

will only make sense to us

when we understand that

God has not committed Himself

to supplying what we think we need,

He has committed Himself to supplying

what He knows we truly do need.

And right there that statement

once again triggered within some of you THE FEAR.

You just know that God’s concept

of what you really need

is limited to bread and water,

and stale bread at that.

We’ve been here before, of course,

and we’ll be back again and again.

For now let me just say

that Christ Himself is the one who said:

John 10:10...I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

And Paul picked up the same theme

when he said in Rom. 8:32

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

In fact, in I Timothy 6:17

Paul sets up a fascinating contrast.

He is offering Timothy

some special instructions

he wants Timothy to pass on

to the wealthy members in his church.

He says,

1 Tim. 6:17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

His message is obvious -

the kind of richness of life we long for

cannot be bought at any price,

and those who believe it can

are setting themselves up

for deep disappointment.

The richness of life we long for

can only come to us

through the loving hands of our God.

Now, that is a flying survey of where we have been.

But I don’t want to leave this series

until I offer at least a few final comments

about those times in our lives

when it doesn’t seem to us

that God is doing

what He promises to do in this verse in Philippians.

Whether we recognize it or not,

every true Believer

is actively involved in a daily raging battle to rediscover

and reaffirm the eternal love

and absolute integrity of our God.

We are surrounded by voices

challenging those truths,

telling us that our God either isn’t there,

or doesn’t care,

or is only interested in knocking us around a bit

in a futile attempt to shape us up

and make us behave.

We have spent eight weeks

on this single statement in which Paul proclaims:

Phil. 4:19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus...

because this verse goes to very heart

of the most crucial warfare we will every be engaged in as Christians.

Let me read you something from the book of Acts.

For those of you who are new to the Bible,

the Book of Acts is the fifth book in the New Testament.

The first four books,

Matthew,

Mark,

Luke,

and John

provide us with four separate accounts

of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

The fifth book, the book of Acts,

then picks up the historical account

from immediately following the resurrection of Christ

and shares with us how God brought the Church into being

in the years immediately following Christ’s departure.

The most dominant personality in the book of Acts

is the Apostle Paul,

the man used by God

to move the message of Christ out of the Jewish world

and into the world of the Gentiles or non-Jews.

Now, I want to read you an incident

that took place in Philippi

the first time Paul visited the city.

Obviously many,

in fact probably most of those

reading this letter we are now studying

had first-hand knowledge of this incident

because they were there,

they saw it happen.

This is from Acts 16:16-24

Acts 16:16 It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

Acts 16:17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, "These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation."

Acts 16:18 She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment.

Acts 16:19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities,

Acts 16:20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews,

Acts 16:21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans. "

Acts 16:22 The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.

Acts 16:23 When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely;

Acts 16:24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Now, take that incident

and place it next to Philippians 4:19

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

Does anything trouble you about that?

Here is Paul,

doing exactly what God called Him to do,

empowered by the Spirit of God,

preaching the Word of God,

under the direct, personal, protective hand of God,

and he ends up getting beaten with rods

and thrown in prison.

...and my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

And the truth is

we don’t even have to go that far back

to ask the same question.

All we have to do is look at our own lives.

If God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,

then why did that rock fly up

and hit your windshield yesterday,

causing that crack you now need to deal with?

If God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,

then why did that friend that was so much a part of your life

have to move away

and leave you feeling so terribly alone?

If God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,

then why did you loose your job,

or why did that disease intrude into your body,

or why did that person you love have to die?

Four weeks ago I started

to offer you a list of statements

to help us pull our study of this one verse together.

So far I have offered you three statements.

#1.There are no qualifying limitations

placed on the word “needs” in this verse.

Even the needs we have caused within ourselves through our own sin

are included in Philippians 4:19.

#2. The beginning of understanding

what God is saying when He says

“I will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus...”

is understanding that what we need most

is God Himself.

#3. In the context of the illustration I shared with you last week,

God seeks to replace our street kid mentality

with the mind of a true child of the King.

He seeks to rebuild within us

a correct understanding

of what our needs are

and how those needs are met.

This morning I’ll offer you the final two.

And the 4th in that list is this.

#4. What our Lord is saying to us

when He says that He has committed Himself to supplying all our needs through Christ

can only be correctly understood

when we recognize

that this promise is made

within the context of the real world in which we live,

and within the context

of the redemptive work God is doing

within the lives of each of His children.

And let me try to explain.

We have seen throughout this entire study

that one of the greatest enemies we battle

in our efforts to gain

a correct understanding of this verse

is the belief that what we need for happiness,

and what we believe God should commit Himself to

is providing us with a pain-free,

stress-free,

problem-free life,

a life in which all the influences

and the effects of evil have been removed.

And let me say first of all

that that day will come.

Do you want to hear it in His own words?

Rev. 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

Rev. 21:4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

Rev. 21:5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."

Rev. 21:6 Then He said to me, " It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.

Rev. 21:7 "He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My child.

And I hope you heard the careful wording of those verses.

God does not simply say

that we will not cry any more.

He says that He Himself

will wipe away every tear.

Our pain is always deeply personal to our God.

It isn’t the existence of pain that troubles our God,

it is the fact that His child hurts.

It isn’t that God is AGAINST evil,

it’s that He is FOR us.

The time will come with every child of God

when we will feel the touch

of His nail-scared hand upon our cheek,

and He will call us by name

and tell us all our pain,

and all our hurt,

and all our suffering is now over forever.

That day will come...

but it is not here yet.

And when our God commits Himself

to supplying all our needs

according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,

that promise is made to us

within the context of our continued presence in a world

and in a physical body

that have both been drenched in evil

and the accumulated consequences of man’s sin

since the rebellion of Adam and Eve.

When we enter the family of God

we do so with the understanding

that between the time of our submission to Him

and the time when He pulls us out of this world

we are assigned the crucial role

of serving as His ambassadors

in the heart of a world in pitched rebellion against Him.

Entrance into Christ

is entrance into daily warfare

in a world system

that is rooted and grounded

at the deepest level in evil.

Maybe I could say it better this way -

when God commits Himself

to supplying all of our needs

according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus

He is not committing Himself

to supplying our monthly pension check for retirement,

He is committing Himself

to supplying us with all we need

for effective warfare

on the front lines of the battle.

And whenever and wherever that battle

impacts our lives,

wherever evil touches us,

His commitment is twofold:

#1. He will be with us each step of the way,

and nothing and no one will ever be able to separate us from His love.

Rom. 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Rom. 8:36 Just as it is written, " For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

Rom. 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

Rom. 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

Rom. 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And #2, not only will we discover

the reality of His love in that battle,

but we will see Him take the evil that has intruded into our lives

and not only equip us to cope with it,

but to actually turn that evil

into good in our lives.

Rom. 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

God’s commitment to supply our needs

is a commitment that is made to us

within the context of our continued presence in this world.

Which brings me to my 5^th and final statement,

it is a commitment that is made

within the context of our continued presence in these bodies - these minds,

and emotions,

and memories,

that understand nothing about the true nature of life in the Spirit.

Here it is in a single sentence:

He is not only in the process of equipping us for battle,

He is also in the process of conforming us to the image of Christ.

There will be times

when God does not supply

what we think we need

because what we think we need

is generated by lies rooted in

memories and emotions created within us before we ever knew our Lord,

lies that must be removed

and replaced with the truth

before we can know the abundant life He wants us to know.

And with that I believe we’ll bring our study of this verse to a close.