August 27, 2017
Reaching Toward the Goal | Philippians 4:10-20
- Philippians 4:10-20
- Rev. Scott Shelton
Welcome and glad you are here – today – this last Sunday in August and last look at Philippians. Next week is Labor Day weekend, and the week after that, Jerry will begin our fall series on the book of Acts. Today I want to encourage you to explore adult ministry options that are in your bulletin with a contact name by each or at a table in the gathering space at a table. So today we dive into Philippians 4:10-23 – where Paul is writing to his friends at the church at Philippi:
“10 I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. 11 Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. 14 In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress.
15 You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone. 16 For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs more than once. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that accumulates to your account. 18 I have been paid in full and have more than enough; I am fully satisfied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
21 Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The friends who are with me greet you. 22 All the saints greet you, especially those of the emperor’s household. 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
Sisters and Brothers in Christ, This is the word of the Lord – thanks be to God.
Let us pray…on this day, as we learn again from Philippians, may the meditations of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In verse 12, Paul says he has learned a secret. What’s his secret?
Before we dive into that, do you like secrets? You know, knowing information can be fun – if it’s not hurtful – maybe a surprise birthday party or retirement party – or a secret gift your kid or grandchild is receiving – very fun to know.
I know kids sometimes can’t keep secrets – they like to tell and to share. Well, Paul can’t keep a secret and doesn’t want to. He wants to share what he has learned.
That the secret is that he has learned the secret of being content in any and all circumstances. What is it? It is to be content in Christ, because to be in Christ he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. You might say, that’s it? That’s the secret? Yes, that’s it. The secret of being content is focusing on Jesus. And his strength will help you.
As a young teen around age -13-14-15, I had some posters up in my bedroom. Now I remember growing up in a good church, one of my posters was of a generic basketball – no star player – with the verse, Philippians 4:13 –“ I can do all things through him (Jesus Christ) who gives me strength”.
Now when I would lay in my bed at night as a young basketball player in 7th, 8th, 9th grade – I wanted for Jesus to help me do all things. I wanted to do all things. Could Jesus help me shoot like Larry Bird or pass like Magic Johnson or a few years later – could he help me fly like Michael Jordan???
Technically, God could make me fly, but the real answer was, well….no.
I wasn’t built like 6-8 or 6-9 like Magic or Larry, I couldn’t jump like Mike, and even with practice could never shoot or pass like those guys. I was good enough to make my high school team and get playing time, but not much more than that.
So what does Paul mean? Not to be taken in the way that Jesus will help you to do anything you want to do. But it means that Christ is with you and will strengthen in you all that you need to do.
One bible scholar said, “The power we receive in union with Christ is sufficient to do his will and to face challenges that arise.”
It goes on to say, “Christ does not grant us superhuman ability to accomplish anything we can imagine without regard to his interests.” So, we are called to live for Christ – it’s a challenge. But he gives us what we need to do it. It doesn’t mean it will be easy – but God gives us the strength at the time we need to do all the things we need to do.
To use the basketball analogy: when I was a junior, I sat on the bench all year – played very little. But God gave me strength to not get discouraged but to have fun in practice and cheering for the team. As a senior I got to play and would get nervous before games, he helped me to have strength to play despite having butterflies – even to keep going when I missed a layup in a big game.
I learned a much more important lesson that I’ve shared before. At the end of my sophomore year, one of best basketball friends and his father were killed by a drunk driver. God gave me the strength and several of my friends to pull together – actually come closer to Christ by doing a small group with a youth pastor. God gave me strength with other friends to reach out to my friend’s little brother and help him. Through something that was awful, God showed us how to lean on Jesus, and while it was still awful, to bring good out of bad.
The US Army has had different slogans to recruit – at WWI it was “I want you for the US Army.” More recently even today it has been “Army Strong”. What about the 1980’s-1990’s?
The US Army had a slogan from 1980-2001 that said “Be all you can be.” Think about that. As Christ followers, although we will fail, although we will sometimes not feel like it – in Christ, through God working through us, we can still follow God. We can be all who we are supposed to be in Christ – who gives us strength to carry on – to be who God calls us to be.
Paul says he knows the secret of being content. But being content is hard. I was reading this week that we live in the most prosperous time in human history, especially in the U.S. But studies show that prosperity has not made us happier.
King Solomon was the richest man in the world of his day – kind of the Bill Gates, but with a huge throne and pretty much everything in gold – the Old Testament says. But he says this in Ecclesiastes 5:10:
“Whoever loves money never has enough.” Solomon, who was wealthy almost beyond imagination, shares that everything feels meaningless.
He also says “Two are better than one. If one falls down, his friend can help him up, but pity the one who falls and has no one to help him up.”
Wow, even the richest - and wisest man in the world at the time - knew that relationships and friends, and relationships with God, could bring contentment much more than things.
We know Paul was in prison, but overall he is joyful – he uses the word joy or rejoice appears 16 times in this short letter. How can he be joyful? How can he be content?
He depends on Jesus.
He depends on others.
Paul is not self-sufficient, he is God-sufficient.
Paul is not preoccupied with his situation; he’s preoccupied with Jesus.
He can’t take care of his own needs in prison, but the community of Christ can do that for him.
Paul depends on Jesus. He has his priorities right. He says everything else pales in comparison to knowing Jesus.
He said, we studied last week his citizenship is in heaven – he tries to keep his mind off of earthly things.
Paul was in prison, and I’m sure wondering if he would ever get out – his life had been already threatened for his faith.
I read this week about a pastor dealing with terminal cancer, who preached a message near the end of his life. I’m guessing that if you know your time might be nearing its end, your thinking can begin to focus on what’ really important.
Here the 3 points of his sermon.
Today is all you have.
Today is all you need.
Today is all you can handle.
He was living for one day at a time – in Christ.
We can do the same. Jesus teaches in Matthew 5 and 6: Don’t worry about tomorrow, each day has enough problems of its own. Instead, seek God’s kingdom first and everything else will be given to you as well.
Paul said, last week, don’t be anxious, but pray about everything, and you will have God’s peace – a peace that passes all understanding.
In my season of life, we worry some about kids going to college – our son Jacob is starting his sophomore year and our daughter Lexia is a Sr. in high school. If we focus on being content today – on his daily bread today – should we save for college? Yes, absolutely – I think it’s good stewardship to save for college.
But we can also put our worry back into God’s hands – believing that God is always good – and will provide what’s needed in his time – so that our trust will grow in him –whether or not our kids go to college or graduate. If we watch, we’ll see God at work.
So first… depend on Jesus – and trust in his strength – pray for his daily bread – live for each day.
Second… depend on the local church and others around you.
One of the uplifting things about this passage and the whole letter of Philippians is Paul’s gratitude for the local church – the little church in Philippi who sends money and gifts to Paul to provide for his needs while in prison Rome.
Paul speaks of what the church in Philippi did for him. They have supplied his needs by sending Epaphroditus to him – not only with a gift, but to be a friend to him. Paul must be close to them and they close to him – if they were willing to send a member of their church on a long journey, Greece to Rome – to bring him aid, so he could buy food and supplies and have some companionship while imprisoned.
Paul writes a lot about theology in his letters, but here he is very personal. He rejoices in their concern for him, he gives thanks to God every time he thinks of them, he is concerned for their health and wishes for them to grow in Christ, he prays for them and tells them that because of their gifts to him, they too will be blessed by God. Relationships matter to Paul – and help him to see Jesus.
We can have God’s strength in us – but often God’s strength is seen in his people. We are his plan to help others, to care for others, to be there for others.
You can do all things through him who gives you strength. But we need God’s people to be with us. A popular way to say this in youth ministry I learned was “Jesus with skin on”. We need Jesus. We also need sometimes Jesus with skin on – which is other real people who care for us in Jesus’ name.
We have that here at ZPC too. Today you have in bulletin an insert of lots of options to connect to people in social and study ways. From Mops to Second Half, from Free Birds to ZPCMen, from Lifechanges to Men’s Thursday morning study and our Sunday morning classes.
We always have ways to serve too – you can check on our website under the title Serve; call the church office, or watch the bulletin or hands on service like HFH, Str8up ministry, Shepherd community center, IHN, Jeremiah House, Food Pantry.
But to connect with others to do all of these – build community…study the Bible… and serve together - we recommend home groups.
So to encourage you to sign up today, or the next 2 Sundays, I’ve asked the Perrin’s / Jackson’s to share.
Abby and Andrew Perrin to come up. (9 am)
John and Linda Jackson to come up. (10:30 am)
Thanks for coming up and for being in a home group. Couple of questions:
- What’s been good about being in or leading a home group?
- How have you seen God at work in your group?
- Why should those who are not in a group – give one a try?
Thanks so much!
I’m in a Tuesday morning men’s group – we study the Bible, talk about our jobs, families, prayed for someone who’s elderly parent died, and support one another pretty openly about all kinds of things. It’s something even as a pastor, I’ve realized I’ve needed.
Sign up today – or next 2 Sundays – or online under “connect.”
You know even though Paul was alone in prison, and even though he traveled to different churches, he was not without community. He traveled with companions so they could have community. And he loved the churches he worked with. He closes with saying this to one of his favorite churches, the people at Philippi:
“Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The friends who are with me greet you. 22 All the saints greet you…
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
Paul ends Philippians with grace. He is a man of grace, content with who he is in Jesus. And he is uplifted by his relationships in Christ.
And he has shared his secret of being content, which is to put all his trust in Christ –
So Paul can do all the things he needs to do and to be – in Christ’s strength.
Let’s pray.
We all need these (from the closing song “Mighty to Save”)
Everyone needs compassion / A love that's never failing / Let mercy fall on me – we can find that mercy and compassion often in other friends and Christians who support us.
We can find our strength in Jesus who provides who…can move the mountains.
He is mighty to save / Author of Salvation / He rose and conquered the grave
Find your contentment in Him – because in Christ, you can do all things who gives you strength.
Benediction:
Now Go - With the love of God the Father,
the strength of Jesus the Christ,
and the courage and the comfort of the Holy Spirit! Amen.