God will meet all your needs. (CC)
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Sermon Text: Philippians 4:10-19
We rise for the reading
by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians
where we read from Chapter 4 beginning with Verse 10:
I REJOICE GREATLY IN THE LORD THAT AT LAST
YOU HAVE RENEWED YOUR CONCERN FOR ME.
INDEED, YOU HAVE BEEN CONCERNED, BUT YOU HAD
NO OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW IT. I AM NOT
SAYING THIS BECAUSE I AM IN NEED, FOR I
HAVE LEARNED TO BE CONTENT WHATEVER THE CIRCUMSTANCES.
I KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE IN NEED,
AND I KNOW WHAT IT IS TO HAVE PLENTY.
I HAVE LEARNED THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT IN
EVERY SITUATION, WHETHER WELL FED OR HUNGRY,
WHETHER LIVING IN PLENTY OR IN WANT.
I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH HIM WHO
GIVES ME STRENGTH. YET IT WAS GOOD OF YOU TO SHARE IN
MY TROUBLES. MOREOVER, AS YOU PHILIPPIANS KNOW,
IN THE EARLY DAYS OF YOUR ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE GOSPEL,
WHEN I SET OUT FROM MACEDONIA,
NOT ONE CHURCH SHARED WITH ME IN THE MATTER OF GIVING
AND RECEIVING, EXCEPT YOU ONLY;
FOR EVEN WHEN I WAS IN THESSALONICA, YOU SENT ME
AID AGAIN AND AGAIN WHEN I WAS IN NEED.
NOT THAT I AM LOOKING FOR A GIFT,
BUT I AM LOOKING FOR WHAT MAY BE CREDITED TO YOUR ACCOUNT.
I HAVE RECEIVED FULL PAYMENT AND EVEN MORE;
I AM AMPLY SUPPLIED, NOW THAT I HAVE RECEIVED
FROM EPAPHRODITUS THE GIFTS YOU SENT.
THEY ARE A FRAGRANT OFFERING,
AN ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE, PLEASING TO GOD.
AND MY GOD WILL MEET ALL YOUR NEEDS
ACCORDING TO HIS GLORIOUS RICHES IN CHRIST JESUS.
This is the Word of our Lord. Let us pray:
Glorious and gracious God,
may the words of my mouth and the meditation of
each of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight,
our only source of hope and comfort. Amen.
[Text taken from the HOLY BIBLE:
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION 1973, 1978, 1984
used by permission of
Zondervan Bible Publishers]
Dear Followers of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:
You've just enjoyed
a very good meal.
You and your guests have spent time over that meal
talking with each other enjoying the evening.
And then the bill comes.
And then there's that moment
where you have to sit down with that bill and say:
How much am I going to tip
this server.
It's a question that comes to all of our minds.
The standard today
is 16 or 20% because that server is not
paid minimum wage and her employer expects
that she will be making up that difference
in her tips.
So without thinking you say okay it's going to be 15%.
But let's say that the
service of that person was outstanding!
Now!
What is generous?
What is generous?
That's an interesting question, isn't it?
Because I think so often, we get that bill
and we can think in our heads all of the things
that that server did not do to enhance
our experience and it's very easy and
quick for us to figure out how we are going to
teach that individual a lesson in what it means
in customer service by NOT
tipping 15%.
But what IS generous?
Is generous to you
what I would consider generous?
Being generous is a very personal thing.
Sometimes it is subjective.
But it's something that we DO have to think about.
Something that we have to mull
over in our minds to say:
THIS is what I feel is ...
generous. And I gladly and willingly
give that to the person who
made our evening special and
a good time. It's what we do
in our daily living.
But yet so often when it comes to our life ...
with God and in our "church life"
it's not so easy for us to do that.
To understand what generous is.
What it means for us to BE generous
if God has called us to be cheerful givers
of ourselves and of our time and of
our finances. The way we begin that is to
look at what the Apostle Paul told the church
in Philippi. He said to begin with
defining how generous we are going to
want to be, we should look
at how generous God was to us.
That God HAS supplied
all of our needs in
Christ Jesus, our Lord.
And that is the Truth! That is the
fact of Scripture!
That Jesus Christ came into this world
to meet all of our needs.
And especially, the greatest of our needs.
Our need for a Savior. Our need to take us
from the grasp and grip of Satan
who holds us so tightly outside of God
that we ourselves cannot escape.
To come into our darkened lives
darkened by sin and not understanding
who God is or what He is.
To come into our lives and to give us the Light of the
Gospel. To shine in our lives and
show us who our Savior is.
Because we, by ourselves, are hostile to God.
We are God's enemies and we are not going to
approach Him or come to Him.
But yet God in His tender mercy,
and His love and His grace ... has come
to us. And come to us
to fulfill that greatest need by supplying
a Savior ... by sending
His Son
to come into our darkened world
and to let His Light shine in the darkness.
To show people
true obedience. To show people
that He IS the perfect sinless Son of God
who has kept those Commandments of God;
who has not, in any way, broken God's Law;
has done everything that God
had asked and demanded and
has done nothing that God does not want us to do.
Jesus supplied that perfection
that no human being
could step up in their life and do.
And then, He provided
the perfect sacrifice.
The sacrifice of His very life.
On the cross of Calvary carrying
that weight and that punishment
of our sins. Destroying it.
Destroying it forever
and rising in triumph to
annihilate Satan and death
and its hold on people.
That is our greatest need that Christ has fulfilled.
And in that we rejoice ...
that we have come to the knowledge that Jesus IS
our personal Lord and Savior!
That He has forgiven MY sins. That He has
called me to be HIS brother.
That He is the One who is MY Lord
who governs my life! And He did that
WILLINGLY! Self-sacrificing ...
for someone as wretched as me.
And then I begin to understand
that Christ Jesus
supplies ... all my needs!
Because now I can turn to God
in forgiveness, with hope,
and peace of mind and comfort of knowing
that my eternal welfare is secure.
That heaven is mine today and I live
in that glory as a child of God and
I rest secure.
And in this world, God supplies everything
that I need.
But I live in a world, that is filled
with "wants".
This is what I want. This is what I want! I want to
have this; I want it NOW. I have to have this;
I have to have it now. There's a new version of it;
I have to have it. I want it!
And sometimes ...
we lose fact, we lose focus
of what we need.
Because God supplies us with the things that we need
to keep our body in welfare.
To keep our body secure.
He also supplies us beyond what we can imagine
with blessings that come into our lives
of abundance. But sometimes
in our own selfishness, we don't see them
because we somehow think we deserve them.
Or we should have them.
But the Apostle Paul said to the church in Philippi:
It is good for you to learn to be content.
To be content in every situation.
Knowing that Jesus Christ has
taken care of your greatest needs and He will provide you
with all you need in this life
keeping your soul safe in His hands
for all eternity.
And when we learn that ... we can be content.
In any situation, we begin to understand
what it means to be generous.
Because if we are content
and secure, we start looking at the needs
of others. We start realizing that
the blessings that God has given to us
are blessings of abundance.
And that we can share those things
with the people around us.
That we can take our time and use it
to help other people ... whatever that gift
may be that we have. Those many varied
and talented gifts that God has given to us ...
to be used to help others.
And to do that willingly.
To be cheerful about it. To go and help others
with a smile on our face. To be generous with
our time. As simple as
listening. Generous with our time
of listening. Because who of us hasn't
been in a conversation with someone when the phone
has gone off or it buzzed in their pocket and
they HAD to take that text.
They HAD to hear
what was coming in.
And obviously it was more important than whatever it is
we were saying.
But a lot of people don't even see that as an issue.
Or as a problem.
Or just spending time
listening to someone else.
Taking the generosity that God has given to us
and using it.
Using it for God's people. Using it in the church.
This morning you are going to receive a copy of our
2012 Budget that was approved in December.
And it is not an easy budget.
It is a budget that depends on each and every
one of us to look at
and examine the blessings that God has given to us.
And then to say: This is what I cheerfully
set aside for God's purposes.
To take that time and to make that effort
to look over what our
home budgets are.
To see where we spend our money. To see where our
heart's desire is. And to look at what we can do.
And sometimes we do just need
that old little kick or that push to
take care of that. Our sinful nature doesn't always
want to step up and do the things that we should do.
Look at Queen Esther.
She was basking in the royal palace
being attended to by servants
as the queen. And yet there was
an edict out to kill her people and she was
really wondering whether she should do something.
Or what could she do?
There's many reasons why she couldn't go and speak
to the king. First of all, it was against the law even to
ask for her. And what did Mordecai say to her?
Maybe God has
brought you and raised you up at this point
for ... this ... very ...
purpose.
God has brought us together
at this time for the very purpose
of proclaiming His Gospel.
As a congregation of believers, to do the work
that He has called us to do.
And He has asked us to look at the financial blessings
that we have and to return blessings to Him that are
in accord with that.
To be cheerful about it. This is what we want
to do. But we're also reminded
that our offerings go also to our time.
To our own energies.
We may not have financial resources at this moment
to contribute what we would like but maybe
we have time to help out.
To look at the needs of others.
To take care of their needs. Think of those men
who had that paralytic friend.
That when Jesus came into Capernaum to preach
that so many people filled the house that
there wasn't even room outside the door.
But those 4 men had time; they had
energy, and they had ability
to get it done.
And they got it done! They went up on top of the roof.
They dug through the roof and they lowered the man
in to see Jesus.
To be with Jesus.
And how often aren't we the ones
who are just standing around.
Because our lives are so busy
that our private and personal time belongs to us.
That our private and personal time
is so busy with just our own busyness,
that we don't look to the needs of others
or look for solutions as to how to get things done.
To get up on the roof,
dig through it, and lower the person to see Jesus.
Because THAT was of first and foremost
importance to them.
And what an example for us
to get things done! It's
very easy for us to sit back and look at this building.
To look at our ministry and say: This should be done and
that should be done and this
should be done. But maybe now's the time for us to all
get up and get it done.
To figure out how to do it.
And to do it! And to do it cheerfully with hearts
that realize the blessings that God has given to us
and filled us with an abundance.
To be generous with our time and generous with
our offerings and generous with our prayers.
And that generosity goes back to the fact that
it is a very personal thing.
Be generous with a tip ...
maybe giving someone 50% of the bill.
And if it was for a cup of coffee
and a piece of pie ...
it's not gonna break us.
But that might break someone else.
Maybe being generous to them is stopping by the manager
and saying: That server was fantastic today.
Met all of our needs.
And I wanted you to know
about your employee.
The same thing's true in our life in the church.
God presents us with tremendous opportunities.
Opportunities to give
generously with our offerings.
To cheerfully give back to God of the riches that
He has given us. To give our time
to the work of the church.
To look openly to the needs of others and
step up and meet those needs because we care.
And because we want to.
Because we love them.
Because God so loved us
that He sent His One and Only Son
who has met ...
all our needs.
Amen.
Let us rise.
Now may the peace of God, which goes beyond all of our
understanding, keep your hearts and your minds, and
especially your lives, in the one true faith
unto life everlasting. Amen.