Well, we're going to close out the book of Philippians tonight. It's been such a blessing, like fresh spring rain to the soul. One of the things I love through preaching through books of the Bible is it makes an impact on me personally. It's not just Now I have more knowledge of the book of Philippians. You know, I can delve deeper into the reservoir of information, but the Word of God, if our hearts are soft, is always making an impact. And even when I read through the book of 1 Corinthians, I can remember trials that I was going through based upon what chapter I was preaching through at the time. So it's interesting how a book becomes interconnected, you know, with your very life. So that's how working through these books should impact us. Well, we're gonna look at Philippians chapter four in verses 15 through 23, and the crux of this passage, this sort of heart verse here, is verse 19, my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Everything Paul's gonna say is gonna kinda circulate around God as the great provider. And as I was reading this and just seeing, of course it happens within a context of extreme gratitude that Paul has for the Philippian church, I couldn't help but want to start this message out by giving sort of a tribute to God as the great provider during my time here. at Berean Community Church. I really see, if you're gonna compare this fellowship to any particular church, I would compare it to the Philippian church. I wouldn't compare us to the Corinthian church, praise the Lord. The Church of Thessalonica, A pretty awesome church. Maybe we should leave that church sort of as a goal. We want to be like the church of Thessalonica. But the church of Philippians, they seem to have this hunger for the Lord. They seem to have this joy, this excitement. There's some dangers here. There's some weaknesses. We've seen the warning throughout this book, but by and large, Paul is excited about what God is doing in this church. And I praise God for the fact that, and I've heard many testimonies of how God has provided during the time when Pastor John McConaughey was a pastor here, and the pastors before that, Frank Friedman, the founding pastor. But just reflecting on my time and just becoming an eyewitness personally of how God's provided, I just started writing out a list in worship to God. I remember the first year that we came to Berean Community Church, Kim was three months pregnant and we did not know at the time that we were candidating that Titus would have this syndrome that he has. He doesn't have it anymore. We didn't know about that. And so the Lord put us in a place that was close to one of the world's greatest children's hospitals in A.I. DuPont. We didn't know that. He brought us to a church where There was already a senior pastor here where I didn't have to automatically be thrown into the throes of preparing a sermon for Sunday morning and Sunday evening and Wednesday. But I think in the beginning it was just the evening service and that was perfect because it allowed me to spend a lot of time in the hospital. 134 days that Titus spent up there before he came home. So I see the provision of God even in that. And as history began to unfold, during the early times, God began to save sort of a flurry of people in a short period of time. And when you have a very small church, you know, if you have a large church, a small cluster of people getting saved might be normal, not necessarily a great boon to that church. But I remember Elena Geyer, who was, and she's given her testimony before, but she was actually our ultrasound technician who was the one who discovered Titus's condition before we did and then told the doctor about it. She was an unsaved person. She was an unbeliever at that time. and God actually saved her and brought her to this church. She didn't even know that Kim and I went to this church, and brought her here, and the Lord caused her to be born again. Around that same time, Rob and Mary Kunzig, Rob had a terrible accident, was in the hospital through that whole event. God saved both of them, and they became members. Wade Moore, he's given his testimony. He was an unbeliever. A derelict father, and God amazingly saved him, turned him into a devoted father. George Pappas was another one who was a member, and everybody around him would think he was saved. He thought he was saved and fell under conviction of the gospel. And all this happened within a relatively short period of time, and that was a way that God was meeting needs in this little local church and building it up. I remember early on seeing a lot of the young people and they would go to different youth groups outside this church. And so I saw them and I saw evidence of them, but there was no ministry that sort of would bring that cohesion. So after a while we brought Jeff Everett on board. And Jeff did an incredible job. He brought these young people together, but as many of you can testify, he brought a lot of families together. One of the things I noticed as the youth ministry started really taking off is how the families started getting closer together. And parents that I hadn't seen talk before, now it seems like they're spending a lot more time. So it really impacted the fellowship of this local church. And God met needs through that ministry. I remember as the Lord was really blessing numerically how quickly people would leave after the morning service, and it's because most of them didn't even know each other. It was like half of the church was just strangers, and so the sermon would be over and boom, they would leave, and sometimes people would make a comment like, man, people get out of here pretty fast. And so, you know how the Lord met that need. He brought in people with the gift of hospitality. So start inviting people over for dinner, spending extra time kind of lingering after the service. And if you were observant, you could see how people stayed longer and longer. And now I can't get rid of it. Now people need to stop staying so long, you know. But you see how the Lord begins to meet that fellowship need. I remember evangelism being kind of a weak spot. There were various people in the church that were evangelistic, but I specifically pray that God would bring in an individual who was very passionate, had an accurate understanding of the gospel, and God brought in Ron Weiderman who will tell you that his theological understanding of evangelism of the gospel was kind of off the wall, even though he was very evangelistically zealous. And he began to just submit himself to good teaching, good understanding, and God really refined him. And he has done a powerful thing, of course, with the power of God, but in Berean Community Church, he's kindled many hearts to be more evangelistic. He's developed various opportunities just to go out and to share the gospel that has really ignited a heart for the gospel. I remember praying early on that the Lord would bring us to a place where we would have 120 members. You say, well, that's kind of a strange prayer request. But from my reading, I saw that that was about the number for a healthy, even distribution of spiritual gifts. If you have about 120 members, there's an even spread of spiritual gifts. You don't have the minority of the people doing the majority of the work. That happens in a lot of places. And we hit that, and the Lord continued to bless. And I praise the Lord, too, for the way that He's blessed the church, because obviously a church that grows numerically doesn't necessarily mean that it's in line with the will of God. But it seems like as the Lord has blessed this church over the years, the people who have come in been in all different walks of life, maybe new Christians, maybe they've been saved for a long period of time, but they've all had a hunger for the word of God, has been their primary reason for coming and staying at this church, because of the hunger they have, and that's a really good way to build a church. It's people that have a humble heart, submissive to the Word of God, and they want to just be a part of living out the Word of God in the community of believers. And I got to see that. There was other renovation needs, you know, needs is a flexible term, and those things were expensive, but the Lord provided for that and we're debt-free, praise the Lord. Missions was a weak spot. We had never done a missions trip as a church. We tried to do the adopt-a-missionary thing and bring it up, and it just didn't really seem like it was becoming a part of the excitement and energy of the church. But the Lord enabled us to have some missions trips. I was hoping the Eriksons would be here tonight. I think they're an answer to prayer. Semi-retired from the mission field bringing in their passion for missions into the church You can't help but talk to them and walk away more passionate for missions So the Lord began and has been meeting these needs having the missions conference that we're about to have We haven't had anything like that. We had a very small scale It was almost like a prayer meeting missions conference and we had a couple local missionaries But nothing like about what is what is going to happen here? I think that's God's enabling that. God is bringing that about. Because the Lord has been providing and blessing this church, of course, administratively and counseling needs and discipleship needs became very overwhelming, and I was letting a lot of that just sort of fall to the side because I couldn't do it all. And so, God provided, you know, an open window for the St. Pierre's to come, and that has been a massive provision of a very huge need in this church, and I'm sure a lot of you have already been benefactors of the wisdom that they provide and just the encouragement coming alongside. We've been able to increase the support of our missionaries, take on a couple new missionaries. I mean, all these things, as you look at them, it's all the provision of God. And I was talking with, a couple weeks ago, I was talking with a pastor out west. I don't really know him. There was a situation that we had in common, so I had to contact him and get some information. And I just asked how his ministry was going, and he told me, and he asked how my ministry was going. And, you know, I'm always so grateful. There's always things you can point to that's discouraging. But I just said, you know, this has been nine years of blessing and God's provision. I told him this whole thing, and his response was, well, it'll end soon enough. And I thought, well, I don't know about that. What's that? Yeah, the gift of recurrence, like a web blanket. Right, yeah, that was the effect. Yeah, this is, what I felt, I felt like I had said, hey, look how awesome it is as God provides for us. Oh, he won't always provide like that. Now life is not always going to stay the same. It's not always going to be a mountain peak. It's not always going to be valleys. But God is always going to be the provider. And we praise the Lord for that. And Paul is so grateful to God for being a provider. And remember, he's speaking from inside a prison cell, in prison clothes. And he is praising God for being the provider and he's reminding the Philippian church that God is gonna provide all your needs. So, I just wanna publicly praise the Lord for providing, has nothing to do with me, it doesn't even have anything to do with you. Has everything to do with the generosity of God and how he just uses us. You know, I feel like the apostles coming back from their missionary journeys, reporting to the churches, all that God has done through us. It's God doing it and He can use anyone, but amazingly He uses us, which shows His power. He can use us to accomplish His purposes. He can obviously do anything. So last week when we looked at verses 10 through 14, we saw the beginning of Paul's thank you note to the Philippian church. It's like he's attaching the end of this letter with a thank you note, because the Philippian church has given him this very generous money gift. And Paul used that thank you note as a teaching opportunity for contentment. that the gift of contentment, the power of contentment, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and the point is unto contentment. So he uses this little thank you note to drive home the power that the Christian can have through Christ for contentment. but he's going to continue in his thank you note in verses 15 through 20 specifically, and now he's going to still continue to thank them, but now the theological point he wants to drive home in his thank you note is the provision of God. because in their generous giving, it could very well and probably did come at great personal sacrifice to the Philippian church. So he wants to assure them, though you have given this, God is going to provide for your needs. He doesn't want them to doubt that at all. So we are going to look at four things tonight, four ways which we should be impacted by God as provider. If we know that God's providing and we're impacted by the provision of God, it should manifest itself in four different ways. So, the first way, if God provides, we should be generous people. You don't have to have a lot of money to be generous. You just have to say, what's mine is yours and mean it and the people around you know that. It can be your time, it can be your energy, it can be opening up your home. There's plenty of ways to be generous without necessarily having great financial wealth. But if God provides and we know it, then we should be generous. Now let me explain a little bit of the logic that's going on here. If you understand what Paul, what we talked about last week, if someone were to give you a financial gift and you were to say, oh, I'm perfectly content in Christ, it might come across as a little deflating. Oh, thanks for the gift, I have everything I need in Christ. And Paul doesn't want to come across, he doesn't want them to think that he's thankful for the gift because he's discontent in a state of need. He doesn't want them to think he's doing it for that reason, but he doesn't also want to deflate them. So he is going to compliment, highly compliment them, tell them how generous they are so they don't think that he is just sort of, I don't really need your gift because I'm totally content in Christ. So he's gonna be very generous with his words. So look at verse 15. You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone. For even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. So he says, you yourself know, this is emphatic. You can see that even in the English. The Philippian church was very aware that there was a period in Paul's second missionary journey where he was in dire financial need. Apparently all the churches that he planted in Macedonia knew of this financial need, but for some reason or another, the Philippian church was the only one who actually did anything about this need. Now, where did this need come from? Well, this need came from the fact that Paul left behind Timothy and Silas. You remember in the Macedonian call, it was very successful as far as leading people to the Lord and planting churches, but in just about every city, I mean, starting in Philippi, Paul was imprisoned, he was beaten, he was chased out of the city in Thessalonica and Berea, and it gets so intense that he has to leave Timothy and Silas behind in Berea, and they actually eventually make their way back to Thessalonica and Philippi, but he has to actually leave them behind and go by himself to Athens. And what seems to take place is that Timothy and Silas were in charge of providing physical resources, food, money for Paul so that he could focus on his ministry. And that's exactly what we see even with Jesus and the 12 disciples. Remember Jesus told that one parable about the leaven and the disciples said he probably said that because we forgot to bring food with us. That tells us it's their responsibility to make sure that Jesus isn't spending his time neglecting preaching so he has to figure out where to get food. We know that Judas was the treasurer. He was supposed to keep track of the money so they could purchase the food. So it seemed like with rabbis or itinerant preachers, there were assistants that would come along that would enable them to not have to worry about the finances, not have to worry about where their next meal is going to come from. They'll take care of that. Paul, you focus on the preaching. So Timothy and Silas seem to have that sort of assistant role. And when Paul leaves them behind, all of a sudden what we find out in Scripture is that Paul runs out of money. We see in Acts 17, verse 13, that he had to leave them behind. It says, but when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul and Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea, and Silas and Timothy remained there. So there's our evidence that he had to leave them behind, and he had to go on his own. And he runs out of money, and that tells us that, by implication, they were the ones that, as much as they could, supported his ministry so he could continue to focus on preaching. An interesting passage is 1 Corinthians 9, 5 and 6. It says, do we, he's talking about the apostles, do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord in Cephas? Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working? So what it seems here is that Cephas and some of the other apostles would bring along their wives, and there's a connection between the wives and the provision. Perhaps the wives had a trade, they were able to make clothing or purple dye or whatever that we've seen various women in the Bible able to do, and they're able to generate some income so that Peter and some of the other apostles can focus on ministry. So we see some of the wives traveling with apostles for this reason, and perhaps, well not perhaps, I think it's pretty certain that that's what Timothy and Silas were doing as well. In Acts chapter 18 and verse one, we see that when Paul leaves Athens and he arrives at Corinth, Paul has to start up his tent making business. And he has to do that because he needs to work, because he's out of money. We see Acts 18.1, after these things he left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they were working, for by trade they were tent makers. We typically don't see Paul when he enters cities starting up his tent making business. But apparently when he gets to Corinth, he's out of money and he starts it up. Now apparently when Timothy and Silas are reunited with Paul, they bring this financial gift from the Philippian church. They bring it to Paul and they alleviate all his needs. This is a good thing. You can see this in 2 Corinthians chapter seven and verse nine where Paul talks about this gift that was given to him. And this is very good that they gave Paul this financial gift because the Corinthian church had accused Paul of being in it for the money. And so Paul's able to say in this passage I'm about to read to you that I didn't take a penny from you, Corinthian church. So he says in 2 Corinthians 11, 7, and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone. For when the brethren came from Macedonia," he's talking about Timothy and Silas, when they came from Macedonia, they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you and will continue to do so. So the Corinthian church accused Paul of being in it for the money. Paul says, you know very well, not only was I running a tent business to pay for my food and not relying on you, but my fellow compatriots in the ministry showed up and they fully supplied my need. So I didn't have to rely on you at all. So the generosity of the Philippian church kept Paul above reproach in the Corinthian church that would have loved to accuse him of being in it for the money. Now why was the Philippian church the only church that gave to Paul? We don't really know that answer. The Berean Church, the Thessalonican Church, they seem to be good churches. So we don't really know why. You know, I think that's an example sometimes. Good Christians can become so preoccupied in their own life and their own family and the priorities of life, they don't really pay attention to the needs of other people who are working themselves to the bone serving the Lord. And we kind of get locked into our own world. And perhaps that's what happened with the Bereans and the Thessalonians, but for whatever reason, they knew Paul was without his men that were providing him food and income. But for whatever reason, it was only the Philippian church that did it. And they gave more than once, very generously. We know why the Philippian church gave money to them. Paul answers that question in chapter one, verse three of Philippians. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy, and every prayer for you all in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. And in the end of verse seven he says, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of grace with me. The Philippian church was in the harness with Paul when it came to the gospel. They were passionate for the gospel. And because they were lovers of the gospel, because they appreciated and felt indebted to God for what he had done for them upon the cross, that generosity of spirit overflowed in providing for the Apostle Paul. So this goes back to the whole theme. If we know God is the great provider, we are going to be generous people. Number two, if God provides, we should use money, or insert whatever, to purchase friends for eternity. Does that sound strange? You're not supposed to buy friends, right? But in the kingdom of God, Jesus tells a parable where you can, actually, in a spiritual sense, purchase friends. He tells us in Luke chapter 16, if you wanna go there, Luke 16, one through 12. This is, I think, a brilliant parable. It's one of those parables, it'd be like one of those sermons where you would go away saying, man, I'm just so unsettled by that sermon. And you think over it, and you think over it, and you get the CD to Jesus' sermon, and you listen to it again and again, and okay, I get what he's saying. But you gotta really grapple with it, and that's what made Jesus a great teacher. In Luke chapter 16, verse one. Now he was also saying to the disciples there was a rich man who had a manager and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. So this financial manager under this rich man who's supposed to be wise in the management of this wealthy man's riches and he finds out he's just squandering it. He's not a good manager at all, he's a bad manager. And verse two, when he called him and said to him, what is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be a manager. In other words, turn the books in. You're fired, you're done. Verse three, the manager said to himself, what shall I do? Since my master is taking the management away from me, I'm not strong enough to dig. I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management, people will welcome me into their homes. Now why would a financial manager want people to welcome them into their homes? So he can have more clientele and manage their money. He doesn't want to be out of a job. He wants to preserve his resume. He still wants to look good. What is he going to do? Verse five, and he summoned each one of his master's debtors, okay, so they don't know the manager has been fired. Before they realize this, he summons them, and he began saying to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said, 100 measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill, sit down quickly, and write 50. Then he said to another, how much do you owe? And he said, 100 measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write 80. So what's he doing? Before they realize that he's been fired from his position, he's calling all the clientele, have a seat. I'm going to be really nice to you. You know, my boss has put me in charge of finances. I think we can swing this. I'm going to cut your bill in half. And guess what? All those people are walking out of his office. I really like that guy. That's a nice guy. I like doing business with him. Verse 8, and his master, this is crazy, praised the unrighteous manager because he acted shrewdly. So in the financial kingdom, it's not integrity and honesty that rules the day, it's outfoxing the other person. His master kind of looked at this really quick deceitful move and said, touche. You know, that's a pretty good move. You got me on that one. And actually praises him for his shrewdness, his deceit. And then Jesus goes on to say, for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness. This dirty money that the world is just in love with, use it for the kingdom of God. and use it for proper biblical godly reasons so that when it fails, I love that, when your money fails, not if it fails, it'll fail you at some point, they will receive you into the eternal dwelling. Because when you die and go to heaven, your money's not going to keep you from dying, you're going to go to heaven and all of a sudden you're going to see all these people in the kingdom of God that you impacted by the shrewdness or the wisdom in which you used your financial resources. Whether it was giving to the church, whether it was giving to missionaries, whether it was seeing a person in need, you spiritually, in that spiritual valuable sense, invested your money, or you can apply this principle to time, to resources, to whatever, you invested your time, and people in heaven are just gonna line those streets of gold, and they're gonna thank you. And so Jesus is essentially saying you can, if you understand his play on words here, purchase friends for eternity in the kingdom of God if you use money for godly reasons. And this is how Paul sees the use of money. Paul does not look at money as it only profits insofar as it purchases a product. I don't know how the financial gift of the Philippian church helped the Apostle Paul. We do know that he had to pay for his own rented quarters while he was under house arrest. How do you like that? You've got to pay for your own cell. So maybe he got in debt during this time. We know right now he's in the royal prison with the Praetorian Guard, but before that he had to rent out his own prison. So maybe he got in debt, maybe he's able to pay off that debt. We don't know, but Paul's not thinking of the immediate need he's able to meet. Look what he says in verse 17 of Philippians 4. Not that I seek the gift itself. I'm thankful, but it's not necessarily for the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases present participle, which super abounds, continues to super abound to your account. I'm excited because you've made a financial investment in the kingdom of God by this generous gift and it continues to abound. It isn't like a one-time purchase and that's it. It's not like when you buy a car and you drive it off the lot and it immediately starts to devalue. That's not an investment, even though you might need a car. But if you take that same money and you put it in a wise investment, you put it in some good stock, you invest it in a good business, it's gonna start, while you're sleeping at night, it's gonna be making you even more money. And Paul says, that's what this is like. It's super abounding. You've invested in my ministry. You've helped me in a time of need more than once. And when you sleep at night, your investment is still gaining spiritual benefits, spiritual interest. Gordon Fee made a brilliant observation. He says that the apostle Paul, by being given money from the Philippian church, was actually getting interest from his investment. So Paul's not only praying and knowing that the Philippian church is going to be gaining spiritual interest for the rest of their lives from what they invested in Paul, but Paul has invested in the Philippian church by planting this church. And now that this church is planted and Paul's miles away, now they're giving him money. So it's like Paul's accruing interest from his investment in this church as well. And that's what we do. I've said this before, I think the most joyous part of being a pastor is to see people bear fruit. There's nothing more exciting than that. You invest in people, whether it's discipleship or preaching, whatever it is, and you see people convicted, you see them grow in the Lord, you see them bear fruit. That's the interest. The interest continues to accrue long after you've been helping them. And that's one of the great joys of ministry. And that's what Paul is excited about with the Philippian church. He says, I know this gift is going to continue to give back to you. Well, number three, if God provides, then everything else is extra. If God provides, and we know He knows our needs exactly, and He provides according to our true needs, then whatever we get in addition is just extra. We don't have this sort of entitlement mentality. Boy, it's about time God started meeting my needs. It's wow, I don't deserve this, praise God. Look at verse 18. But I have received everything in full, and have an abundance. In other words, not only have you met my actual needs, but I have a surplus. That's how generous your gift is. Having received from Paphroditus, he was the guy that brought the gift, Paul wrote the letter, gave it to Paphroditus, he brought it back to the Philippian church. having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God." There goes Paul again. It's not just about the financial gift, but this thing is producing what is in the equivalent of the Old Testament sacrifices, where the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies, and he puts incense on the coals, and it fills the whole room up with smoke, and it's just this delicious smell. And you just imagine it wafting into the heavens, and God is so pleased. And again, that's what Paul's excited about. He's so thankful. You know, you read these words, I have received everything in full, and have an abundance, and am amply supplied. See where it says amply supplied, well-stocked. You know, if you take Paul in an over-literally fashion, you would have thought that the Philippian church sent him a million-dollar check or something. I mean, he's speaking as though they have just broke the bank and just enriched him. Now, they're just a tiny little church. I don't think we have any reason to believe that they sent him something that was just a staggering amount of wealth. I think Paul knows their condition, but he's so incredibly grateful, and Paul also knows, as this is our third point, if God provides and everything else is extra, Paul has just said, I'm content in every situation, so he knows that if he's content in God and God provides everything, and then in addition to God, he gets this gift that certainly alleviates certain strains in Paul's life, then this is all extra. And he's just so over-the-top grateful and thankful. He's a joyful receiver. A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of being the delivery boy for a very generous gift that was purchased by an anonymous person and given to another person who was in great need. And it was a very needed gift. It was a generous gift. And when I delivered it to these people, their response was like I just gave them keys to a new house. I mean, it was a nice gift, But their response was just, we do not deserve this. Overjoyed, so thankful, and they immediately gave all the glory to God. And I saw that as a reflection of their heart. It wasn't this, oh, about time the Lord answers some prayers, because we're having hard times. About time the Lord starts meeting our needs. It was just like, we are so blessed anyways to be saved and to know God, and then in addition, God provides for us like this. And I saw in their response, I saw the heart of Paul. where he's just over the top, joyful and thankful. And that really is how it should be. As the Lord provides for us along the way, we know ultimately that if we don't get hell and we get eternity in heaven, anything he adds onto that is just absolutely gracious and merciful. Well, the last one, number four, if God provides, then he obviously knows what we need. If God provides, he knows what we need. If he is the perfect, think about that, if he's the perfect provider, then he knows exactly what we need. Not kind of, but he knows exactly what we need. Paul asserts boldly, because he knows the great sacrifice from the Philippian church, he asserts boldly, don't worry, God is going to provide for your needs. Verse 19, and my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now that word according is very important. According means in proportion to the wealth of God. God owns the cattle on a thousand hill. God is pretty well off, and He's going to bless the believer in accordance with. You know, if a person who only has a thousand dollars in the bank account gives a hundred dollars, that probably means more than a millionaire who gives a hundred dollars. A millionaire should give in accordance with his wealth. If someone does that, it's going to be a little bigger because it's in accordance. So if God gives in accordance with his wealth, it's going to be generous. And I thought about that. What does that mean? Well, not the richest person in the world could give you the gift of contentment. You can't write a check big enough to purchase contentment. But God, who owns everything, even the source of contentment, He gives that. He gives the most expensive, valuable gifts to His children. He gives according to His riches. Now, when it says that God supplies all our needs, We have to admit that need is a very tricky word. Okay, what exactly is a need? Do I need food to live and not die? Yes. Does God address that? Yeah, Matthew 6, 25, for this reason I say to you, don't be worried about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they. So, God takes care of our clothing, He takes care of our food, He provides for us in that way. Have you ever read that passage and thought about the Christians who have starved to death? So, what about them? What about the Christians who have starved to death in death camps? What about when these famines and this hostility takes place in certain countries in Africa and people are starving to death because of mutinies in the government and the food sources cut off and they're not able to flee to countries and find food and sustenance and people are dying by the thousands? Obviously, there's Christians in their midst. And so do you ever think about that? I think about that all the time when I read that passage. Lord, I know for me, you faithfully put food on my table. And I can remember with my parents, sometimes in ministry, things got really tight. And sometimes for lunch, we had an apple, that's it. We don't have any more money for that. So we had tight times, but there's always something on the food. God was always providing. But we know in other parts of the world, people die from malnutrition. So as we think about that, I thought Dr. Thomas Constable has a very insightful thing to say about that. He says, why do so many Christians suffer due to lack of food, clothing, money, and view of this promise? Perhaps it is because some of our greatest needs are not material. To meet these needs, God sometimes does not make us rich or even financially comfortable. Remember too that God gave this promise to generous and sacrificial givers. We may be able to think of examples that appear to be exceptions to the promise. However, I believe that if we could see things from God's perspective, we would realize that God has been completely faithful to his word. In other words, once again, if God is the provider, then he knows what we need. from a human standpoint the worst case scenario if a Christian faithful to God dies of starvation, it's because God believes that is in that moment they need to come home to the Lord. They are calling, God is calling them home in that moment. That is what the great provider who could give them anything believes that they need in that time. And of course, all kinds of amazing stories come out of these situations of people who are dying all around, but God miraculously provides for His children. So there's so many situations where we see these truths come to pass in Christians' lives. But when they don't come to pass, does that mean God has broken His promises or that God is in tune to something that in His mind is an even greater need? Psalm 34, 9 through 10 says, "'Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints, for to those who fear Him there is no want,' or there is no lack. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger. but they who seek the Lord shall not lack or shall not want for any good thing. So it might be in the realm of food, because there's plenty of promises of God taking care of our basic provision, but more importantly, it's in the realm of the most important things that God provides, which is the Holy Spirit, which is our salvation. And when you really start to think about it, you really start to think, what exactly do I need The only thing you really need is Christ. I mean, if you're really trying to define need as literal as possible, the only thing I actually need need is Christ. If I'm diagnosed with a deadly cancer and I die within a month, I don't need to live. I need Christ. I need eternal life. Just this afternoon, I got a phone call. One of my good pastor friends, Tom Leak, some of you might know him, just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Typically, you pass away within a month of being diagnosed, and they were able to catch it in the early stages, but even the best case scenario, unless God miraculously intervenes, a good surgery will buy you maybe a couple years. So it's just like that. So what do you say? Boy, you've been so faithful. You know, he started a little church in his living room and it's just thriving. It's a wonderful example of a godly, healthy church, expository preaching, sending out missionaries, other church plants in Baltimore. I mean, the Lord's just blessed his faithfulness. And I think, I'm guessing he's in his early 60s. Very healthy, young spry guy, really active, really bubbly. And you'd think this guy probably lived to his 90s. Unless the Lord intervenes, you get a diagnosis like that, it's pretty ominous. So what do you say? I guess the Lord's not meeting your needs. You know, I think after a trillion years in heaven, no one's gonna say, you know all those meet my need verses in the Bible? They still stump me. I still don't get them. You know, I think after we're in heaven for a second, actually, we'll totally understand how God provides for needs. This is it, heaven. That's God providing for needs. So that is Paul's mindset, and if that's his mindset, than anything like a simple gracious gift from the fledgling Philippian church is just going to be over the top because he already knows God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. And then he says in verse 20, now to our God, notice that possessive pronoun there, our God. You talk about meeting our needs. God can call us his children, we can call God our God. He's provided himself. Now to our God and our Father, the our applies to both, be glory forever and ever, age to age, amen, let it be. It's all about the glory of God. What a great way to end. And then just wrapping it up with this final address, verse 21, greet every saint in Christ Jesus, the brethren who are with you, or with me, greet you. It's so important to Paul that all the saints there know that he wants them greeted. Paul's very personable, he loves the church. He says the saints in Christ Jesus, that's just shorthand for the fact that everything we need is in Christ. He uses that all the time. Verse 22, all the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. That kind of makes you do a double take. What? You know people in Caesar's household, Paul? Maybe he met them through the Praetorian guard that he said earlier on that he had been witnessing to and had great gospel inroads into the royal guard that was guarding him while he was in prison. Maybe he led some people. Seems like it. He definitely did know believers in Caesar's household. Maybe it was because of his faithful gospel witness in prison, but he wants them, Philippian church, to know that Caesar's household greets you. Boy, God's got believers everywhere. And then verse 23, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We could talk 100 years on grace, probably will in heaven. That's the source of salvation, undeserved grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit. Spirit being, inner attitudes, inner well-being, the grace of God. Just be with you from the inside out. Just permeate your entire being. So, this is the book of Philippians. This is Paul exhorting the Philippians to persevere in growth by joyfully and contentedly keeping Christ in the center. That's the whole point of the book of Philippians. It's not so much about joy as it is joyfully growing in the Lord by keeping Christ at front and center. Let me close by, I think, a very profound statement by Sinclair Ferguson. I was listening to his sermon on Philippians 3 actually this week. And he was imagining Timothy, who was probably the emmanuensis, the secretary for Paul, sort of writing down the letter to the Philippians while Paul's dictating it. And he imagines Timothy coming to this statement by Paul where he says in Philippians 3.13, but this one thing I do for getting those things that are behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. And he's talking about reaching forward to the prize of Christ. And Sinclair Ferguson says, I imagine Timothy putting down his quill and saying, wait a second, Paul, you sure you wanna word it that way? I mean, you've never done one thing in your life. You do thousands of things at a time. You're planting churches, you're running from mobs who wanna kill you, you're writing letters, you're discipling people, you're being thrown in prison, you're being let out of prison. I mean, you're doing so many things. You really wanna tell them you're doing one thing, and this one thing we do? He says he imagines Paul saying, Timothy, I'm doing one thing, but I'm doing it in a thousand different ways. I press on to Christ, but I do it through the variety of expressions of life and ministry that we have as we follow the Lord and as we serve the Lord. And that really is where the knowing Christ takes place as we serve Him in so many different ways, but really in the end of the day, we're just doing that one thing. We're pressing on because we want to know Christ better until we know Him fully in heaven. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you, God, for the gift of the letter to the Philippians. I pray, Lord, that this truth will sink deep into our hearts, that we will chase after your Son with all our strength, with all our might. May you continue to be, or maybe we should say we know and believe that you will continue to be, the God who provides for all of our needs and then even some of our sanctified wants. We praise You, God. In Your name, Amen.