So we're continuing and actually coming to a close, revisiting our series in the book of Philippians, and it will be the last sermon. This is Philippians chapter four, verses 10 to 23. So please turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians chapter four. Beginning in verse 10. Hear now the word of the living God. I've rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied having received from Epaphroditus the gift you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever, amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus, the brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord will stand forever. There's a story I once read that began with a poor farmer who worked himself to the bone every year to bring about the harvest that he would take and sell to a dealer. But one year after selling the crops, he walked away with his measly pay and thought to himself how pitiful his life is. He is the one that does all the work and the dealer just shows up once a year and gets more money than he does. What a great life the dealer has. Then the dealer, after collecting all his money from the various farmers, returns home only to be visited by a tax collector. And the tax collector takes his large cut of the dealer's money and left the dealer with a much smaller amount. And the dealer was saddened by his fate. He thought to himself how he was the one who had to deal with all the angry farmers and was being cursed by them all the time. He was the one who gave them their measly pay knowing that they deserve much more, but the tax collector just shows up and takes what he's earned. What a great life the tax collector must have. Then the tax collector reports to the king's palace to give the revenue to the king. And the king takes most of it, leaving just a small amount with the tax collector. And the tax collector thought to himself, I had all this money, but the king takes almost all of it because he is the king. It must be nice to be the king. Then the king who lives in a luxurious palace, living a luxurious life, walks out on his balcony and he thinks to himself how stressful his life is. There's always the threat of someone trying to kill him, the threat of someone trying to invade the land. He has to deal with all the stresses and difficulties of ruling over the entire kingdom. And on his balcony, he looks out into a small farm just outside the castle walls to see the poor farmer working his farm and thinks, what a peaceful life this poor farmer lives. It is human nature to compare yourselves to others, to think that others have it better, or even to think about your own circumstances. Maybe you think you had it better in the past, or if you just made a different life decision, things would have been so much better for you now. No matter how good you may have it, it's our nature to think it could be better. Lack of contentment seems to be the norm. But in our passage this morning, the Apostle Paul reveals a secret he has learned, a secret to being content in every and any circumstance. You can be content in Christ because God will strengthen you and supply your every need all to his own glory. Our passage this morning comes at the end of Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. It's following Paul's call to them to rejoice in the Lord always. and not to be anxious about anything, but to take everything to God in prayer with thanksgiving. The promise of peace of God in your heart when you do. It follows Paul's call to focus on the goodness of God, the good things of God, and the promise that God will be with you. Now in the closing of this letter, Paul speaks of his own joy, his joy at the concern of the Philippian church that they have had for him throughout all the years of their relationship. Throughout this letter, Paul has repeatedly come back to these themes of joy, unity, and Christian fellowship. This letter is part a missionary update letter, but it's also part a letter of pastoral encouragement. And in the conclusion of the letter, we see both these elements. Paul says that he is rejoicing in the Lord greatly in that length because the Philippians have revived their concern for him. The Philippians lost contact with Paul. They had concern for him, they had concern for his ministry, his wellbeing, but they had no opportunity to help. They didn't know where he was. But now they've finally been able to locate him in a Roman prison and they sent him a generous gift. And Paul is not glad simply because they gave him money. He was not desperate in his need. He says he has learned in whatever situation he is to be content. This means that his contentment goes beyond his situation, beyond his circumstances. No matter what is going on in his life, he has learned it is his call as a Christian to be content. He says, I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. Here he's speaking specifically about financial resources. He knows how to deal with having little to no money and how to deal with having a lot of money. Whether plenty or hunger, abundance or need, Paul has done it all. And he has learned that his calling in Christ is to be content in any and every circumstance. And this is something every one of us, every Christian should learn. You are to be content in every situation. Contentment is being in a state of peace and joy, accepting your circumstances as from God. God has given you all that you have, the family you were born into, the city you were born in, your education, your skill sets, your talent, your career, your spouse, your children, no matter what circumstances you have, God is in control and you are to be content. But it's our nature to always want something more. Human nature is to not be content with what we have. That's what we saw of Israel after they were freed from slavery in Egypt. God delivered them out of slavery. They were complaining about the food that God provided in the wilderness. It wasn't good enough. And it's even worse in modern American culture. We always want more. When I first moved to the suburbs, I was impressed with how big some of the houses were. But what surprised me was how many people were saying they needed a bigger house. I grew up in the city and lived most of my life in a row home. And so I would just think about how big and nice a lot of these single homes were. And quite often, as I was looking at the house and seeing how nice it was, the person would then tell me that they were moving because they needed a bigger house. But it's not just houses, it's cars, it's better vacations, it's bigger TVs, it's bigger and better, newer and faster for everything. Now, getting something new and nice isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but lack of contentment is a problem in the Christian life. It's such a problem for humanity that we have a figure of speech to describe it. The grass is always greener on the other side. It's human nature to think that the things you don't have are always more appealing than the things that you do have. Like the story with the poor farmer and the king. It's often we think someone else or something else is better. But as a follower of Jesus Christ, you are to be content in every and any situation. And Paul tells us how to do this, how to be content in life no matter what your circumstances are. The secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need is I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Paul is not saying that he just decided to be content, therefore he is content. He's not saying that he just dug down deep inside himself to be content. but it is through Christ strengthening him that he is able to be content in any situation. This verse, Philippians 4.13, is probably one of the most famous in the whole book, but it's often taken out of context. People often use it as if to say that you can accomplish all of your dreams and goals through Christ strengthening you. I can be the MVP of the Super Bowl through Christ strengthening me. But by do all things, Paul is clearly saying that you can be content in any and every situation through Christ strengthening you, through the grace that is in Jesus Christ strengthening you. When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you are spiritually united to Him by faith. And this is how you are justified before God, by the grace of God through the means of faith. You are saved by grace through faith. But it doesn't end there. God does justify you. He transfers your sins to Christ and punishes them on the cross. He transfers his righteousness to you so that you are seen in the righteousness of Christ no matter what you do in the eyes of God. But that's not the whole of it. It doesn't end there. As glorious as that is, God continues to work in you by grace through faith. Through your spiritual union with Christ, he strengthens you for what you face in your life. He strengthens you for any and every circumstance. There is a power in your spiritual union with Christ that you access by faith, by trusting in Jesus Christ. It's letting go of your own ability to fix or not fix a situation. Letting go of your own ability to be in control and trusting that through your spiritual union with Christ, God will graciously strengthen you for whatever circumstances he currently has you in. Through your spiritual union with Christ, you have the power of Christ working in you, which is yours through faith. Brian Chappell, an author and pastor, in his book Holiness by Grace, uses two different analogies to represent the two different views of God's love that he sees. He says there's a faulty view of God's love that you see it sort of as a well, that we access God's love in this well by different spiritual disciplines, or would refer to as means of grace, prayer, reading and hearing and meditating scripture, seeking God in the communion of believers and fellowship and worship, participation in the sacraments. And these buckets that we use extract God's love from a well. The issue with seeing it that way is that these actions Seeing that these actions gain more of God's affection for us is that no matter how good your prayer life, your devotional life is, it's never good enough to earn divine favor. It's more like a thimble being dropped into the bottomless pit of divine expectation. God's standard is beyond anything we can reach. But the second view he gives is to see God's love as the air we breathe. So rather than see it as the means of grace as a way to produce God's love for us, you see them as a means for more fully using the provision that already surrounds you. God's love is already fully and completely provided for you in Christ. You can simply experience more of it through prayer, Bible study, worship, and so on. It's not that you have to earn it through these things. And through God's love, you can be strengthened. When you understand that God's love for you is fully yours in Christ and accomplished on the cross, it's not based on anything you do or don't do. Upon that foundation, you can rely on him in any and every circumstance. Through the power of Christ working in you and through you, you can be content. God's love for you is fully yours through your spiritual union with Christ by faith. You experience God's love, God's grace, God's power working in you by grace through faith. And that is the secret to being content in whatever circumstances you are in. But even though Paul has learned how to be content in every circumstance, he is truly grateful for the Philippian church. He's truly grateful for their love and their concern for him. The Philippian church had supported Paul right from the beginning of his ministry there. Paul planted the church in Philippi and went around the area of Macedonia. It's a Roman providence that is north of Greece, the area that Philippi is in. But then when he eventually left Macedonia, the only church that supported him in that area was Philippi. Then when he was preaching the gospel in Thessalonica, the Philippians helped him there again and again. And while many of Paul's churches gave him headache after headache, the Philippians sent him financial aid over and over again. And this partnership, he says, was giving and receiving. The word partnership, translated as partnership, comes from the root word koinonia. It's a word that comes up all throughout the letter of the Philippians. It's often translated as fellowship. And this is what Christian fellowship is, partnerships in the gospel that are both giving and receiving. There is financial support, prayer support, emotional support. There are many ways to give and receive in the gospel. Paul was giving teaching, preaching, discipleship, pastoral encouragement. The Philippians sent financial help, prayers, emotional support. And so when you think of all the partnerships you have in the gospel, We have mission partners here at Third. We have churches that we partner with, our presbytery, plus other Christians and pastors that you know personally, even other members of this church. Your relationships with them should be a partnership of giving and receiving. Partnerships in the gospel where the giving and receiving are focused on the fruit rather than the gift. This is what Paul says in verse 17, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. Seeking fruit in gospel ministry. The fruit of the gospel can be many things. There is the fruit of the spirit that develops in the believer. There's the fruit of conversion. An unbeliever converted to a believer. But here Paul is rejoicing and giving thanks that the Philippians are bearing the fruit of giving. He is grateful that they still have a heart of giving that they had when he first planted this church. The key is to focus on the fruit of the gospel. It's easy to shift our focus primarily to numbers, numbers of people, dollars, and so on. And it's not that we shouldn't think about these things. We have to do that. But it shouldn't be the driving force in what we do as a church. Meaning, our goal isn't simply more people here. It's more conversions. It's more people being discipled. Our goal is the fruit of evangelism and discipleship. Dennis Johnson, in his commentary on Philippians, mentions that the partnership of the gospel in giving and receiving is really a three-way partnership. If you consider missionaries, the church, and God himself are all partners in the gospel. The missionary gives and receives. The missionary often gives through sacrifice. Missionaries sacrifice all kinds of things. Comforts of home, a secure position, being surrounded by family and friends. Depending on where they go, they often sacrifice education, living standards for their children. They give their efforts, their labors for the gospel, preaching, teaching, planting churches. And they receive, they receive money, financial support to keep them going, and often other resources. They also receive the joy that comes from the fruits of their ministry, seeing people come to Christ, watching them grow in Christ, knowing that the fruit of giving remains in the church and the people that financially support them. The second partner is the church. The church usually gives financially, supporting missionaries with money, but there's also prayer. And prayer's not a second-rate support. Prayer's a means through which God works out his purposes. Sometimes churches can even supply workers for a particular mission. And the churches receive the fruit of their giving, the knowledge of what their financial giving does in the ministry. The missionaries always give reports back, what is going on? And God also returns a cheerful giver. God increases his grace upon those who give sacrificially. He will bear the fruit of comfort. He will give us peace. He will give us contentment in those who give. And that is the third partner, God himself, the sovereign Lord over all things. And it's important to remember when we're thinking about this, partnerships in the gospel, any Christian fellowship, any working together for the kingdom of God involves God himself. God doesn't call us to a life focused and dedicated to advancement of the gospel, call us to a life focused on his kingdom and then simply step back. He is involved every step of the way. He is actually in control of the entire process. God gives accordingly to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. God's resources go far beyond anything that exists in this world. He is the creator of everything that exists. And because believers, we are united to Christ by grace through faith, we have access to God and his unlimited power within us. God supplies as he wills. He is far above us in every way. He doesn't always give you what you want, but he gives what he wills according to his glory. And when Paul is pleading with the church in Corinth to give more sacrificially, in his second letter to that church, he appeals to the gracious sacrifice of Jesus Christ that has made them spiritually rich beyond imagination. He said, for you know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich. So your giving is in response to God giving his son to you, so that you can be rich with an inheritance beyond your wildest imagination. You are strengthened by grace through faith. Your spiritual union with Christ is your inheritance, and this fuels the whole of your Christian life. and your giving is pleasing to God. The Christian giving is an act of obedience. Paul says that the gift he received from the Philippians that was delivered by Epaphroditus, it was a fragrant offering, a sacrifice, acceptable and pleasing to God. The heart of giving is what pleases God. God loves a cheerful giver. Someone who gives out of a heart of love, of sacrifice, of obedience to God is a fragrant offering to him. It's not the gift itself that pleases God. God needs nothing from us, but a gift given with a heart of gratitude, a gift given with a heart that has been changed by the gospel. And Paul gives comfort that the generous giver who gives with a heart of trust in God has reason to trust God because he says, my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Your giving is pleasing to God and you give out of obedience, out of love in response to God's loving sacrifice of his son for you. You give knowing that God will supply your every need. He won't give you everything you want. He won't fulfill your every desire, but he will give you everything you need. And your sacrificial giving from this heart of gratitude, of love, of trust in God is pleasing to him. And all of it is to the glory of God. Paul ends this letter in the same way he started it, pointing it all to the glory of God. In his opening prayer, Paul said that he thanked God for the Philippians. He thanked God for their partnership with him in the gospel. And he said he praised that they would be pure and blameless on the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus to the glory and praise of God. And now at the end of this letter, everything Paul has said in our passage this morning, that he has learned the secret of how to be content in any and every situation through Jesus Christ, strengthening him and his partnership in the gospel, giving and receiving with the Philippians that he rejoices over and God supplying their every need. in response to their sacrificial offering. At the end of all this, he says, to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. And he closes out this whole letter saying that all that you do, all that you do as a Christian is to the glory of God. God has called you out of spiritual darkness, out of spiritual death, and he united you to his son through faith for his glory to shine. He saves you by grace through faith for his own glory. He strengthens you by grace through faith for his own glory. Your partnerships in the gospel, the giving and receiving are for the glory of God. Your sacrificial giving with a heart of gratitude, love, and trust that pleases God is for his own glory. Your new life in Christ, everything you have, everything you are, every blessing God has given you now that awaits you in the future is all to the glory and praise of God. So whatever circumstances you find yourself in, you can be content knowing that God will strengthen you and supply your every need all to his own glory. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you, Lord, to glorify you now in our worship. We know, Lord, that everything we have is yours. And so we ask, Lord, for the strength that is in Christ Jesus to give us the grace to be content with what you have given us, to be content in our finances, in our lives, in all that we have, knowing that we have you, that we have your power working within us, that we can give sacrificially, out of love, out of trust, that ultimately we can trust you not only with our finances, but with our lives, with the whole of our lives, that we can dedicate ourselves, being content in you and all that you are and all that you have done, living for your glory and the glory of the name of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.