I had four years for my PhD, three years for classes, and a year to write my dissertation. And so I told them I needed to be there for five years. And so I wanted to be sure that I was going to be able to stay in that town. And they said, no, that's no problem at all. And so we moved in. We moved down there and moved into it. And we lived there for about four years. Excuse me, one year, rather. And at the end of that year, I got a phone call. And the three men who owned the townhouse were selling it. And they were asking me at that point if I wanted to buy it. Well, I didn't want to buy it. And so I ended up having to move. And as we were driving around a particular neighborhood in Dallas looking for a place to stay, we were driving down a particular street. And I passed this house that the garage door was up. And it was packed all the way to the street. to the ceiling. It was unbelievable. Now, at the time, I didn't know what in the world I was looking at. I just knew I saw a bunch of junk and stuff and boxes all the way to the top of the ceiling. I didn't know what that was about. Well, now that I have since learned that that was a porter's house. And in fact, a few years ago, I appraised a couple of horse houses, and they don't appraise them much because they were trying to refinance, and it's a fire hazard. And so they wouldn't matter at all. You couldn't come up with a value, wouldn't bother finishing it. So at that time, I went, man, that was kind of new. Well, then in another situation, I was in church in ADM. And this church was supporting a number of missionaries, but they supported the missionaries from a Wednesday night giving. So the church ran on Sunday, and then they ran on Wednesday night. And on Wednesday night, whatever money was taken in, that's how they would support their missionaries. And that's fine as long as you have enough people, too, and enough money coming in for supporting all of those missionaries. Well then, before we got there, it just so happened that there was a problem in the church, and the pastor who was there, there was a, you know, a moral problem, and he was, had to leave, or put it that way. And so I came after that, and it was about two years after that that I was there. And now, this was right after I got my Master's degree, so I was in Indiana, and I was just simply teaching in a Christian school at the time. And there was a new pastor there, which was very good for the church. He was an in-between guy, and so he Came in there, but the church just slowly But during that time they weren't supporting missionaries They were Not sending them money And I got there, and I thought, what are you doing? If you're knowing these people, you're going to send them money. You send them overseas. They're there four years at a time. They come home unfurled. But if they're in the middle of their term, and you're not spending money, you're not sending the money that they're depending upon, how are they supposed to make it? How are they supposed to pay for the ministry? How are they supposed to do all kinds of things? You can't do that to them. And so the church was, in essence, failing to sacrifice to meet the commitments that they had made to the missionaries. Hmm. Well in Philippians chapter 4, verse 10 and down through the end, we see that Paul was a missionary and he writes this to this church, to the church of Philippi, and he says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly, how now at last your care for me has flourished again. Though surely, you surely did not, did care, but you lacked opportunity. So basically what we see is in the ancient times, and this is a church who was wanting to support Paul. They didn't have a middle system like we do. They weren't able to send money over the seasons and that sort of thing. If they were giving money to Paul, then they would have to have somebody from the church take him the money. So now I Want you to know that I speak in regard to me where I have learned and whatever state I am to be content I Know I Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry Both to abound and to suffer need So Paul's saying he's learned how to be both of those He can survive when he doesn't have anything he can survive when he has plenty So he says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me That's a familiar verse and some of us have memorized that verse That verse is saying that he can do all things. He can suffer under the circumstances of being in need, or he can not suffer because he has an abundance, and he knows how to do all things. He says, nevertheless, you have done well that you shared my distress. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church should have any concern in giving or receiving what you want. For even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. And we'll understand what that means in a moment. Indeed, I have all and abound and am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things you sent to me, or sent from me, a sweet smell in Rome, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. My God shall supply all your need according to His riches, my glory in Christ Jesus. So we see them what Paul is saying is is that Corporately and individually, he is able to be taken care of widely. So stewardship over money, as a church, is required at two levels. It's required at the personal level. And it's also required at the corporate level. Now I want you to understand, that's basically what he's saying here. Excuse me. He's saying that our giving and our corporate giving is both individually and it's corporate. Okay, now I'll show you what I'm going to say, what I mean by that. So if we're going to be have a personal stewardship of that money. We have to understand that there's two things involved. There's contentment and there's trust. We have to learn how to abound. We have to learn how to suffer loss. We have to be committed to doing what we should do. And we have to know how to be able to trust God to meet our needs and our goals. So, basically, he's saying to us that there are two keys, then, to that stewardship. It's required of us at school level, it's required of us for the personal and corporate. And the key to personal stewardship is those two things, commitment and trust. So, financially, what this involves is, number one, It means that there's four people, people who are making us money. Jesus. We can be faithful and giving to God. Now that's hard for us to think about at times, but we can. God never expects more of us individually than what we have. In other words, if he can't have a lot, then he doesn't expect a lot, but he does expect us to be able to give him a lot. Now I want you to go over here real quick to Colossians chapter 5. I'm very sorry. Now, I want you to notice what this part says. Therefore, who can remember to draw on the good? Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire. Then he uses the word color choices. And he follows color choices with the idea of which he says, which is a dollar. So, what I want us to understand when we talk about money, that Paul is saying that when you cover money, that's covetousness. That is a dollar. And so he wants us to be aware of that. Now, let's take this situation with the world. Why is it so significant that these people couldn't stop? They could not go into the room. I have walked into a home where I walked down the aisle, this wide, to go from the front door through the living room to get into the kitchen. Now, this is the only room I could go into. Now, when you went down the hallway, there would be enough room to open the door. Now, literally, you would go through an open door to crawl out of the bed that you would sleep in. And I don't know how they got this stuff in the back. They could never get this stuff. All the rooms were that way. And the only place I get to see stuff is that building's back. And I have one. I don't have this. It's showing around. They took me down to the basement. That's where he lived. But the basement was full. Completely full of junk. And there was a hallway that got you to one room down in the basement, which was full of stuff. And you'd fall onto the bed. And that was it. Now, what I'm trying to point out to you is that's a greedy person. That's a person who's not trusting the law. Why? They don't throw any men away. They literally don't throw anything away. That's like that person's garage in Dallas. Why was it so full like that? Because probably that's the interior of the house was the same way. I didn't go there, but I did go to the other side. And so you can see that this greed is not trusting the Lord, and in essence what you're being is idolatrous. So there's somebody who's poor, doesn't have anything, doesn't But they're so greedy. And we don't thank the poor for being able to be greedy, but they are. Well, then there's the middle class. And the middle class, they don't necessarily hoard things, and they have things, but still, they have money in their middle class, but they don't give it. That person can't let go of a nickel. They can't, you know, they just don't trust the Lord for anything, and they're going to keep this money to themselves. And on the other side of that is that you're going to have somebody who's wealthy, and you would think that they would be able to share and to give and do those things that they could do, but they just can't do it either. Because there's money means stuff to them and so they have to get into the back and you can't let go of it They're not gonna let go of any money That person is greedy as well Because they don't share with another person who has a need All right. So now what we've established there is They don't trust the Lord at any level Do you remember these before? And because they don't want to be able to let go of that money, they just can't depend on him in any way. Well, it's a second time. Contentment, though, if we're going to be content, means that we've got to trust. Now, we're going to trust, in verse 13, notice what he says, and notice what he says in verse 13. Paul says, I can do all things you trust. Paul knows that God can take care of him, and he's able to take care of him. Now, if we go back to Matthew chapter 6, You get it in verse 19, but I'm not going to be able to read all of that. It's going to take too much time. Matthew 6 And Jesus is talking now, and he's talking about, he's in the middle of the sermon on the mount, and he's talking about living in the kingdom. But he promises to meet all of our needs. Now, that principle is seen throughout scripture, that all of our needs are going to be met by the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so now I'm going to I've got to be able to do that moment where that treasure of his is going to be my heart. But then he comes down to the bottom in verse 33. He says a very familiar verse. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Jesus here has just been talking to a living in the kingdom. He's talking about you can't add anything You can't have the hair of your head. You can't do this. You can't do that And yet God provides all the food and the clothing that we could possibly need and he'll need all those things so we know that he We can depend upon him in that he also goes on verse 13 of Colossians And he tells us, Philippians, I'm sorry, that dependence upon God means confidence in fulfilling the task that is before us. Now, when you think about the words, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That means, well, financially I can meet all of these needs, but it also means I can do the things that he has asked me to do for him. I can depend upon him for that. It's confidence in us fulfilling that task that he's called us to do. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It means not dependent upon whether I have the money to do it or not. It just says I'm confident in my trust in Him. Matthew 6 verse 4, it tells us that we're not to be anxious about tomorrow. Now, that takes you back to that house that's filled with junk, that guy who's worried about tomorrow. He can't let go. Now, let's go back to another one. The key to corporate stewardship is sacrifice. In Colossians chapter 14, or Philippians chapter 14, he says, nevertheless, you have done well with them that you share in my distress. Now you Philippians know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Nazareth, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only. The church was willing to meet his needs. They shared that to him. Now I want to define for you, real quick here, because I think you'll help us understand this. Paul is functioning as a missionary. And I want to define missionary activity. I think there's a difference between missionary activity and what we do personally. And missionary activity, actually, in Matthew chapter 28, we're not going to turn there because I don't want to get to the end of it. But in Matthew 28, verses 19 to 20, there's a very clear verse that's a great commission. And Jesus tells them that he wants them to fulfill this mission. And in that... Now though, let's go there. I can't remember, so I'm going to have to go there. Verse 18, he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Then he says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Who is he talking to? He's talking to, in these verses, the 12, or in this case, the 11, but the 11 apostles. Those are the people who are present, but at the very least, we know that those people are present. We don't know how many more are present. There may be a few more. But when he gives a commission, he gives this commission to the disciples, to the apostles. the men who are to be known as the apostles. Now the question becomes that we need to know what did they do to fulfill that? What did they do to fill up this thing that he wanted them to do? He wanted them to make disciples of all nations. Well, the place that we go to find what he did is the Book of Acts. In Acts, we see the history of the early church. In Acts, we see how they go about fulfilling the Great Commission. All right? So let's go to Acts, and we go to Acts chapter 13. And we begin to see how the church is fulfilling the Great Commission. It says, now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. And he listens to them. Barnabas, he saw some of those people. But then notice with, we go down to the latter part of verse two. And the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work that I have called them. To which I have called them. Then having fasted, they prayed and laid hands on them. Then they sent them away. What we have is essentially Paul's first missionary journey. And in this chapter, Paul is going to go and record for us how he is fulfilling this great commission. How is he fulfilling the great commission? He's proponent by starting churches. As we go through, we notice that he goes through one city after another, and then he establishes four new churches. So he starts in the synagogue. And then what they do is they begin to tell them, from the Old Testament, what Jesus has done. And the people who believe them, well, they can't stay there. They go there first. There's godly people there. That's why they go there. But then they have to pull out from those when we've seen that. And so they separate from the sin of God. And the godly Jews, who are in the sin of God, are proselytized. Is it will go up with him and then he is and he starts that church now? Notice that nothing's happened here. All he's done is he's got this group meeting. They're now meeting separately And then it moves on And he sees it going through him. Now this is something that took about a year, year and a half. And then at the end of that time, he says, let's go back. And so they go back to all of those churches, and they come back to Antioch. But on the way back from the churches, when he comes back to those churches, what does he do? Now he sees how many people that are there that are faithful and that are loyal, and he appoints elders in each one of those churches. He didn't appoint them right away, he waited a year or so, and then he came back and those men that were faithful to him during that time, then they come back and they appointed them. And they appointed them. Then they came back and they reported to the church. Now, why am I telling you that? Because there's a difference between missionary activity and an individual who's living for the Lord. Each one of us, if we know Christ is saved, is living a life. And as we live our life, we do good works. There are certain things that we do. We witness. We share our faith with other people. All right? And so we do that. And then we do other things. And we meet their needs. But that doesn't make me a missionary. I know that we're entering the mission field in the long term, but really, that's not being a missionary. A missionary is someone who goes out and establishes churches. That missionary is seeking what? To replace themselves. I have a friend, there's an example of, he went to Germany. And he went to, well, first he went to Austria. He tried to do a little while in Austria, and they gave up because he couldn't get it going, he couldn't get it, and so he came outside of, and went back into Germany itself. And he was on the mission field for two, three decades, but you know, he was in that established church, And then he didn't move up. He kept establishing the church. And then all the churches in America were sending him the money, which was to a group of people he had of people surrounding him that were larger than we are. For years, it was larger than our church is right here. And so that's what he was going to say. He was not in that position. Sorry. But he was not being a missionary. He was being the pastor of the church. Because he was no longer getting that church to get started, helping that church to get started. And then when that church could make it on their own, he didn't move on. He stayed there. And so the end result was that he still got all this money from America, but that church was never supporting him, that he was in. Because he couldn't take the money. And so that's what we have with a lot of people. Now, you have others who are in some places, they may end up somewhere, a long time, whatever they're doing, but they're not being missionaries. They're simply being a believer who is doing the things that Jesus wants them to do. But they're not, in a sense, a missionary to me. And so that's important. I wanted to make that distinction for now, because what I want us to see is that if we go back to the Philippians, and in Philippians, Paul is writing, I am thanking them for the gift that the Pachydeinos has brought. They brought him again because it was important that he could do it. So that he could do the missionary. See, when Paul would also go into Mariah, he would function as a tent maker. And then all of a sudden, I was a tent maker missionary. And I started to rechurch him. I went out and I worked. When we established the church in Hot Sulphur Springs, I was working. But I had no intention of ever asking out of the church for money. But at some point, finally three years in, I didn't have to work anymore. Because that church would support me. So that church supported my family, where I was a pastor for the next five or six years. Eight or nine years, three years of it, I had to work. When we started a church in southwest Jefferson County, same thing, I worked as an appraiser. When we went down to Parker, we started the church. For the first two or three years, actually four or five, we contracted to deliver home books in cities. But eventually the church supported me, and then I'm functioning that way. But we need to understand what the missionary is. Now, when the purpose I say that to you is we support this church and we sacrifice in supporting that missionary, there's profit to the church as well. Notice what he says in verse 16. In other words, there is truth for us when we support missionaries. That fruit is not in financial means for us, although it may be, because it's the, like the church in Indiana that I spoke about, had they gone ahead and sacrificed in their giving so that they would be able to support those people, but that's all they had. God bless that church But he's talking more about a spiritual problem So that's important to understand so sacrificial missionary giving brings fulfillment of various things that they have so God promises to meet our needs because of our sacrificial giving Now remember that I talked about when we started this In Philippians when we started at the beginning, but there was a theme that we're crafting through the book of Philippians And we are in the fourth verse, fourth chapter of the book. And this fourth chapter is dealing with the secure mind. And last time I preached, we talked about that secure mind to a certain extent. And the thing that we're looking at and understanding the security of our thinking is that God promises to meet our needs because of our sacrificial gift. In my mind, as I think about those things, I need to understand what he's saying that we need to do as a church, and what we need to do as individuals. We need to be able to give. I can be as sure in my thinking that God will do what God says he will do for me. You know, they used to make a statement in the past that if things get tough, if you really can't meet your needs, and you can't make it financially, what will you need to give for it? And then God will take care of it. Now, I don't... Well, never mind, I won't say it. But then understand that when we talk about giving, sacrificial giving is choosing to do without on my own part. In other words, I will do without so that I can give to something else, or to someone else who needs it more. Now, at the same time that I make that statement, understand that foolishness does not equal sacrifice. In other words, when I go to an electric company, money, to pay my monthly electric bill, I do not pay it. I have to pay the electric bill. I don't ask other people to sacrifice. I have to sacrifice, but not other people. When we are supporting people, we still have to pay the bills. And so you've got to understand that. Now, Paul talks about 1st Corinthians 1 through 5 Go there. I don't have time, I'm going to run out. But I want you to read those verses. Those verses are very, very important. We have to give them ourselves first. And then we can give sacrifice. And then you will see a story about how they work. Now, I want us to jump ahead here, jump forward, and I want you to kind of tell us how the book of Philippians is to work. In chapter 1, we talked about the single mind. We talked about regular prayer. In chapter 2, we talked about the submissive mind. And let that mind be in you, which resolves in Christ Jesus. Do not regard and deceive other people by themselves. Chapter 3 was the secure mind. Chapter 4 was the strong mind, or secure mind. Well, let me tell you how to put it all together. Each day, think of it this way. Number one, surrender your mind to the Lord at the beginning of each day. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you receive your bodies into a living sacrifice, holy, accessible to God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, how? By the renewing of your mind. by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So, when we start off our day, we start it off with that in mind first. I've got to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. In other words, I can't be thinking like the world. I've got to think like God wants me to think. And I'm going to be transforming, I'm going to be, the idea of transforming is this world we get out of, where the red wall is destroyed. It's the same word. It's that caterpillar that changes into a butterfly. And so we have to do that. Secondly, we need to let the Holy Spirit renew our mind through His Word. A daily, systematic reading of the Word. Folks, I'm going to be real honest. When we have our daily breaths, they're great. I had them, I used them when I was a young person, and young in the war, and so on. But man, when you are, if you've been a Christian for the last 30, 40 years, the daily bread's not your daily Bible reading. That's your daily daily bread reading. I have got to have a systematic way of reading through the Bible. And I've got to do that so that you're reading through the Bible at least annually. And so I need to be able to get through my Bible every year. And I want to be able to do that. You've got to figure out how is it that I read through the Bible every year. That will change your mind. That will get your thinking what it's supposed to be. So, well, for those of you who have heard me before, you don't have to listen now. For those of you who haven't, you need to listen. Two chapters in the Old Testament, excluding the top Psalms and the Prophets. Two chapters in the Old Testament, five Psalms, one Proverb, and two chapters in the New Testament. You will get to the Old Testament every year, you will get to Psalms every month, you will get to Proverbs every month, and you will get to the New Testament three times. That's how you read through the Old Testament. Does that take a while? Half an hour to 45 minutes? When you get to solve 119, that's a long one. Okay, but when you can, but I don't know, that's a half an hour a day. You just, you've got to just take your time and read it. Now, it's not gonna be a half an hour for everybody. Some reads slower than others. And that's not your study. That's just simply reading the Word. Just reading the Bible. That's all you're doing. You're not trying to study it. And you may be able to think about the things that interest you, but you want to read it every day. And then as you pray, then you're going to ask God to give you a single mind, a submissive mind, a spiritual mind, and a secure mind. I was going to give the examples, but I'm not. I'm out of time. During the day, as you're going through that day, mind your mind. Know what you're going to want in your mind. When you were driving down the road, the guy cuts you off. That's the one you've heard. But when you're at work, I don't know why, and I don't want to say it's Carol when he's done his job. I don't have any idea why. I think of everybody who's been working, I'm thinking of Carol all the time. Because, you know, he's working with parts, and he's working with people, and he's Trying to find this, and he's trying to find that, or he's in their leadership, or whatever that word is. Yeah, if some guy irritates you, so what? Don't be irritated. Think about it. Keep your mind where your mind is supposed to be. Don't let him irritate you. Pay attention to what you're thinking, and stop, and pray. You get back to where you're supposed to be. Find yourself losing your inner peace and joy. Stop and take inventory. Why? You don't have to spend a lot of time. You can. A lot of times when you're at work. But why? What's causing me to do that? I don't want to do that. And then guard the gates of your mind. Remember Paul's admonition in Philippians 4a, whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, think on these things. Deal instantly with the problem that you're facing. And then finally remember that your joy is not meant to be a selfish thing. It is God's way of glorifying Christ's and helping others through you. Jesus first. You're second. You're still blessed. The result is joy. So when you think about the book of Philippians, it's about a thought. It's about a thought. Are you thinking in such a way that Philippians is manifesting itself in your life? That's what has to be happened. Now I'm standing up here and I'm feeling the impact, and I think it was more so in the beginning of my sermon than at any other time, of a struggle. And so I apologize for that part. I was so lost in the first part of the sermon that it, I don't know what was better. But this last part, I'm not lost. I'm not lost. That you might be turned over to the Lord. So that you can have a secure mind. That you can have a, excuse me, a spiritual mind, a submissive mind, and a sincere mind. Those who have been single mind, subsistence mind, secure mind, excuse me, spiritual mind. How do you think? Does it bring you forward? No. That's why living is a matter of society. Oh, we love you. Thank you for saying some blessings on the Philippines and our father. Father, I pray that our lives will be born and that our minds will be born in Jesus' name.