Water.
Every time Terry comes, he asks me at the beginning, “Do you need water?” I do not drink water, you know? Every time he comes, he says, “I know you do not need water, but someone is going to bring it.” So, I am just letting you know: thank you, but I do not need any water.
I may get thirsty today.
Let us open up a few Scriptures here. In Philippians 1:6:
Being confident of this very thing, that He Who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Then, in Philippians 4:10:
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.
Nevertheless, you have done well that you shared in my distress.
Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only.
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.
Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Let us pray.
Father, I thank You this morning that we have a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that in Him, Lord, all things have been done. I thank You, Lord, that our sins have been washed away. I thank You, Lord, that I can hide in Him today.
Father, as we come to Your Word, I pray, O Lord, that You would get beyond teaching and let Your voice come through Your Word today and speak to Your people. Lord, I pray You would use Your Word to encourage Your people, to put them on the ground that lets them know that they are loved and that they are provided for, and encourage them to find what they have in You.
So, Father, I commit the Word to You. Thank You for the help of the Holy Spirit, and I ask for His help in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This morning, I would like to finish. I said I had about three or four messages on Philippians, and I would like to finish with Philippians. I have kind of done something out of each chapter. Again, I want to remind you that I am not giving a verse-by-verse exposition on these things, but sharing some of the things the Lord has put on my heart and shown me concerning myself and my walk with Him.
This will be my last one, and I want to end with what is probably the most practical thing: that God will provide all that is needed for you and me personally in order for Him to complete the work He has begun.
We have to remember what He has begun. He has begun the process of forming His Son in us. The end of it is that we are like Christ. When we see Him, we will be like Him.
It is a joint effort. On His part, He supplies grace. Remember, in Ephesians 2:8, it says that we are saved by grace through faith. On His part, He supplies grace; our part is to have faith, or to respond to this grace.
I would like to liken this whole process—what we have been talking about in Philippians concerning Christ being formed in us—to having a child. Not that I am an expert on having a child, right? I have not had one. But I have seen children born, I have seen people have children, I have watched television programs, and I feel myself an expert. No.
If you remember, the first time we concentrated on joy—the joy of the believer. We have reason to be joyful. I remember when Barb was pregnant with our first child, Katie, the joy we had and the joy we looked forward to in what was going to happen. It was indescribable, and you have to experience it for yourself.
There is that joy, and that joy is the thing that lifts you through a lot of difficulties because you are looking to the end—to what is going to happen in the end.
Then there is a mindset about submitting yourself. We talked about the mind of Christ, where He humbled Himself. I had to watch Barb submit to the rigors of pregnancy. For some people it is easy; for some people it is not. I hear every pregnancy is a little different.
She had to submit to the rigors of carrying this life within her. I remember the sickness, the not feeling well. She had to endure those things and say, “Well, I want the child. I want the life, so I will endure those things.”
I remember she had gestational diabetes and had to get a blood test every day for the last three months. She had to endure the race, submit to it, and do those things. Likewise, we have to submit ourselves to what the Lord is doing—to His saying thing.
Then there is the pressing on. I look at pressing on as those last few months of being pregnant, when you are tired of carrying that weight around. I know that you women get tired from carrying that weight around.
I just want to warn you, ladies who have not had a baby yet and are thinking of having a baby: when you are pregnant, do not have a waterbed, okay?
I remember the struggles of Barb trying to get out. When she got out, left, and got to where she had to go, I was just laughing because, to me, it was hilarious trying to get yourself out. But there is the pressing on.
I remember saying, “I am giving you an eviction notice. I want you out.” But you have to press on through it. You have to want that life, and you have to see it through to the end. It is not that I have already attained, but I press on.
Today, we want to look at the birthing—finally giving birth. This is the practical part. All the other parts have their focal point in this: the birth.
The joy of the beginning looks forward to the birth. The submitting to being pregnant is because you are looking forward to the birth. The pressing on is because you are looking forward to the birth. Finally, we want to look at that birth. What does that have in us? What does that have for us?
Since we are in Philippians, let us look at one of the verses we did last time, in Philippians 3:10. Paul says:
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
Now, we could look at this and say, “Wow, that is a wonderful teaching. What wonderful words those are.” Yet, to Paul, this was not just a teaching.
How do you know that? Let us turn to a couple of Scriptures to make this point.
In 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul writes:
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.
Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God Who raises the dead,
Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in Whom we trust that He will still deliver us.
Then, in 2 Corinthians 4:16:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Then, in 2 Corinthians 11:22:
Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.
Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.
From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;
in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—
besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.
Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?
You can see from these verses that Paul’s writing in Philippians 3:10—“that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings”—was not just a teaching to Paul. It had been his experience.
We cannot leave things as teachings and doctrines. Teaching and doctrine, as well as desire—“I desire to know the Lord. I desire to have these things”—have to be translated into life.
What I mean is, they have to have shoes on. They have to have pants. You have to put clothes on them. You have to put them in your clothes.
If they do not become real, if they do not become translated into your very life, then what happens is that you just have a doctrine, which is a lifeless teaching. The emphasis is on lifeless. It might be good teaching, but it brings no life because you do not let it become life in you.
Or a desire is just that—it is nothing more than a desire. It is never fulfilled. It just remains a longing, or it becomes the line of a chorus for us.
These things have to be brought into our experience and into our life for them to be any good, for them to mean anything to us. You can sing songs, but if you have no experience of the songs you are singing, all they are is words. They might be fun to sing, but they have no meaning for you.
Naturally speaking, a child must be forced out of the womb. Today we have certain things, such as a Caesarean section, where they can actually take the baby out without you having to go through labor. There is a big push for natural childbirth, but praise the Lord for the Caesarean section, because I know if it were not for that, we would have one less child.
Naturally speaking, God made the body to force the issue, if I can say that. Nature takes over. Contractions are not voluntary.
When my wife had our first child, she did not say, “Okay, I want to start contractions now. Let us go.” From my experience in watching her go through contractions, she did not like them.
Guys, we are machine-oriented. I am sorry, we are somewhat compassionless. I remember when they strapped that little monitor on my wife to do the heartbeat and measure the contractions. I was so caught up with that little tape that came out of it.
You saw the contraction go, “Hmm.” You saw the waves of it. I remember poor Barb suffering, and I was going, “Boy, this one is a big one.” Poor Barb goes, “Like I know it.” But I am looking at that thing, saying, “Whoa, this one is better than the other one.”
You cannot fight the contractions. Well, you can fight the contractions, but the thing is, it is going to hurt. The contractions come for a purpose: to push the life out. You need to cooperate with those things. There are times when you need to push through those contractions. That is just the way it goes.
In much the same way, the life of Christ must be forced into form in us.
Let me read a verse from 1 Peter 1. It is very familiar. Let me begin with 1 Peter 1:3:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In these things, you greatly rejoice. To think that Christ is being formed in us—we rejoice in that.
Then 1 Peter 1:6 says:
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials.
Notice that phrase: if need be. When the Lord is working this out, He is not someone who says, “I just want to pull this guy through the vise and see how he likes it.” The Lord does not do anything that is unnecessary.
If need be: various trials. God’s method, then, is trials. That is how He forms His Son in us. The key word is need. There is purpose behind the trial.
That is a wonderful thing to think about, even though you cannot understand the trial. Remember, I shared before about that awful job I had. I did not understand it, but there was purpose behind it.
Sometimes you will not know the purpose until there is fruit. Sometimes you may not know it for even longer, but you look back and say, “That was what He was doing.” The thing is, there is purpose behind these things.
God is a master craftsman. He knows what He is doing. That was one of the things we talked about the first time, about rejoicing. He knows what He is doing. He knows how to bring about things in your life to create what He wants created.
How do we react to God’s method? This is our part. There are two parts we want to see here: our part in this birthing, and then God’s part.
What is our part? Back in Philippians 4:11, it says:
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.
You may say, “Well, he is talking about ‘I can do all things.’” I am not going to begin with that. I want to talk about this little phrase in verse 11: “For I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content.”
There are two things I want to zero in on here. First is the word content. I am not going to give the Greek word. I am just going to use the English word.
I like The Far Side. There is one Far Side cartoon that probably younger people would not understand, but us older folks would. There is a cow in a house with her husband. She has a pearl necklace and glasses, and a glass in her hand. She turns to her husband and says, “Harold, I am not content.”
The people who are laughing know that cows are supposed to be content. You never see an anxious cow. Have you ever noticed that? When you drive by places where there are cows, they are just out there enjoying themselves. They are either sitting in the shade or moseying around eating grass.
Even with all the flies around them, they have that tail going, and they just seem unbothered—just so content. Out of contented cows comes good milk, right? Contented cows give good milk.
Content means being satisfied with what one has, or satisfied where one is. Paul says, “I have learned in all circumstances to be content.”
Why is he content? Because Christ is being formed in him. My contentment is not in the trials around me or in the circumstances here, but in knowing what is going to be the outcome. I will be satisfied with this.
The problem is that many of us seem to have a wilderness mentality. By wilderness mentality, I mean like the Israelites in the wilderness. They were always moving in circles, but never receiving the promise.
Part of their problem was that they were not content with God’s methods. They always wanted out of their circumstances.
If you read Exodus through Numbers, they are always complaining: “We do not have any water. God brought us out here to kill us.” But God brought them out there to show them, “You do not have water? I have water for you.”
“We do not have any food.” “You do not have food? I want you to see that I can provide food for you.” It was always, “We do not have this. We do not have that.” Their circumstances got in the way of seeing what they had in their God.
They saw the Red Sea. After seeing all that, to think, “Oh, He brought us out here to kill us.” Sometimes we are like this.
They saw their lack, but they never saw the provision of God for them. They never stuck it through. They always wanted out.
When we pray to get out—if we seek the Lord long enough and say, “Lord, get me out. Lord, get me out”—He is going to get you out. He will take you out, because He is not going to put you through what you are not willing to go through.
But if you are willing, He will take you through, and you will find provision for the way through.
Look at the things they had. “We have bitter water here.” Put a log in the water: sweet. “We do not have food.” They get fed from heaven. Water from a rock. Their enemies defeated. All this was in the wilderness.
We can go through things always doubting God’s love and care, feeling that He has got to ruin us, but never finding out that He is sufficient for us.
Because they never found that, they never saw what He promised. All the people in the wilderness died, except for two: Joshua and Caleb.
It is amazing how those guys could go on in the midst of grumbling, is it not? And who else survived? The children who were under twenty. That always strikes me. It is really amazing.
They learned God for themselves. They had a different thing. Mom and Dad were saying, “Yeah, I hate this manna every day,” and the kids were tripping out: “Yes, this is great.” So they made it through. God is sufficient.
How is Paul different from these wilderness people? What is the difference in Paul, and how can we be different? He says, “I have learned to be content.”
We are not naturally content. We have to learn to be content.
I remember when I first started working in public school. Barb was not working, and we were on one salary. Today, you tell people your wife does not work, and they freak out: “How do you afford things?”
We learned to be content with the things we had and not worry about the things we did not have. We did not have as many toys. We did not need a new car every year. We did not need the newest style of this or that or the other thing—although we do need a PlayStation, okay?
You know what I mean. We get to the place where we learn to be content. We learn to accept what God has doled out for us.
Look quickly at Hebrews 12:11. We hear about chastening all the time, because I think as Christians we have a thing with chastening.
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Chastening is just another word for disciplining. It is another word for learning. No learning seems great at the time you are learning something, because a lot of learning points out your faults and things like that.
But when you have been trained by it, it yields a fruit of righteousness. I have been trained, and righteousness is the character of Christ.
These trials that are, perhaps to us, sometimes a bane—something we do not think tastes very good—are the very things needed for the character of Christ to be formed.
We sang a song today, number 337. Verse two says:
Hast thou not seen how all thy longings have been granted
In what He ordaineth?
“Lord, I want to know the power of Your resurrection. I want to be like You.” The Lord says, “Amen. This is the training. Can you stick through with it?”
We do not like it at the beginning, but it yields the character of Christ. That is the thing we long for. Righteousness is the character of Christ, and Christ is being birthed in us through these trials. That is the thing we need to see.
Therefore, it is Christ in me Who infuses strength into me and enables me to endure.
The joy of the baby almost being born enables the mother to continue pushing. If you have watched a child be born, toward the end it is really tiring. It is really tough. But knowing, “I see the head. I see the head,” new vigor is given.
Then there is strength to push, and there is encouragement from the others in the room watching the child be born. I think people heard me three doors down: “Come on, Barb! Push!”
You get caught up in that, do you not? Those of you who have watched your children be born, you get caught up in it. There is encouragement there. It is not, “Oh, quit and die.” It is, “It is almost there. Hold on. Hold on.”
You hear this all the time: when the child is born, they forget the labor. That is true to a sense. They remember the labor later on, and they like to talk about it. I am not saying that is a bad thing.
Sometimes that is the encouragement: “It was tough, but I made it through. Look what became of it. Look at the fruit that came out of this. Now you hold on. You keep going.”
How wonderful it is to have encouragement from those who have gone on before—encouragement to press on. It means nothing from those who have not gone on, but from those who have gone on before and said, “I made it through, and I am no better than you. You can do it also.”
It is by the grace of God; it is by the strength of God that you do these things. Keep on. Keep pressing on.
That is our part. Our part is to learn to be content. Our part is to say, “Okay, Lord, this is the way You are going. I will submit to this. I will identify with what You are doing in my life.”
We talk about the Lord identifying with us—identifying with us as sinners when He was baptized, identifying with us on the cross. But how about us identifying with Him and what He is doing?
Not just with what He has already done, but with what He is doing. “Lord, I see what You are doing, and I am for it. I am with You on it.”
That is what identifying means. It means you are with somebody in what they are doing. “You have my amen. When You hear me struggling, give me grace. Just give me grace, and do not let me give up.”
What about God’s part? God never lets us go alone. Never.
Back in Philippians 4:19, a very familiar verse:
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
He is going to supply things. I want to use an illustration from 2 Kings 4, talking about supply.
This is a wonderful story, and I do not think this prophet gets the ink he should. He does not get the reading he should: the prophet Elisha. Everybody knows Elijah, because Elijah is the guy who called down fire from heaven and faced judgment.
But Elisha is the one of resurrection and life. It is amazing if you read all the things he did in 2 Kings. Think of all the life that came out of it and the saving of life that came out of it. Even when he died, when they threw somebody into the cave where he was buried, that person touched his bones and sprang to life.
The picture of God’s supply is found in 2 Kings 4:1:
A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”
So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?”
And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few.
And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”
So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out.
Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”
And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased.
Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
This is our way of thinking: we think that God’s supply is only enough to pay our debt. We think He pays our debt, and that is it. But that is not the case here.
He says, “Get a bunch of vessels.” Once you fill them, you pay your debt and live off the rest. In other words, there was enough there that she and her two sons could live for the rest of their lives off what had been supplied.
That is an amazing thing. We need to understand that when God supplies the things we need in order for Christ to be formed in us, He is not stingy about it. His supply is vast, and it is for the rest of our lives.
God cannot say, “Well, kid, I gave you all this, and I have run out. I am sorry. You are on your own now.” That would be tough. But He does not do that.
He has a supply enough for all of us here, and then some; for the United States, and then some; for the world, and then some. It is amazing, the supply that He has.
The context of Paul saying, “My God shall supply all your need,” is giving. The Philippians had been giving to Paul to forward his ministry. They saw he had need, and although he had not asked for it, they wanted to give something to him.
Paul says, “It is not that I needed this, but I thank you for it. I want you to know that because you have given, God will not be outgiven.”
How does this apply to what we are talking about? It applies in this way: we have been called into fellowship with Christ.
Remember, Mac gave a wonderful word about fellowship in Christ. Fellowship means that He shares with us. He gives us what He has. But it also means that we give Him what we have. Of course, we get the better deal.
Where is the giving in this? It concerns us giving to Him who we are—giving ourselves to Him and saying, “Use me for whatever You want. Here I am.”
It is like Romans 6, where he says to present yourself to God as alive from the dead, because He can use you now.
We have been called into the fellowship of His Son. God is saying to us, “If you will give yourself to Me and enter into this fellowship that I have called you into, you shall know Me and the supply that comes from Me.”
That supply not only ministers to your physical needs; it goes beyond that to fill the inner man.
Do not think that in Christianity we are just talking about helping the spiritual man. You need to read about Hudson Taylor or George Müller. When God supplied them, He supplied physical things too—the very things they needed.
They said, “God, I feel You want me to be doing this for You, and I am doing it for You. Therefore, You need to supply.” I think of Jonathan and Raina. Here they are going. What a wonderful thing this is.
This promise goes for them, and it goes for anybody who says, “God, I will give You my life. You can do what You need to do to form Christ in me. I am Yours for that.”
Then this promise is for you: He will supply everything you need.
It does not mean that you will not know need. It is when you know need that you ask: where do you go for it? You go to the Father, Who knows what you need and will supply it.
You do not go to brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so. But I will tell you this: when you read about George Müller and Hudson Taylor, you find them praying, “Lord, You called me to this. How are You going to do this? Because it is Your work.”
The Lord would be talking to other people: “Come by here. Give them bread. Come by here. Give them a check. Do this,” or whatever. Remember, it is like Dana last week: “I do not know why I had this five hundred dollars, but hey, maybe the Lord has it for you.”
My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ.
The riches in Christ can be physical things. But we are not just called to be preachers and missionaries; we are called to be conformed to the image of Christ.
We want to identify ourselves with what God is doing and say, “God, I am Yours for this.” His riches can be physical, yes. God has the cattle on a thousand hills, does He not?
As far as supplying money and things like that, when you need it—not when you want it—when you need it, there is supply. But how about this?
Paul knew God’s supply through the giving of the Philippians in one way, but there is another way. How about Barnabas?
Did Paul know God’s supply through Barnabas, the son of encouragement? Who was the only one who took Paul under his wing when he came back to Jerusalem after he was saved? It was Barnabas.
Who went looking for him? Who went with him? Who, after they had their split, did not poison John Mark’s mind and say, “Have nothing to do with Paul”?
One of the riches God provided for Paul was Barnabas. How about Priscilla and Aquila? How about Silas? How about John Mark and Luke? Read Romans 16.
Some of the ways God supplies us are through brothers and sisters. They are His jewels. They are the vessels of His supply, more often than not.
It is not often that we are fed by ravens like Elijah. “Lord, I need food,” and then we have ravens coming over and dropping food on us. How often is it a brother and sister coming with a meal?
How we were blessed when we first came here and people shared meals with us, brought things over, and supplied things. I told you how tough it was when Jamie was born, and how the brothers and sisters at PDF were such a help to us.
That is part of the riches. We need to look at brothers and sisters, not in a critical way, but as what they are: jewels in the hands of Christ, vessels of mercy for us, vessels of supply.
Some of His best riches are the encouragement that comes from them.
Sometimes we miss out because of our pride: “I will not take this from that person,” or, “I do not want my needs to be known.” Or we just want comfort: “I do not want to go through this. I do not want to lose this. I just want to be comfortable.”
The people in the wilderness were comfortable, even though they never entered into the promise of God. God made sure their clothes and shoes never wore out, and He fed them. They were comfortable, but they never achieved what God wanted for them.
The supply is His grace, and it is given to enable us. One of the things grace is: it is not just unmerited favor; it is enablement. It enables us to go through and endure.
There is a little hymn here, number 112:
He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
To added affliction He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our ho