Philippians 4:13- Associate Pastor Matt Passmore

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Amen.

Wow.

Thank you for being here today.

If you are here and you're wanting to see Pastor, if you're a guest, my name is Matt Passmore, one of the pastors here on staff.

Pastor asked me to preach today, so don't hold it against us.

You can come back next week.

He'll be back next week.

But this is my friend Drew.

Drew went to camp this week, and uh we were able to go off Wednesday and check out the camp.

Drew, while you were at camp, was it as hot as Jacob said it was?

I don't know.

It was a little hotter, probably like 120 maybe.

And I and I and I've heard a rumor the first night the boys had a hard time going to bed.

Was that the truth?

Yeah.

But by the end of the week, you got well rested and you didn't even have to take a nap when you got home, did you?

Might have.

Might have.

But no, I I will say this, church.

You would be proud of our guys.

We went and our uh the uh the sponsors did a great job loving on kids.

Um we had many of them there doing it.

The kids, I just say this when we were there eating, they were all together, spending time together, and the Lord did work amongst our group, and we're grateful for that.

Also, today is exciting.

It's the first Sunday back that our El Salvador group they spent a whole week serving in El Salvador.

They're back, heard great stories, the Lord worked there too.

But today, we are continuing our series.

We have uh churches voted on uh their the most popular verses, so here are nominations for our verses today.

Philippians 4.13, Romans 8.28, Jeremiah 29, 11.

So, Drew, at this time, will you tell us what today's verse is?

The verse is Philippians 4.13.

I am able to do all things through him who strengths me.

Thank you, Drew.

Thank you, Drew.

Let's so the the other day a pastor comes in and asks if I would if I would like to preach, and I am grateful for this.

And he said, I will get with you and I will tell you the passage of scripture that was it's time for that passage of scripture.

So I was waiting around and I got the email, and when it came across my screen, I'll be honest, my first reaction was, please, not that verse.

Um, this verse, I've I've had a hard time with this verse.

And before I get started, though, pray with me.

Because uh this is I had to go back and deal with some stuff in my life about this verse, preparing for this, but let's pray together.

Dear God, I come before you now.

Just grateful for your word, grateful for this church, grateful for the students and the college and just the things that are happening here, thankful that uh it's still all about you.

And Lord, as we reach out to the river valley, as we reach out in different things that we do in our lives, Lord, help us remember that it's all about you and the calling you have on our life.

And Lord, help us as we dig into this verse today, help us interpret it correctly.

Lord, help us help your word be the part that we leave here with today.

Um, guide and direct us in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Now, many of you know I played I played college baseball, and so guess what was inside of my baseball hat when I was in college?

Philippians 4 13.

I was a Christian.

You're supposed to put that in your hat.

Before you go up to bat, you're supposed to quote it.

Lord, give me strength to do what?

Hit a home run.

Lord, give me strength to be all that I need to be so I can be awesome.

One day, we were playing a game on Sunday, and I was not awesome.

It was a bad day.

Uh I can't even tell you how many times I struck out.

It was just like it was one of those days, should I just give up baseball?

I remember getting in the car all by myself, sitting right there, and I was having a pity party.

Seriously, Lord, I got up this morning and I went to early church.

I have been reading my Bible.

And a guy on our team, I know what he did last night, and it was not good.

And look what he did, and look what I did.

It's not fair.

How many times do we take scripture sometimes and we take it and we manipulate it?

We only use part of it.

And today I want to take and I want to take a step back.

I want to dig into it a little more, and I want to correctly speak into it the way I think Paul interpreted it, the way Paul taught it to be interpreted.

It's Philippians 4 13.

I am able to do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

I think it's important to grasp what Paul was trying to teach.

But let's stop for a second and remember who's writing this and who is he writing it to.

We look at Paul.

Remember Paul?

Paul's the one that really thought he was doing what the Lord wanted him to do.

He was going around, he was getting Christians, and he was trying to imprison them.

Really, he was trying to do what?

Kill them.

And he was on his way to Damascus with a letter to go take care of Christians when the Lord did what?

The Lord brought a shining light and really got Paul's attention.

Remember, the light came out and said, Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me?

And then I just want to read.

This is the response in the Bible that Paul made.

Paul said, I ask, who are you, Lord?

And the Lord replied, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

But get up, stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for a purpose.

To appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and what you will see of me.

So we're going to stop today and we're going to really dive in so you can look in Philippians 4 13.

Find that in your Bible.

So Paul, the one that the Lord grabbed a hold of, the Lord changed the direction he was going.

Isn't that what salvation is?

We are doing what we want to do, how we want to do it, and we think we're doing it well when the Lord says that is wrong.

We turn from doing that, and then we do what?

We should be following Christ.

This is exactly what Paul's doing right here.

So Paul writes this letter to the Philippian church.

The church in Philippi.

Now remember, this letter came to them, and let's say this is the church that he sent it to.

This is a church that he knows well.

This is a church, one of his first churches he started in the Macedonian area.

And remember, when he was there, he went into the temples.

This is all in Acts.

He went into the temple and he saw what?

There was no one there to talk to, no one, no believer what he was looking for.

You remember he went out to the river and he found Lydia.

Remember Lydia, the one that did the uh the purple dye?

She was one of the first converts in Philippi.

She was a huge piece of the church.

And then we see there also while he was in Philippi, or why he was there.

You remember he was he was there when there was a demon-possessed girl.

She was there, and what did he do?

He cast out the demon and it stirred up the whole town.

Because why?

The owner could not make money off the girl anymore because she could not predict the future.

And it got so crazy that Paul and Silas ended up where?

In prison.

But you remember the story while they were in prison?

What happened?

There was an earthquake, the doors opened, the jailer, the Philippian jailer, we see in scripture, did what?

He grabbed his sword and he was about to what?

Kill himself when Paul says what?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

We are all here.

And you remember that night the Philippian jailer was changed forever.

He gave his life to Christ.

And we continue to read what?

And his family.

This is who we're talking about.

This is the connection Paul had with these.

These were his people.

These people, the church in Philippi, were giving money and praying.

They were a part of Paul's ministry.

It makes this letter a little different when you know who Paul was and how the care he had for this particular church.

So that and what I love about Paul is he's not just going to, he's going to preach.

So when he sends this letter, he's not, he is putting in them, showing them, constantly teaching them what it's like to follow Christ and how to keep your eyes on Christ and how to be careful of what the world's trying to say.

So here's where we're at.

If you will, read with me.

We're going to be in Philippians 4.

Now I want to bounce up.

I want to read 10.

I want to start in verse 10.

Okay, we're going to start in verse 10 and we'll get to verse 13.

So here we go.

Philippians 4.10.

I rejoice in the Lord greatly because once again you renewed your care for me.

You were in fact concerned about me, but lacked the opportunity to show it.

I don't say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself.

I know how to make do with a little, and I know how to make do with a lot.

In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being content, whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need, I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

So as we look at this, I think we can look through each one of these verses and we see four areas of Paul living out his faith, living out who Christ was in his life.

And it starts here in verse 10.

Again, in verse 10, I think we see Paul acknowledges his appreciation for the church and Philippi.

Paul is telling them, thank you.

Look at it again.

I rejoice in the Lord greatly because once again you renewed your care for me.

You were in fact concerned about me, but lack the opportunity to show it.

So apparently, looking at this, there has been some time that has gone by since Paul's been able to connect with the church in Philippi.

Since the church in Philippi has given Paul some money, there has been some disconnect.

And we see here part of that disconnect just is mileage.

I got to looking because I thought, well, from Rome to Philippi was about 600 miles.

I'll just tell you this.

Me getting in my car in the interstate, 600 miles is a long time.

That's me driving in the car doing the interstate.

Can you imagine?

They said this journey, there was a person in the church that took the money and went to encourage Paul.

They said it could have taken anywhere from two weeks to two months, depending on how he traveled.

Can you imagine that?

So he shows up, he gives Paul the gifts, he encouraged Paul to tell him what?

We are alongside of you.

And so we see here, he says, I rejoice in the Lord.

It takes him back to realize what?

What is Paul saying?

He is excited, but what is he excited about?

To be connected, back connected with what?

A chance to know that he has a partner in ministry.

It takes us back to the calling that he had on his life.

You remember when he was blinded and Paul and God told him to get up because I have a calling on your life.

He knew now, he remembered back to what?

He has a group of people, not only giving him money, but he has a group of people, and it delights him in the Lord.

He was appreciative of what the Lord was doing amongst the church in Philippi, what the Lord was doing in his life.

Then it takes us to verse 11.

Look in verse 11.

I do not say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself.

We see here in verse 11, Paul adopted contentment as a way of life.

What is content?

I mean, we can throw that around and we can what is the word content mean?

Well, sometimes I just look it up in the dictionary.

So here's what it said: content.

Pleased with your situation, not hoping for change or improvement.

Now look at that again.

I don't say this out of need, for I have learned to be pleased with my situation, not hoping to change anything, or I don't need any improvement, in whatever circumstances I find myself in.

His contentment we see here was learned through his experiences.

Then that leads us to verse 12.

Look at verse 12.

I know how to make do with a little, and I know how to make do with a lot.

In any and all circumstances, I have learned a secret of being content, whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.

So we see this in verse 4.

Paul adapts to changing circumstances.

Circumstances are the arena of spiritual growth.

And through this, Paul developed adaptability.

Paul realized that he could rise above any set of circumstances because of who Christ is and what Christ did for him.

So we see basically two words that are used both in verse 11 and verse 12, and they are this content in all circumstances.

And then we see circumstances, and then there's an important word in this one.

I have learned the secret of contentment.

Wouldn't that be nice to know?

Oh, sign me up for that.

Can you help me be content in my circumstances?

Or give me the secret of how to be content in circumstances?

And so then that takes us to verse 13.

Look in verse 13 with me.

I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

In verse 13, Paul affirms his dependency on Christ.

So many times, like myself on that Sunday afternoon after the baseball game, sitting in my car, we think we know what God should be doing.

And we sit there and go, God, I know what I need.

God, if you would just do this, wouldn't it be a lot better?

God, you know what?

I went to church that day.

Why couldn't I hit a home run?

And I would have given you all the glory.

Right?

And so we sit there really truthfully and we, when it gets down to it, we, well, it takes us back to really what we've done to religion.

Lord, we want you, but we want you the way we want you.

Lord, we want you to be a part of this so that we can use your name and sound good, but boy, Lord, we're good at the way we want it done.

And it's really a scary place to be in.

And it's an easy place to be in.

Because what does the world tell us?

Man, you're pretty sharp.

It's all about you.

But we see here, Paul depended on Christ for his strength.

Paul could accomplish all that God wanted him to through the strength that God was going to provide.

Now, I want to go back again and remind you about Paul.

This is Paul writing this.

Great things are happening to Paul.

Paul's in prison.

Listen to what Paul says about himself and his life in 2 Corinthians 11 24.

Listen to this.

Paul says this.

Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with a rod.

Once I was pelted with stones.

Three times I was shipwrecked.

I spent a night and a day in open sea.

I have constantly or consistently been on the move.

I have been in danger from rivers, in dangers from bandits, in dangers from fellow Jews, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false believers.

I have labored and toiled and have often gone asleep.

I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food.

I have been cold and I have been naked.

And he wrote this I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Despite these and other problems, Paul believed and taught he could persevere because of who God was and how big his God is.

Paul taught that the believers would endure suffering.

He taught that we are going to suffer.

He spoke into it.

He suffered.

But we can look at that.

He can be content in all circumstances because Christ is going to give him the strength that he needs.

One mark of a mature Christian is how he depends on the Lord in all situations.

Paul knew he was going to suffer.

But he remembered that he had a calling on his life.

Remember back to the early, he was on his way to Damascus, and what did the Lord say?

The Lord said, Paul, follow me, and your life will be different.

The calling, his mission was changed.

His mission was now to what?

Proclaim the gospel.

You know what?

I think so many times in our own lives we forget the mission that the Lord's called for us.

Yes, we do have to go to work.

And not all of us can be preachers.

But the Lord has called you on a mission in your job.

And yes, some jobs are hard, some situations are hard.

God doesn't say it's going to be easy.

He's given you a mission to go to your job and do what?

Be his missionary.

And listen to this.

This is why we have church.

This is what Philip, I mean the Philippian church was doing.

They were going with Paul.

Listen, our church is going with you.

We pray for you.

We encourage you.

It won't be easy, but the Lord says, What?

On your mission, in your job, I am there to give you strength.

Over the past couple weeks, I have seen people come in and say, Man, I am struggling with my family.

I have family that is sick.

I have family that is dying.

All kinds, I have it, I have kids that I'm struggling that are struggling.

Our mission filled is our family also.

Again, the Lord doesn't say it's easy.

But he does say what?

I will go through it with you.

I will give you the strength you need to be who you need to be to what?

Your job, your family, your service here at church.

Pastor constantly talks about pulling the triangles.

This is a huge piece of it.

It's amazing how many people you can go up to and say, Can you teach a Sunday school class?

And they're like, Oh, not me.

I don't think I can do that.

The one thing I did not want to do in ministry was preach.

And when I'm done, you might say, you need to listen to that.

You know what I'm saying?

But listen, God does not say it's going to be easy, but he says what?

He will give us the strength to do it.

Listen to what sometimes also I think we forget how big the God that is calling us is.

Listen to this verse, and I hope it just encourages you.

I hope it reminds you of who God really is.

Listen to this.

This is found in Isaiah 46 and verse 5.

To whom will you compare me or make me equal?

Who will you measure me with so that we should be like each other?

Those who pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scale, they hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god.

Then they kneel and they bow down.

Listen, they kneel and they bow down.

Then they have to lift it up on their shoulders and bring it to the place to sit down.

And there it stands.

It does not budge from that place.

Then they cry out to it, but it doesn't answer.

It saves no one from his trouble.

Remember this and be brave.

Take it to heart, you transgressors.

Remember what happened long ago, for I am God and there is no other.

I am God and no one is like me.

I declare the end from the beginning and from long ago what is not yet done.

Saying, My plan will always take place, and I will do my will.

Wow.

That's the God that blinded Paul and said, I'm going to take care of you.

That's the God that says, Whatever situation you're in, I'm going through it with you.

Even when these things seem chaotic and out of control, God is still in charge.

We sometimes worry about what's happening around us, things that are going on, but we need to know and we need to trust in God's promises.

I'll be honest though, my greatest time of spiritual growth comes through the hard times.

Because during the good times, I hate to say it, but it comes a lot about Matt Passmore.

But in the bad times, there's situations I've got in, there's nothing I can do.

There is absolutely nothing I can do, and I have no other option but to what?

Cry out to the Lord.

Five years ago, we were in the middle, we were doing some foster care, we were fostering some kids, and we got a phone call.

There was a baby that was just born, and they uh needed us to uh foster for a while, and so just like the good pastor that I was, I said, we're not interested, and I just kept driving home.

And uh they called my wife and said, Can you help us out?

And so I get home, and my wife says, Hey, we're about to uh get a newborn baby for a little while, and I'm like, I told them no.

And she the Lord worked through that, and so we get this baby, and we had it about a week.

When all of a sudden it gets sick, so we take it to the doctor, and the doctor uh it's there a while, and they send it home and said, Hey, the baby's good, and so you're good to go.

Well, at that time we got a phone call.

Lisa's mom, we knew this was coming.

Lisa's mom was um having a major surgery, and so we we needed to go back to Lawton for the surgery.

So again, we were the foster parents, so we had to go through all the procedure, do all the paperwork, and say so that we could take, they approved the baby could go with us.

So we go back to Lawton, Oklahoma, and we're there, and um surgery went well, and it's time to come home.

So we start loading everything up, we get the baby, put it in the car, and Lisa just she just says, Hey, I it might be a good idea that I ride in the back seat.

I'm like, okay.

So uh we we take off and we're driving, and uh we we just get right out a lot and we get on, well, the interstate runs through a lot, and we get right on the interstate, and we start driving down the road when all of a sudden Lisa goes, the baby has quit breathing.

And I'm like, uh so instantly I'm looking for the next exit.

I get up to the next exit, I turn over at that time.

Lisa's doing CPR, Pacey's in the car, she calls 911, we're telling the the the we're telling them where to meet us, uh the ambulance, so the ambulance fire truck, we pull up, she hands the baby to me, I'm starting to do CPR until the ambulance gets there, the ambulance gets there, grabs the baby, and they take off.

So we follow him to the hospital, we get to the hospital, we go, you know, just just just a uh whirlwind, we go going into the hospital and we find this out.

They said, we don't know what to do.

We need to air vac him to children's hospital in Oklahoma City.

Really, we did not have any say.

We're just foster parents, so they they they would not let one of us ride with him, so they put him in that they air vac him to to Oklahoma City.

We get in the car and we take off as fast as we can to Oklahoma City.

We go into the hospital, and I can't remember it was the NICU or the Picky or whatever, but they told us when we get there to go in there, and so we start going into the deal.

So we open the door, we walk in, and you can see it.

There's a room there with probably it seemed like 50 people in there wrestling on top of each other, doing different things, and we're going that way when a doctor comes running out, grabs us, and walks us to the door, and he says this.

We have no idea what's going on.

We don't even know if he's gonna make it through the night.

You guys can't be here.

You need to go stay in a hotel, come back in the morning.

Can you imagine?

We've only had this kid about three to four weeks, four weeks.

We head to the hotel, not knowing what else to do, and I'll never forget that night as I was laying in bed, the lights flick off, pitch dark.

I'm laying in bed, and I'm like, Really, Lord?

We unsew it, we are doing this for you.

We took this baby to help out.

You're gonna take this baby in the moment of that, you're gonna take this baby from us on our couch.

I mean, come on, God, really?

I struggled all night long.

I mean, it was real.

This wasn't a selfish, this was just a struggle of just who I was in crying.

I mean, I it was a struggle.

It was time to get up the next morning.

We went to the hospital, we walk in the hospital and they say this to us.

They said, it's gonna be a while before we know anything if he's gonna make it.

Um, we're calling DHS.

What are we supposed to do?

DHS asks, can one of you stay there just to be there with the baby?

We can't send anyone.

I mean, just the overwhelming of what does this look like?

How are we gonna even do this?

A couple days go by, the baby's still in.

Lisa says, I'm gonna stay here.

I need to bring my kids back.

So, our kids back, so we drove back, and um, I was just struggling.

I'll be honest, I was struggling.

I showed up on a Sunday, acted like everything was fine, but deep down I was just, I was in a struggle, not knowing what to do, how to do.

I just I was so grateful that I had been taught to continue to stay in your quiet time.

That's why during the Wednesday nights, we've talked about the importance of the quiet time.

I was struggling, but I still knew that I needed to read my Bible.

And so through my reading my Bible on prayer and a lot of switch switching, I would go stay for a couple days, and she would, Lisa and I switched, and one day as I was praying before I left, reading my Bible, I was praying, and we started to head, I started to head back to Oklahoma City when the Lord opened to my eyes to some things, and it took me back to who was God?

Was it a God that Matt Passmore made up and the God that I thought should do it the way Matt Passmore thought he should do it?

God opened my eyes.

Listen to this.

The exit that we took to turn around to go back into Laden, if we would have missed that exit, if we would have drove one more mile, we would have been past that exit.

Did you know there's not another turnaround for 12 miles?

It was my hometown.

I knew exactly to tell them where I was going to meet them there.

Lisa, for some reason, in that journey, realized she needed to sit in the back.

We had family, being in Oklahoma, we had family that was able to come be around us during this time.

And when I came back, I got my ool changed.

And they always rotate my tires.

And the guy takes me out and he says, I gotta show you something on your car.

On my inner wall of my tire, there was a nail that didn't go all the way in, but it was like this.

So every time my tire went around, it was kind of hitting it.

Now I confess I was going really fast to Oklahoma City.

But the Lord took care of us, and it was like when I got preparing for this message, this was my verse that the Lord took me through.

Took me a while, but then he said, listen to the verse again, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

That's the only way I made through those 17 days in the hospital.

And you look back and you say, Wow, God, it's not the way I would have done it, but your way's better.

Because through that, it made me realize that the Lord is walking with me through whatever I'm going through.

He shows me through that that I have no clue what I'm doing, but it shows me that he has a plan.

Just so you know, we ended up adopting that kid.

That day the Lord could have taken him away from us.

I know that.

And guess what?

He would have helped me get through that.

I know through a lot of people that have come into my office just recently, there's a lot of people hurting.

And there's a lot of people doing like I was doing, and almost like, God, really, you're gonna take me through this?

And I think it takes us back to what this verse really means.

I'm gonna say it one more time.

I can do all things.

Not hit home runs, not be a superhero, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Let's pray.

Obviously, we don't ever want to take this for granted, but if you're sitting there today and the Lord is dealing with you and you need to give your life to Christ, and you feel a calling on your life, you feel today is your day.

You don't have to come forward, but we would love for you to come forward and pray with us.

We want to help you, we want to challenge you, we want to encourage you.

But maybe today you're sitting there like many of us.

Life's not easy.

You're struggling in some area.

I can't even tell you what the area is, but I'll tell you this: the majority of this room is struggling.

And you need to come back to the promise of who God is and who God says he wants to be.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.