September 29, 2024 // The Infinite Promise

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.

How do we know where to find answers to the toughest questions in life?

While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search and how do we discover

this truth?

Today, in this teaching podcast, John Metter, lead pastor of Cross City Church, takes a

specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth for the life we're searching for.

So glad that you're here this morning.

Please take your Bibles and turn to Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Philippians chapter 4, we're at the end of our series, All That I Need.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

It's all about trusting God with contentment, trusting God with our perspective in life.

And today we're going to look at the infinite promise and it really has to do with generosity.

So the fourth chapter leads up to that and that's in Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

By the way, next week I will be in the Mission Sunday.

I will still be in Philippians, so we'll come back to that.

A few weeks ago I numbered the number of key verses in the book of Philippians and named

them the top 10 verses of Philippians.

And I preached through that just real quickly, just read through them, and I was astounded

at how many people said, well, in that 10 verses in Philippians are probably my top

three or four or five verses in all of the Bible.

Philippians is filled with great, great lines that Paul wrote that mean something to us

today.

And you're going to get another one today in verse 19 as we look at it in just a moment.

And after next week when we just take a short trip back to Philippians 1, I'll be getting

into a message series called Great Expectations.

That is about the second coming of Jesus Christ.

We're talking about the return of Christ.

We're talking about what the Bible says about that, what we can expect, what will happen,

how will the world look when all that unfolds.

You know, the Bible is very specific about the fact that Jesus Christ is returning.

How many of you believe that Jesus is coming back?

Amen?

And you want to know all kinds of details about it.

I can tell you all the scripture says, it does not say when, but it says how He's coming

and what it would look like and what we are to be looking for.

I pray for me, by the way.

That's an incredible challenge to preach through the second coming of Jesus, but I'm looking

forward to it.

Please stand with me as we get into Philippians chapter four today, the infinite promise.

We're going to begin reading in verse 15.

I'll review a little bit of the first 14 verses in a moment, but verse 15 is where we began

today.

Paul riding from prison to the church at Philippi, first church in Europe, first church on the

other side of the Middle East where Paul started in Jerusalem and Israel.

Now across the sea, he has begun this church at Philippi.

And the church of Philippi was the amazing church.

It wasn't a huge church.

It was a numbering about a hundred to 150 people total, but it was a church that had

enormous influence and of course opened the doors for the gospel to go westward into Europe

and then northward to the United Kingdom, which really results in the gospel being in

America today.

By the sovereignty of God, he began in that direction.

So Paul's in prison and he's riding back to the church who is helping him in his imprisonment.

And here's what he says, verse 15, you yourselves also know Philippians, that at the first preaching

of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving

and receiving, but you alone.

For even in Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once for my needs.

Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.

That's an interesting line.

Verse 18, but I have received everything in full and have an abundance.

I am amply supplied having received from the paparadotus that which you've sent.

And then he calls the gift these three things, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice,

well pleasing to God.

And here's the promise in verse 19 that's so popular, so powerful, as you'll remember

this line when I read it.

And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

As often do, I'll ask you to repeat that with me right now.

Would you do that?

Verse 19 again, say it with me.

And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Love that promise.

Verse 20, now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Greet every saint in Christ Jesus.

The brethren who aren't 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.

Father, I would pray today that you would help us understand this promise that you give

to those who learn generosity.

The promise of your being able to meet our needs is amazing, it's incredible.

And Father, I would pray today that we would walk away today with a greater faith, a greater

confidence in what you do whenever we give than ever before.

Father, bless us.

Open our eyes with the power of the Holy Spirit.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

All God's people said amen.

Please be seated if you would.

So the whole fourth chapter of Philippians moves to verse 19.

He's progressing to this promise of generosity, the infinite promise of generosity.

He's giving us principles of generosity in the first few verses of Philippians chapter

four.

Now we've walked through those and I'm going to remind you of a couple of things I've

said.

Paul said to the church of Philippi, it's important to keep the right perspective, the

right perspective.

Now Paul's in prison when he speaks this.

And he begins by saying in verse four, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.

Now I think that's a phenomenal contrast right there, a man in prison, a Roman prison, a

brutal prison, a man who's hungry, who's hurting, who's cold, who doesn't have any help anywhere

outside of the church of Philippi.

He says rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.

He said let your gentle spirit be made known to all men.

And then he says the Lord is near.

That's a great formula for the way you perceive life no matter what your circumstances are.

Paul is teaching the lesson here.

I'm in prison, I'm hurting, but I've learned to rejoice in the Lord always.

Another double command, again I say rejoice.

Why?

Because the Lord is near.

Not only is he nearby us, not only is he near to us as believers in Jesus, whether in prison

or wherever we are, but he's also coming back soon.

And when he comes back, we will experience all the great things that we wish we could

have on earth, but will be ready for us in heaven.

So the Lord is near.

Whatever you're going through, the Lord is near.

Whatever you're going through, rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I say rejoice.

So it's the right perspective that Paul gives us, and it's really important when it comes

to generosity.

The second thing is learn the secret of contentment.

And we walked through what it means to learn the secret of contentment.

I'll tweet, verse 11, Paul says, for I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances

I am.

Have you ever learned that before?

Have you ever learned to have much or to have little?

But whether you had much or little, you learned to be content.

The pendulum effect of life.

Sometimes we have it all, sometimes we have none of it.

Sometimes it's awesome, sometimes it's awful.

Sometimes circumstances are amazing, sometimes they're astounding.

How can I be going through this?

But no matter what side of that pendulum swing you're in, Paul said, no matter where you

are, that's where you learn to be content.

Because contentment is not about what you have, but who you have.

You're not going to be content if it's the what question.

You're always going to be finding contentment if it's the who question.

I would submit to you today that your relationship with Jesus Christ will give you the deepest

contentment that you'll ever have in life, no matter what else is going on.

That's an important lesson to learn.

Paul said, I have learned the secret of contentment no matter what circumstances I've been in.

And then lastly, he encourages us to practice giving by faith.

That's how he prepares us for this teaching and this promise that we're going to look

at today.

In verse 16, he said to the church of Philippi, you sent a gift more than once.

No matter how you count the number of times Paul refers to their giving, it adds up to

at least five or six times just in the fourth chapter.

You gave a gift.

Nobody else gave one, but you gave one.

I received that gift and that gift been a blessing to me.

But five times at least and possibly six times, he says, this gift is important.

You gave by faith.

And he's going to teach them and we're going to look at this today.

Remember when you give by faith, amazing things happen all around where that gift is given.

Last year at our Mission Sunday, we put in front of you a vision to help the people of

Athie River, Kenya, near Nairobi, Kenya, where some of the largest slums in the world are.

And I was there last September and saw those slums.

It was astounding to see how many people live in such a small space area-wise.

They were by a filthy, nasty river that ran through, a little more than a cesspool of

a river that ran through that area.

Cardboard houses, open electrical wires that were just wires tapped into bigger wires,

tapped into bigger wires that ended up at the street.

So they got a little bit of power, no heat, no air conditioning, of course, and no water

to drink.

Now we challenge you to partner with us as we went into Athie River and provided water

filters for them, trained them to use those water filters so they could actually drink

the water, and then help them know about the true living water of Jesus Christ, which we

did.

We challenge you to give $300,000.

You gave $358,000 last year to do that, and we blew our goal right out of the water.

Amen.

Literally out of the water.

Amen.

Well, I want to come back and report to you that over 1,380 people have now professed

Jesus as Lord and Savior since we've done that work of those water filters.

1,380.

We've baptized 145 of them ourselves, and we have built a baptistry over there in the

Athie River area filled with clean water to baptize people whenever they come to faith.

And a lot of things happen, but the reason those things happen was because of the generosity

of people in this church who said, yeah, that's kind of a different need.

It's something that I want to be a part of, and you gave.

Here's what I've learned as being a pastor for more than 40 years.

I've learned that without generosity, you don't see a lot of things happen that you

could.

Now, that doesn't mean that money buys ministry.

That's not what I'm saying.

But I am saying that when God's people are generous, God uses that church or those people

to impact lives in greater ways than you and I can possibly imagine.

I've watched this over the last 18 years in this church, and it's astounding how generosity

has impacted our community and our world.

Well, Paul was writing to one church about how their generosity impacted him, but it

wasn't just about the impact on him he's talking about.

He's talking about the impact on them.

But you know that generosity affects the giver as much as it affects anybody else.

Now, we don't think about it that way, but that's exactly what Paul's going to say in

these verses that we read a few moments ago, and that's when we come to the promise of

generosity.

There are three things I want to share with you about the promise of generosity, what

I call the threefold promise of generosity.

I want you to see it right out of your pages here.

First of all, Paul is reminding the church at Philippi that God remembers generosity.

He takes note of it.

He takes note when his children, who have been blessed in whatever way they have been,

turn and bless others.

Now, Paul is writing about the gift, but as he writes about the gift in verse 17, he says

this, I seek for the profit that increases to your account.

In other words, my needs have been met.

I'm fine.

I've been amply supplied.

That's the line he says.

I've got what I need, but here's what I want you to understand.

It's your giving that I want to compliment.

It's your giving that I want to command.

I want you to see that not only did you meet the need that I had, but something is happening

with you because of your generosity.

Again, the line says, I seek for the profit that increases to your account.

The word account is the word logos, which we know to mean word.

In this particular context, it's the report.

I seek for the profit that increases on your report.

What's he talking about?

He's talking about the report card we have in heaven.

Now, let me just tell you this.

It's very important that you understand this.

No one can buy their way into eternity.

Nobody can work their way into eternity.

When you come to faith in Jesus, you get all the riches of God through Jesus Christ in

salvation.

That's why Ephesians 2 says, by grace you have been saved through faith and that's not

of yourself.

It's the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one should boast.

Paul is not saying you earn heaven, but he is saying that when you go to heaven, when

you end up in eternity because of the blood and sacrifice of Jesus, there's reward in

heaven for those that have lived wisely on earth.

He said, I seek to increase the profit in your account.

Now, Paul didn't create that concept, Jesus did.

Jesus, who left heaven's home to come walk on earth to give his life, said it this way

in Matthew chapter 6 verse 20, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, Jesus said,

Matthew 6:20

for neither moth nor rust destroys, for thieves do not break in or steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

When I was growing up, I was in grade school, I remember we would have a report card, I

think it was every six weeks we had report cards brought home.

Anybody remember those report cards and the teacher would write very neatly your grade

and that report card?

Now remember there was one category, you know you have math and reading and all the basic

stuff, and then there was one called citizenship.

Anybody remember a citizenship grade in grade school?

Not many of you do.

Is that over the idea?

We need to bring the idea back.

Because I didn't even understand in third grade what is citizenship?

What is that?

I can barely say it and I sure can't spell it, what does it mean?

And they explained to me, my father explained to me, this is when you're kind, when you're

gracious, when you play well in the sandbox with other people, where you don't cause problems,

don't get in fights, and when you respect your teacher.

And I said oh, I was kind of bored by the whole concept.

He said, well let me add some weight to that.

It means that you get in trouble when you don't get an A on citizenship, when you get

home.

He enforced that in my life.

Citizenship, the idea of citizenship is what really Paul is talking about.

You're saved by the grace of Jesus, but you're a citizen of heaven living on earth.

What kind of citizenship are you living at?

What kind of report are you sending ahead?

The Bible teaches us that how we live now as believers in Jesus counts for reward later

on in heaven.

Bill Anderson would say something like this, he would say, well that'll be on the final

report, keep that in mind, that'll be on the final.

Paul's talking about the idea that generosity in this particular case is one of those things

that is important in eternity.

Were they generous?

Did they live selflessly?

As a citizen of heaven, how heavenly did you live while on planet earth?

Now that's all about your living.

It's all about how you share Christ, it's all about how you live out the character of

Christ, but it's also about your generosity.

Paul said, don't worry about me, but I want you to have treasure in heaven.

I cannot tell you exactly what treasure in heaven looks like at this moment, but I can

tell you that Paul said you would have it and that Jesus said it was important that

you had treasure in heaven.

In other words, how you live now builds up treasure in heaven.

It kind of reminds me that there are two things that have to do with money that we don't often

think about.

One of them is we don't often think about retirement, and the other thing is we don't

often think about heaven.

I remember when I was 30 years old and I was a young pastor and we were living hand to

mouth.

I'm telling you, we had kids and our family was growing and it took all that we had to

just pay the bills and have food on the table and so forth and so on.

You know what that's like.

I remember a man in the church came to me one day and said, I want to talk to you about

your retirement.

I'm 30 years old.

I haven't even thought that I would ever retire in my lifetime.

He said, no, you need to think about retirement now.

And I said, I've never thought about that before.

I'm just barely making it.

He said, you need to plan now for your retirement and however many years down the road.

And he sat me down and he walked me through a simple way to do that.

Now he wasn't an insurance agent.

He wasn't an investor.

He was just a friend.

But he said, you need to think about it now because later on it might be too late for

you to think about it.

He helped me look ahead to a time period down the road.

Today Paul and Jesus do the same thing with us regarding riches in heaven.

At some point we don't want to say, I wish someone had told me that the reward in heaven

is there on top of the grace we have in getting there in the first place, that there's reward

there in heaven.

And that's exactly what Paul is talking about.

Jesus also challenges us to build treasure in heaven by giving.

And he's right, even though we don't think about it much.

Five times in the gospel, Jesus called it treasure in heaven that doesn't fade, doesn't

rot, doesn't waste away, can't be stolen by thieves.

To the rich young ruler, Jesus said, you have a lot of treasure on earth, but you don't

have anything in the next life.

He said, sell what you have and follow me and then you'll have treasure in heaven too.

Jesus was always talking about that point in heaven when treasure becomes important.

Paul simply says, it's increasing to your account through eternal treasure in heaven.

Practically speaking, this text reminds us that we should save, give, and live wisely

because we won't have a chance to do it again.

You just have this opportunity.

Save, give, wisely, and live wisely.

So that's the first part of that promise.

God remembers generosity and one day we'll realize just how true that is.

Secondly, God rejoices in generosity.

Now it's hard for us to imagine a God who we see as sovereign and on the throne, holy,

flashes of fire and smoke come from the altar.

It's hard for us to sometimes imagine that God's smiling or rejoicing, but God does rejoice

when his people mirror his character.

You won't find anyone who's a greater example of generosity than God the Father, unless

it's Jesus Christ the Son who gave his own life for our sins.

So generosity is a big part of who God is.

God rejoices in the generosity of his children.

Here it is in verse 18, Paul wrote to the church at Philippi again, he said, your gift,

and he gives it three terms, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to

God.

Now Paul is either really, really grateful for that gift or he really wants him to know

God's perspective when they give.

And I think it's the latter.

And the reason I think it is because he said, I'm good, I'm fine.

I've been amply supplied, but here's what I want you to do.

I want you to see what you did when you gave.

You know, the most generous gift ever offered was the gift that Jesus Christ gave us on

the cross.

And Paul uses the same terminology here.

Ephesians chapter five says this, walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave

himself up for us.

And here he is using this line again, as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant

aroma.

It pleased God that Jesus would die for us on the cross.

And he's not asking us to give our lives on the cross, but he's asking us to live our

lives in such a way that also is a fragrant aroma to God in how we live.

So it's appropriate for me to ask this question, how does your living smell?

And how does your giving smell?

If this gift was a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, if it was well pleasing to God,

what about your generosity?

What's it smell like?

Or let's look at it this way for a minute.

There's a great movie that took place dozens of years ago called Chariots of Fire.

Anybody remember Chariots of Fire, would you raise your hand if you remember that movie?

And some of you may not have ever seen it, it's worth going back and watching.

Eric Liddell was a gifted British runner and this story told the story of his faith and

his gift as a runner and how he was steward that in really challenging times.

But there's a memorable line in the movie when Eric Liddell was talking about how God

gifted him to run and here's what he said, he said, when I run I feel God's pleasure.

Remember that line?

It's a line that's memorable.

We don't always identify exactly with that exact thing, but I want you to think about

that line for just a moment.

Now if I'm perfectly honest, when I run I don't feel God's pleasure, I don't feel anybody's

pleasure when I run.

But I'm not gifted for that.

But there are areas of our lives where we ought to be able to say, when I pray I feel

God's pleasure, when I worship I feel God's pleasure, when I read the scripture I feel

God's pleasure, when I love people around me I feel God's pleasure, when I'm led by

the Spirit to do this or that I feel God's pleasure, when I'm a good spouse or father

or child I feel God's pleasure, how about this one, when I give I feel God's pleasure.

Paul is talking about the fact that the gift from Philippi was pleasurable to God, he was

rejoicing over that effragrant aroma.

Why can't we find that same spot that where we give we feel God's pleasure?

But I've got to tell you that thinking about it that way is not intended to be a manipulation

of feelings or thoughts.

Because it's really counterintuitive to give isn't it?

I mean you really kind of have to go against what someone would call common sense, you

have to kind of remove your mathematical skills for a moment and say okay if I have 100 and

I give 10 that means I only have 90 left.

It's reflected on my bank account in some way.

And so that's not normally good but you're telling me now to give to God, that's a good

thing and I've got to reckon that in my mind as how that works.

So often we think about the gifts that we give or the check that we write or the offering

we give as something that will bite our budget and keep us from doing something else.

It makes the checking account shrink more and more.

And when we give we override the natural instinct to save and to hoard or to hide or to bury.

But what I want you to see is that the Philippians gave and God said that's well pleasing to

me.

And there's a promise I'm going to talk to you about in just a moment that helps you

with that as well.

In the Old Testament King David wanted to build a temple for God so badly.

But David was a man with blood on his hands.

And as badly as David wanted to build the temple God says no you're not going to do

that.

Your son Solomon can build it but you can pay for it.

You can give to it.

You can give out of your treasury, you can give out of your generosity and your generosity

will enable your son Solomon to build the temple that I want built that you want built.

So David gives out of what he has an incredibly amazingly generous gift.

In fact if I were to detail the analogy of what that gift would look like today it would

astound you, it would blow your mind.

But here's what's cool about that gift.

As he gave that gift he said these words, 1 Chronicles chapter 29 verse 17.

1 Chronicles 29:17

He said since I know oh my God that you try the heart and delight in uprightness I in

the integrity of my heart have willingly offered all these things.

So now with joy I've seen your people who are present here make offerings willingly

to you.

David gave the most sizable portion of all that he owned to the building of that temple

and there was gladness and there was joy.

He wasn't worried about the subtracting in his earthly account.

He was considering that that was a joyful cause for his heavenly one and David felt

God's pleasure in his giving.

Now I've got to tell you God's pleasure in your giving doesn't always mean it's a massive

gift like King David's but it means it's a faithful gift.

It means it's a regular gift and sometimes true a radical gift but it's a gift that's

well pleasing to God when you give by faith.

It's a good question.

How does your giving smell and do you feel God's pleasure when you give?

But now here's the promise.

I've got to get to the promise here.

The promises in verse 19 God returns generosity.

Go to verse 19.

Look at this with me in your Bible or on the screen.

It says my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ

Jesus.

Now keep it in context for a moment.

He's writing to the generous church at Philippi.

You have given.

Most people would say they gave sacrificially.

Small congregation they had to give sacrificially for it to all get to where it needed to go

to get to Paul.

It was a system you had to abide by.

They gave sacrificially so now the promise is to those generous people no matter how

generous you are he said to the church my God will supply all your need according to

his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

And I love that one that sits well in my soul.

I don't know how often I pray this and I prayed a lot.

I don't know how often I've heard it from people that are trusting God for whatever

God's led them to do in the way of giving offerings or giving to somebody in need whatever

it might be.

But their responses often with this first I know that no matter how much I gave my God

is able to supply all my needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

That's a promise to those who give.

Now let me just tell you some details about this promise that I hope will stick with you

a little bit because this is an incredible promise.

I want you to look at one word in this promise and then we'll look at another one later on.

My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Look at the word according.

The word according for just a moment.

Pope Paul is not saying, he's not saying that God will meet your needs out of his riches

in glory.

That would simply say that God has just taken a little bit out of his glorious treasure

and given you a little bit of it.

But he's saying God will meet all of your needs according to his riches in glory which

is a reference to proportion not just supply.

He's not giving you simply something out of what he had but he's giving you in alignment

with and according to his great riches.

I want you to think with me about that.

Every word in the Greek is precisely given, precisely defined according to his riches.

Sometimes we hear stories of waitresses or waiters at eating establishments that have

famous, wealthy people come and eat at their place.

Sometimes the stories of how they tip when they get their bill are kind of interesting.

I remember reading one account of someone who had this fabulously wealthy family came

in and they ate at the restaurant and at the end they gave them the bill and they actually

got a calculator out and calculated just 20 percent, not any more, not any less, just

20 percent of a tip to the waiter.

And he was thinking, well, he gave me a little bit out of the much he had and if that's the

way it's going to be, that's fine.

But later on the same person said, another wealthy person came in and instead of tipping

20 percent of 20 dollars, the man gave him a one thousand dollar tip because he gave

according to his wealth and not just out of.

Now let me just bring that back to the promise here.

God does not just kind of help you along when you are learning generosity.

He gives you according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

And it's not just here, it's everywhere that God provides for you something.

He does that according to his amazing character and his amazing wealth.

For example, Romans chapter 15 verse five and six, Paul uses this word again.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

He says, now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same

mind with one another according to Christ Jesus so that with one accord you may with

one voice glorify the God and Father, Lord Jesus Christ.

How else can we all be together as the church giving glory to God together as one people?

The only way we can do that is if he gives us grace according to his own power.

And then verse 28 of Romans, you may remember this better.

We know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those called

according to his purpose.

That means God's not just giving us a little bit of unity.

He's not giving us a little bit of purpose.

He's giving us great purpose and great unity because it's he that gives us all of that.

I love hearing stories of generosity after the gift is given.

And I've heard many of them over the last few years.

But my favorite is still that 18 years old.

This story happened 18 years ago.

This church was in debt and we were in something called the miracle.

Brother Bill Anderson during his interim period was leading us through that.

And so we repaid over six and a half million dollars in 28 months.

I got here about halfway through that and just in time to see that freedom happen.

But one of the testimonies that came out of that was a widow lady who had a piece of land

that she didn't live on but she had a piece of land that had been given to her and it

had an oil lease on it.

And in 2004, five and six oil prices weren't great.

And so she decided to give the size of a portion of whatever she got with an oil lease to the

Miracle Fund.

And so she did that week in and week out.

Well during those years all of a sudden oil prices began to go up and she began to give

larger and larger and larger gifts.

And one day she came to one of our staff members, one of our pastors and said, you know, if

God keeps blessing me I'm going to have to have one of them their financial counselors

to help me know what to do with all this money.

From their financial counselors, that was her word.

I quote her exactly.

She lived her life with generosity and she lived her life being able to say, my God shall

supply all your need according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

She was a big part of why we became debt free and remained that way since 2007 and we're

grateful for that.

This is how generosity works.

You become generous.

God meets your need according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

That's what Jesus was saying to His disciples in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

He said, you know, the Gentiles are so worried about food and clothing and all these other

things but He said that's not the way you're supposed to live.

Chapter 6 of Matthew verse 33 He says, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness

and all these things will be added to you.

All your needs are going to be met.

You can trust God with all your needs but trust Him.

He Himself assures us that generosity is not going to bankrupt God's people because they're

trusting Him with it all.

So we should be wise and listen to the Lord and how He leads us and how we give.

That's what Jesus was saying to His disciples about giving but you can trust Him for this.

Now when I began this message, I called it the infinite promise and you may be saying,

well, where's the word infinite?

Where's infinite in this?

Where is it never ending?

And I would say there's one other word in this verse that I want you to see and it's

the word all.

It's the word all.

My God will supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

The word here is need not just want and that's important because when you're regularly or

even radically giving to God, sometimes He helps you know the difference between your

needs and wants.

That's just part of maturing and becoming balanced in life but it's a great way to live.

It's a great way to trust that God will meet all your need according to His riches and

glory.

All this, all that we've been talking about, it simply means that we involve God in our

living and our giving and trust Him with it all.

Yeah, sometimes when people think about giving and they think about, okay, I'm going to follow

Christ.

I'm going to read the Bible.

I'm going to, of course, live my life for Him.

I'm going to share the gospel with other people.

I'm going to get involved in the church and serve this way or serve that way but it seems

like sometimes it's almost a whole separate category of what we do with our money.

We can do a lot with our time but we don't often think about what we do with our money.

And what Paul is saying is the generosity part of your money is to guarantee that God

will supply all your need according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Paul is saying be faithful with all of it, your living and your giving.

I'm going to come back to my favorite line in this whole message.

How does your living smell and how does your giving smell?

That would be a fragrant aroma to Christ.

I want to put the verse on the screen one more time.

I want you to say it with me this time out loud.

Again, we've said it two or three times today.

Let's do one more time.

Are you ready?

My God supply all your need according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

In just a few moments, I'm going to close in prayer but here's what I want you to do.

I want you to test God and see if He is faithful to do what this promise says He would do.

Listen to Him, let Him lead you and as you respond, watch how God provides.

Watch how He gives you pleasure even in giving.

If you learn to give in faith, that's what He's called us to do that.

I'm going to give you three invitations today.

Number one, I invite you to stop by the decision station today.

The most important thing that I've said in this whole message is that the greatest gift

ever given was Jesus giving His life on the cross.

And I mean that.

The most important thing I've said is that that's how you find eternal life by coming

to Christ and asking Him to forgive you and give you the gift that He has died on the

cross to secure.

If that's never happened to you, I urge you to stop by our decision stations and say,

I'd like to have a conversation about what it means to be forgiven, to have a relationship

with Christ.

Secondly, if you're a guest, I would love for you to come in our guest reception room.

It's right outside the center exit doors across the hallways, a glassed-in room.

I would love to meet you and personally welcome you.

It will take about 10 minutes to talk about what this church is all about and we'll invite

you to some other things we'd love to invite you to.

And then thirdly, I want you to come back next Sunday morning.

We're going to focus on how God is using this church around the world with this mission's

focus that we have.

We're going to give you more reports about the river and all that's happened there.

And I think the next big challenge that we have in front of us.

Would you stand with me as we end in prayer today?

Father, as we stand together as your people, I pray that you'll allow this passage to stay

in our minds and stay in our hearts this week.

Father, help us to consider how we live and how we give in such a way that it's a fragrant

aroma to you, well pleasing to you.

Father, I also pray that you allow us to see your hand at work, that that promise of Philippians

419 is very real.

Father, I ask you today to allow us to make the decisions that would allow us to follow

closely after you.

Thank you, Father, for these in this room as they go out into the mission field, which

is the world we live in, I pray that you'll use them in the kingdom.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.