“Our Needs, Gods Glory, Others Good” - Philippians 4:18-23

All right, for about the last 12 weeks, we have been in Philippians.

This will be our last sermon in Philippians.

And if you are thinking, man, we finally got through Philippians,

well, we're starting Hebrews at the beginning of the year.

How long we'll be in that? We don't know.

Years, months, ages to come.

So we'll finish Philippians this week, do a couple sermons for Advent, for Christmas.

Excited about that. And then when we begin the new year, we'll start in Hebrews.

So if you want to go ahead and start reading up, start reading Hebrews, all right?

I want tons of questions. You can ask me anything you want.

If I don't know the answer, I'll fake it. I'm kidding.

But as we get into Philippians, as we really get ready to finish it,

I want to take us back to where we started, all right?

We started in the book of Philippians, really in Acts chapter 16,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

where we see that Paul is diverted from where he wants to go to where God wants

him to go, to Thessalonica, ultimately to Philippi.

And we find Paul led by the Holy Spirit, and he comes across these three people.

The first person he sees, they're walking outside on the Sabbath,

and they see a lady's Bible study going on. They meet this lady named Lydia.

And Lydia is what they say, a seller of purple goods.

We said really the best way to describe that is she's like a traveling Mary

Kay salesman, and she's done very well for herself.

She's got the pink Cadillac. She's doing everything she's supposed to be doing,

so much so that she's got houses in different cities.

And so she's coming to her house in Philippi to do business there.

And the scriptures say that God opened her heart, that he opened her ears to

hear what Paul had to say, and she gets saved.

Progressing as their time goes, they're followed around by a demon-possessed slave girl.

And finally, Paul gets fed up with this girl walking behind them and kind of

mocking them and what they're saying. And he turns around and he cast out this demon.

And so since this demon possessed slave girl was making her owners a lot of

money, they get mad at Paul and they have him thrown in jail and there's an earthquake.

And the jailer is getting ready to kill himself because he knows that if all

these people escape, that they're going to kill him anyway.

And Paul cries out to him, don't kill yourself. We're still here.

And the jailer asked him one of the most famous questions in the Bible,

right? What must I do to be saved?

And Paul says, believe, and him and his household believe and get baptized.

So we started by saying, this is quite the collection of people to start a church with, right?

If these three groups of people got together and you had Lydia,

a slave girl, and a jailer in his family, you'd be going, not real sure how

this is going to work, right?

This would be a tough group project if you were in school.

But the point is, there's no doubt that when Paul writes this letter to the

Philippians, that he doesn't write to just nameless people, nameless faces.

He loves this church. He says in chapter 1, verse 8.

Paul knows these people. He knows where they struggle.

He knows where it's been hard for them. He knows that Lydia brings with her

her own baggage, that the slave girl brings with her her own baggage,

that the jailer brings with him his own baggage.

But he loves each of them despite those things, and he writes this letter with them and others in mind.

Just a quick recap of the letter.

He's encouraged them in their salvation. One of the most famous verses from

this book, maybe outside of 4.13, is 1.6.

I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion

at the day of Jesus Christ.

He starts the book by reminding them that, hey, the person that began a good

work in you, Lydia, the person that opened your heart to hear the gospel.

Slave Girl, the person that ultimately casted out that demon from you and brought

you from death to life, Jailer, the person that saved your life last night and

ultimately saved your family, that he began that work.

And no matter what you're going through, no matter what's happening in your

life, you can trust that he will bring it to completion in the end.

He's encouraged them in chapter one to walk in a manner worthy of their calling.

But in chapter two, he reminds them, it's not just up to you.

He says in 2.13, it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So work out your salvation with fear and trembling, but do it knowing that God

is going to be with you, that God is going to finish what he started in you.

Of course, chapter 4, verse 13, we talked about last week that I can do all

things through him who strengthens me.

It's not I can do anything I want to do. It's that I can do anything that he's called me to do.

Anything that God's placed in front of me, he'll be with me to get through those things.

And so as we begin to close this letter, he's going to give his final thank

yous, his final encouragements, and his final charge. church.

So you can imagine Paul in his jail cell at the time, or he's under house arrest.

He's chained to a Roman guard, and he's putting the final touches on this letter

to the church that he loves dearly.

And he has these people in his mind. He has faces and names.

He's thinking about their struggles and the things that he knows they're going through.

He's thinking about how this young church has a lot of things in its way,

a lot of things that could hinder it. And so what is he going to leave us with?

What is it going to be his final charge?

He's going to reassure them that they will lack nothing, that they are to live

for God's glory and for the good of those around them.

Before we even get started, I think I said this at the beginning of the series,

but I didn't just pick Philippians randomly because it's four chapters and easy

to get through, and it's a pretty simple book to understand.

I picked Philippians as our first book to walk through as a church because I

think it's so applicable to where we are.

Again, this is not an old church that Paul writes to, and it's not established.

It doesn't have a lot of the things that maybe even like the Roman church would

have or the Corinthian church would have.

The Corinthian church was known for being wealthy and strong,

and they had a lot of people in that church that could accomplish a lot of things

in the culture and the things around them.

No, again, Paul writes to a church that has its struggles and has people that

probably need a lot of help. We talked a little bit about the slave girl and

how she's going to need some support.

She has no money. She has no stuff. She has no life experience.

She has no education. She has nothing to bring to the table.

And Paul writes to her just as much as Paul writes to Lydia to say,

listen, God loves you and he cares for you.

But for our own purposes, one of the reasons I picked Philippians is I think

it gives us a really good blueprint for how we stay the course.

How do we as a church, as we're just getting started and everything's new and

it's exciting, and like I would say at the beginning, there's so many first

and first things are always exciting.

What happens in six months and a year when sometimes it's just hard?

Church can be hard. Life is hard. We have no idea what kind of things are going

to happen in the next six months to a year, two years, five years.

I think that's where this letter really shines is Paul saying,

Listen, there is joy to be had.

There is peace to be had, regardless of what the circumstances of your life

or the church are in, that we would as a church remember that whatever obstacles

we face, that we can endure all things through Christ who strengthens us.

In the same way that Paul writes to a small church in Philippi,

I get to preach to a small church in White House, Texas, and I hope say a lot

of the same things that Paul says, that I love you and I care for you,

that we're all sinners and each of us bring our own sins and struggles and different

situations into the building, but that we can all look at each other at the

end of the day and say the things that Paul's about to say to this church,

that God will supply every need,

that we live for God's glory and for the good of those around us.

So with that in mind, let me just read these five verses.

This is Philippians 4, 18 through 23.

Paul says, And I have received full payment and more, and I am well supplied,

having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. Remember,

we talked about this about two weeks ago.

They sent Epaphroditus with these gifts for Paul.

It was about a 600 to 800 mile journey, depending on where he started in Philippi

and where he went to in Rome.

So Paul's thanking them. He says that he's received full payment and more,

a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

To our God and Father be glory forever. Amen.

Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.

All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household,

the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

So where does Paul begin? Well, Paul begins by talking about needs,

right? We all have needs. It's Christmas.

I think if you ask some of the kids in the room, some of the things they need

are probably different than the things that you need, right?

The needs that we have tend to change as we grow up. They tend to change as

we get into different seasons of life, right?

When everything is going really well, Our needs usually look like some sort

of material thing, a car, an iPad, a TV, a surround sound system,

a sword, a gun, whatever your thing is. I'm not judging you, okay?

But when life gets hard, isn't it funny how our needs change,

right? None of those things matter at that point.

Really what we think we need is like, man, I could just use a day off. I could use some peace.

I could really use this sickness to get away from here. I could really use for

my kids to get their head on straight.

I could really use for these people at my work to stop treating me this way.

Paul knows that as he writes to the church, there's people in different places of need.

So the first thing, of course, he does is he just says, thank you. That's a good practice.

He's helpless in his imprisonment. We said last week that when you're under

house arrest, chained to a guard, that the Romans don't supply you with anything.

This isn't prison like we think of prison.

If you wanted something, your family or your friends had to bring it to you.

And the Philippian church hears of Paul's need and sends one of their trusted

members, Epaphroditus, to supply him with money and clothing and food.

And listen to what Paul calls it. But Paul calls it a sacrifice acceptable and

pleasing to God. Paul uses some Old Testament language here.

When they would burn incense in the temple, it was said that that incense would

flame up and the smoke would rise and God would say this smells good.

Of course, that's not exact. God doesn't smell.

But what he's trying to say is there's an aroma coming off of the sacrifice that I like.

But there's a stark point that Paul's making when he uses the word sacrifice,

because Paul knows that what they've done for them or what they've done for

him cost them something.

It costs them something. They give them their money and their possessions and their people.

Epaphroditus is not a small member of this church.

There's a really good chance that Epaphroditus was one of the church leaders,

at the very least, probably held some sort of position in the church.

And they sent him because he knew Paul and they trusted him with this stuff.

They trusted him to get from A to B. They trusted him not to just wander off

and take all this money and clothes for himself.

And the question we should be asking ourselves is, why is this sacrifice pleasing to God?

Because that's what we want to do, right? We don't want to spend our lives sacrificing

things only to find out, well, that was all for naught. It was all for naught.

The Bible answers this question thoroughly and early on.

In Genesis 4, we get the story of Cain and Abel. No doubt a story most of you in the room know well.

You probably remember that Cain and Abel bring a sacrifice.

Abel's was accepted and Cain's was rejected. And the question becomes,

okay, well, both of these guys sacrificed something.

What makes one acceptable and one not?

And oftentimes we hear that, well, Abel gave of the first fruits and Cain didn't.

The Bible doesn't really make that explicit.

The Bible never specifically says,

well, the issue that I took with Cain's sacrifice is the content of it.

I know you could infer that and I don't think you'd be way off base to say that,

but the issue in sacrifice is never or rarely is the content of your sacrifice,

but the heart that you're giving it from.

The book of Hebrews chapter 11, we'll probably cover this verse in about two years.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11 says, By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.

And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

So what makes a sacrifice acceptable to God? Well, it's the faith that you give it with.

We have different people that we come in contact with, with our business and

what we do construction wise.

And every year there's a group of people that we know that will give thousands

and thousands of dollars to churches and charities and things like that.

And when you ask them, man, why are you giving it to them? Or why'd you choose

that church? Why'd you do that?

Well, you know, we did some work for them last year and we're really,

they're about to build something new. We're really hoping we can get that next bit of work.

Or, you know, I'm afraid if I don't give this money that God's just going to

tank my business because we're being greedy.

See, again, this is the problem. Now it's no longer a sacrifice. Now it's an investment.

Right now, what we're giving is not sacrificial. It's, man, I hope I get a return on this.

I hope by giving this money or this time that God will see fit to triple it

or double it, that I'll get back more than I'm putting in.

In contrast to how the Philippian church is giving, They're giving to a man

who may be dead before Epaphroditus even gets to him.

They're giving to a man in prison who has no ability to repay them,

no ability to give them something back, no ability to ever bring back more money

or more stuff or more food, no guarantees, again, that this gift will even be

used in its completeness because Paul's in prison.

At any point in time, they could just decide they don't want Paul around anymore.

And they could have him killed.

Again, this is not to say, and Paul's going to make this clear,

that God won't provide for you, that God doesn't bless you as a giver,

that God doesn't give you things, not at all.

But it is to say that what makes a sacrifice a sacrifice is that we're not giving

in one hand and hoping to receive back something better in the other.

Because sacrifices to God are meant to build God's kingdoms, not our own.

Right? That is the difference. When we sacrifice and we want this sacrifice

to be pleasing to God, that sacrifice needs to be given for the furtherance

of God's kingdom and not for our own kingdoms.

Now, again, Paul's going to make an about face, it almost seems like,

when he gets to verse 19, right? What does he say?

And my God will supply every need of yours, right?

So Paul saying, hey, you supplied my needs, God used you to supply my needs,

and God's going to take care of your needs too.

God's going to take care of you. The hard part about this is we just often disagree

with God on what defines a need and what doesn't.

We often find ourselves needing things that we don't really need.

Now, I don't want to make light of anything that someone's going through or

what you've been through.

I know it's easy to sit and say, well, you know, you don't really need that,

but not be in your shoes and not sit where you sit and not feel how you feel

and go through what you've gone through.

And so when I say what I'm about to say, I'm not saying that what you're going

through or what you feel like you need is a small thing or that it doesn't really

matter or you need to get over it. That's not what I'm saying.

What I am saying is if you don't have it, you don't need it.

And I don't say that based on what you have or don't have. I say that based

on the fact that God says, if you need it, you'll have it.

And I know there's so many times in my life where I found myself thinking,

I just need this. I need this to work out.

This would make my life so much better. This would make my life easier.

And it's usually a good thing. I'm rarely wanting to commit tax fraud for good

things. I'm not wanting to have the downfall of someone else so that I could get rich.

I just want things to fall a certain way so that things would work out my way.

When they don't, even though I may not say it out loud, I know my general response

to God is like, why in the world would you not give me that?

I was even going to give you glory for it, and you still chose not to do it.

And the answer to that is I don't know why God doesn't give you certain things.

I don't know why God doesn't give us certain things.

What I do know is based on the scriptures, if we don't have it, we don't need it.

If we don't have it, we don't need it.

Because if we needed it, we would have it.

David makes this pretty clear in Psalm 23, right? Another Psalm that many of you will probably know.

The Lord is my shepherd, what? I shall not want.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Why do we not want?

Why do we not need anything? Verse 2, because he makes me lie down in green

pastures, and he leads me beside still waters, and he restores my soul,

and he leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.

This is the God of the Bible. This is your God. If you're a Christian in here, this is your God.

He is your shepherd and you lack nothing that you need.

We don't have time to dive into Psalm 23, but I love verse two because it doesn't

say, he really would like for me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me to green pastures and then he just hopes that I'll lay down.

He says, he makes me lie down in green pastures.

In other words, hey, one way or another, however God needs to get it done,

however God sees fit to get you there, he will make you rest.

He will make you lay down in green pastures. He will do it.

Sounds a lot like the beginning of Philippians, doesn't it?

What he began in you, he will complete in you. He will make you lie down.

Don't miss the end of verse three. He says, he leads me in paths of righteousness for what?

So that everyone will know how righteous I am. So that everyone will know how

good I am. No, it says for his namesake.

So number two this morning is God's glory.

He talks about our needs, and then he talks about God's glory.

Verse 22, our God and Father be glory forever and ever.

Why do we sacrifice? Why do we give these things that we give?

Why do we want to do these things? Well, we do them for the glory of God.

And why does he supply every need?

For his own glory to be known.

A child who lacks what they need, though their parents are present,

is not an indictment on the child.

It's an indictment on the parents.

When we see a child, a little child, whose parents are able to provide for them,

they're able to do the things they need to do.

They have the money, they have the ability, but they choose not to.

We don't look at the child and go, wow, what an absolute bum of a child.

Why don't you figure it out? Why can't you get up and do something?

Why can't you figure? We never do that, but we look at the parents and we go,

why is it that you have means and have time to help your children, but you don't do it?

The point of this is that no one will ever be able to look at God and say,

you didn't take care of your children.

In the same way, a child of God will never lack anything they need because they

have a perfect father in heaven.

Even when the Israelites rebel in the desert, what does God do?

He gives them manna from heaven.

Even when David sins, what does God do?

Does he just leave him out to dry? No, he sends Nathan the prophet to bring him to repentance.

Even when Paul is persecuting the church what does he do does he just decide

to let Paul go off and do his own thing no he meets him on the road to Damascus and shows him who he is,

even when Paul finds himself imprisoned for the sake of the gospel imprisoned

for doing the very thing that God has called him to do what does God do leave

him out to dry and say hey you should have thought about that before you did

those things or hey this is just part of the gig no what does he do?

He raises up a small church in Philippi to feed and clothe him.

God will provide everything you need because God's glory is at stake.

And God will never, ever be seen as an absentee father.

He'll never, ever be seen as a father that didn't take care of his kids.

Now, he may not take care of his kids the way his kids want to be taken care

of. and I'm sure that's true of every kid ever but his kids will be taken care of.

That's a good question to ask yourself as you start the Christmas season,

right? What do you need? What do you think you need? What do you sit around and think about?

Now, just ask yourself a simple follow-up question. If I had what I needed,

what I think I needed, would God love me anymore if I had those things?

Would God's love for me change if I had those things?

Or has God already given me everything I need in the personal work of Christ?

We have reason to rejoice and to boast.

And he says it at the end of verse 19. He's going to give to us according to what?

His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

He's already said this in the book, chapter 3, right? I count everything as loss for what?

For the sake of knowing Jesus Christ as my Lord.

So we give and we sacrifice, not so that our kingdoms can be built,

so that God's glory can be made known among the nations.

God has, He is, and He will take care of you.

He has promised to do that, but He will do so with a singular goal for you in

mind, to complete the work that He began in you.

That is what he's going to give you.

When he says, I will supply every need of yours, that means I will supply everything

you need so that I can make you lie down in green pastures one day.

I will supply everything you need so I can lead you beside still waters.

I will supply everything you need so that you can be made righteous in the sight of God.

And as frustrating as that can be at times, we know that that is our ultimate good.

We've said that he supplies our needs. He does that for his glory.

Now, what about others? All right. It's about others. Just look at this last section.

It starts out really good. You know, if they say, greet every saint in Christ

Jesus, everyone's like, yeah, that's great. I love meeting saints. That's awesome.

The brothers who are with me greet you. Awesome. The Philippians are like,

yeah, that's great. I love that they're greeting us too. We're excited about that.

All the saints greet you. Awesome. It's like a big potluck. We're all greeting

each other. Let's have some rolls.

And then he says, especially those of Caesar's household.

And I think for a lot of the Philippian church, they would have said,

Caesar's household? You mean the Romans?

You mean the people that are persecuting us every day?

You mean the people that are taking things away from us? You mean the people

that are making it hard for us to have church?

You mean the people that think that we're illegitimate, that think that we're

weird because we take the Lord's Supper and we say things like, take of my body and eat.

The people who will soon treat Christians as less than animals, that's who greets us.

Don't miss what Paul does there.

He starts with, greet every saint in Christ Jesus. These brothers that are with me greet you.

All the saints greet you, especially those in Caesar's household.

As if to say to this church, hey, listen, I know I'm imprisoned.

I know that I'm here and I know that your life is harder because the Romans exist.

I know that your life would be easier if the Romans didn't exist.

In fact, Paul knows that some of these people probably hate the Romans because

of what they've done to them.

Paul doesn't want them to miss that, hey, this is not about who you like and dislike.

This is not about the kind of people you think deserve salvation,

the kind of people that don't.

Again, you could think maybe the slave girl is hearing this.

She's going, listen, the Romans were the people that were okay with me being

enslaved for my whole life and being used up every single day to just make these men money.

That's what the Romans were to her. that that system was okay.

So Paul says this, I think, very intentionally at the end of this to say,

look what God's doing, that even the people that you might have the biggest aversion towards,

even those people, they greet you as brothers and sisters.

Listen to Revelation chapter 7, 9 through 11.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

John, as he's having vision, says, After this, I looked, and behold,

a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation,

from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne, before the Lamb,

clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out loud,

Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

Salvation belongs to our God. This is what Paul's trying to remind them of.

He's looking at these people. He's thinking these people that he knows,

and he's going, hey, listen, none of you deserve the salvation that you have.

None of you deserve to have your heart and mind open to who God is and what He was doing.

None of you deserve to be brought from death to life. None of you deserved anything

that you've received from God.

And the end goal is that from every tribe, tongue, and nation,

we would be standing together and saying aloud, blessed be our God who sits

on the throne unto the Lamb.

Now, again, the end goal of a church is not to be missional.

That's not the end goal. Missions is not the end goal.

God's glory being known among the nations is the end goal, and missions is a

means to getting that done.

Evangelism is not the goal, but evangelism is a means to get people to worship

God and to bring Him the glory that He is rightly due.

The end goal is worship, and the means by which we do that is evangelism and

missions, or in Paul's case, being stuck in a jail cell, chained to a Roman

guard so that they have to hear him talk about Jesus all the time.

Maybe it's you stuck in a job you don't like, in a school or a class you don't

love, around people that you probably don't fancy very much,

but that they might hear you talk about the salvation that you've received,

about the joy and the peace that you have, about the God who has saved and redeemed

you and be able to in one day, like Revelation 7 makes clear,

cry out alongside of you,

salvation belongs to our God, and thank God it does.

Listen, worshipers are brought into the kingdom by faithful men and women who

live their lives sacrificially for the furtherance of God's kingdom and not their own.

That's Paul's final message.

Give sacrificially to the glory of God alone so that more people might bring God more glory.

Give in such a way that builds God's kingdom and not your own,

because one day your kingdom will not exist anymore.

No money you make, no properties you have, nothing you leave,

it will all be gone, and God's kingdom will stand forever.

And so as you sacrifice your life and your time and your house and your stuff

for others, just be reminded this is for God's kingdom.

Way that I can think about the slave girl hearing that. I think about the Philippian

jailer hearing that, who would have been Roman to the core, right?

We said before that Philippi was a popular retirement spot for Roman soldiers,

that they would go out in wars and travel and do all the things that the Romans asked them to do.

And as they get past fighting age, that Philippi was a massive place that they

could retire to because you could be a jailer, right? You could do things like that.

I can imagine the smile on his face when he hears, especially those of Caesar's

household, as if to say, yeah, I was one of those too.

Yeah, I was one of those too. I was the Roman guy.

I worshiped all the false gods. I totally bought into Caesar's Lord.

I totally believe that Rome was the greatest thing to ever exist and that living

and dying for Rome was the most important thing in my life.

And then one day, I was just doing my job, an earthquake happened,

and the next thing I knew, God saved me.

And from this church, you'll have a rich lady and a slave girl and a jailer

all on Sunday mornings singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,

devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, caring for one another and loving for one another,

not because they have anything in common and not because there's anything in

their life outside of Christ that would bring them together for any good reason,

but all because they can all say,

blessed be our God and Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

Whether you have a lot or a little, whether you come from a slave background

or you're a rich woman with multiple houses or you're a jailer,

every single one of those people can get together in a room and say out loud,

how good has God been to us?

So in conclusion, we sacrifice and God will supply our needs.

We will sacrifice and do it for the glory of God and not our own kingdoms.

We will do so that God might use us to bring those around us into a saving faith.

So that one day they will be counted among the multitudes crying out in Revelation

7, saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

Thank you that it's like a two-edged sword that splits through bone and marrow,

and it's able to cut through our facades.

It's able to cut through our mass that we tend to put on.

God, I pray that it is at work this morning by your Spirit that we would be

reminded that our lives are to be lived sacrificially, that what we give up,

we don't give up hoping that our kingdoms would grow bigger,

but hoping that your kingdom would be served.

That as we sacrifice, that your glory would be made known, that people would

see our sacrifice and wonder why in the world we're not trying to build our own kingdom.

And it would give us a chance to tell them about the kingdom that we're living

for, about the kingdom that will never pass away, about the kingdom and its King, Christ Jesus.

God, I'm praying for Trinity Bible Church that you would give us wisdom in the

coming months and years.

God, we know there's always a decision to make. There's always a next thing

to think about, things to prioritize,

where to spend money and where to spend our time and what next project to tackle,

what missions, endeavors we should go on.

God, those questions will never end. But I just pray that we would take Paul's

words to heart as a church.

We would live sacrificially for the good of others around us and ultimately

so that your glory would be known and people would come to know you. In the name I pray, amen.