Misunderstood • Week 2

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Good morning. If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join me in

Philippians 4, verse 13. If you do not have a Bible, back at the back here to my left at the

Philippians 4:13

table, we have some black Bibles that are back there. We would love for you to stop by at the

end of the service, grab one of those. It's our gift to you. If you have a Bible, but let's maybe

say it's written in a translation that's maybe hard for you to read and to process,

and you would like to get one of those, please stop by there and get one of those as well. We

would love for you to have one of those. For all of our first-time guests, thank you so much. I echo

what Pastor Dave said. We're so glad and privileged that you would be here with us this morning. I'm at

the end of the service. I'll be back there at that table where the Bibles are. My wife will be back

there with me. We would love just to have an opportunity to meet you and to thank you for being

here in person. This morning at the nine o'clock hour, we started our summer study that we are doing

as we gather together. We got our kids ministry doing what our kids ministry doing, our youth

ministry doing, our youth ministry is doing, and then our adults were all kind of gathering here

together. We had a wonderful time of discussion as we are talking about the previous week's message,

and so if you weren't here this morning for that, I want to encourage you. Get up about an hour earlier

is what you need to do, and come on and hang out with us and spend some time with us. Wonderful

conversations. People getting to meet each other. They've been worshiping with each other for

weeks, months, or even years, and to be in community together, so I want to encourage you to come and to

be a part of that. Also, I want to make you aware that we do have a missions team heading up to New

York City to serve with Pastor Walter Valencia at New Life Church. Josh Nix will be leading our

young adults. There's about 17 that are going, and so be praying for them as they go and serve. They're

going to be doing some part ministry right around in the area where the church is located, and modeling

some outreach and helping to engage the community in the life of the church, and so we want to pray for

them as they are traveling up there to do that. And then last but certainly not least, we will be

partaking in the Lord's Supper together at the very end of the message, our very end of our worship

time together. So at the very end, I'll come back up on stage and walk us through that, but if you are here

today, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, regardless if this is your church home or not,

and you would like to do that with us, we do have these Lord's Supper cups. Hopefully you got one

on your way in. If you do not, if you did not, I'm sorry, you can go at any point in time and grab

them there right at the back here as we will partake in this together, like I said, at the very

end of the service. So let me read our focus verse this morning. It's found in Philippians 4.13,

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Would you join me as we go to the Lord in prayer?

God, what a wonderful morning it has been so far. God, to gather in this place as a church family to

talk about Your Word, to discuss Your Word, to sing praises to You, to see the teaching, to join together

in worship with our kids. God, such a wonderful, wonderful blessing. Lord, I pray that as we open

Your Word, Lord, I pray for the power and the Spirit of God to work and move in our lives, to draw us

closer to You, so that we leave here, Lord, not the same as we were when we came in, but more like

Christ. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we're doing a new study called Misunderstood, and

we're taking some common verses from the Bible that are common in that most of us know them, but

honestly, all too often these verses, even though most people know them, are misunderstood and then

therefore misapplied. Well, when it comes to our theology, we have the theology that we know, and

then we have the theology that we apply. And everyone has that, regardless of how spiritual you think you

are, about regardless of how much of the Bible you think you know or that you don't know. We all have

this concept within us of applied theology that takes what we know or what we believe we know of God's

word, and then practically speaking, how we apply that and how it plays out in our lives. We say,

this is what the truth, this is what I believe the truth of the Bible to be, and then I will then apply

that in my life. The danger comes with that when we believe the truth of the Bible to be one thing,

but it's actually something else. And so then we misapply that in our lives. And it can be a dangerous road to go

down, and as we'll see in a moment, can cause men and women of faith to doubt their faith, to doubt the

insufficiency of God, to doubt the power of God. Our focus verse this morning, I'll read it again,

Philippians 4.13. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. I think the way that we've

probably heard it phrased the most is, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Let me share with you kind of a lighthearted, maybe example of the misuse of this verse. I love sports,

and honestly, I've heard this verse used a lot of times in sport settings. So let me give you an

example of how, a little lighthearted, how this could play out. It's the bottom of the ninth inning.

There's a runner on second, there's a runner on third. There's two outs. The count is full. Three balls,

two strikes. The team at bat is sending their best hitter up to bat, and they're the ones down by one

run. A single wins the game. As he steps up to the plate, puts his back foot in first,

stares at the mound, stares at the pitcher, and he says, I can do all things through Christ who gives

me strength. Same time, there's the pitcher. Guess what? He's a Christian too. He feels the pressure.

He feels the pressure. He feels the pressure. He steps up onto the mound, puts one foot on the

rubber, comes in place, receives the pitch, what he'll throw from the catcher, comes into play. Please

don't pick apart my form. And he says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

He goes into his windup. He releases the ball. Ball comes in. The batter prepares.

He swings as hard as he can. Here's the problem. The pitcher has claimed the verse over his pitch.

The batter has claimed the verse over his swing. And here's the deal. They both cannot get the victory

they seek. Now, this sports illustration is a little lighthearted, and you laugh. For most of you,

you probably knew exactly where I was going when I stepped into this illustration. And you may think

to yourself, you know, I would never do that. But the problem with that is, there are many real honest

moments in life where the danger of the false application of, I can do all things through Christ

who gives me strength, comes into play. And you see men and women of faith, you see their hope rocked.

You see their faith challenged. And you see their perception of God lessened.

Let me give some more real life examples. We got our students in here. They don't want to think

about school. They're out of school, right? And we got some teachers in here, and you don't want to

think about school, but you're out of school. But chances are, the one thing that we all have in

common is, at one point in time, we were all in school. Now, I'm about to use an illustration about

receiving an A, and maybe you didn't fall into that category. Well, join me, right? I like to speak

about this like we all did. Here's the hypothetical. You're in school. You're getting ready for your final

exam. Final exam. And on this final exam, you need to make a 93 in order to keep your A average in the

class. You've worked hard all semester. You've given all of your time, your effort, and your energy.

You've focused in. You've done the extra. And you desperately want an A.

So you study. You prepare. You pray. And you claim the verse, I can do all things through Christ who

gives me strength. You take the test. You make an 89. I don't understand. I did the work. I did the

effort. Got to claim the truth of your word. But yet, my expectation is not met. You're up for a promotion

at work. This promotion will create a better life for you and your family. It'll create a greater

opportunity for you to make money and therefore be generous. It'll give you more time off so that you

can go on mission trips. You'd like to fund some missionaries. You'd like to continue to do the work

of God. It'll give you different hours so that you can be at church more consistently and you can come

to small group. But you have to interview because there's three other individuals up for the same

promotion. But you feel comfortable. You feel confident. You've been a faithful worker. You come

in early. You leave late. You're always a team player and you lead when you need to lead. But you know

that you struggle in interview settings. You polish up the resume. You get with friends to help you with

practice interview questions. And you head to your interview and you claim the verse.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. But instead you don't get the promotion.

Even though you prayed about it. Even though you had admirable goals if you get the job.

Even though you claimed Philippians 4.13 over it. Instead someone else gets the job.

You go to the doctor. Routine checkup. Sure, you're once a year physical what's there. But yet there's

something there that's just kind of different than last year. So you share with the doctor about what's

going on in your body. And you get a negative result. You get a bad, really bad result. One of those where

the doctor begins by saying, I'm sorry. But the doctor says, don't worry. We're going to fight this.

And you do. You fight. You take your medicine. You decide that you're going to eat healthy.

You work out. You acknowledge that there needs to be a spiritual aspect of this. And so you pray.

You bring people together. They pray for you. You read your Bible. You serve. And you claim the verse.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. But yet your health doesn't improve. In fact, it

declines. I can give you example after example that people like you and I claim this verse for positive,

godly reasons. Not selfish reasons. Not sinful reasons. They want to see God glorified in their life.

They want to see Him work and Him move.

But they don't get the outcome they desire. And this becomes the danger in this verse when it's improperly

applied. And the conclusion can be God, if I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength,

but yet I can't do this, then God, either I failed you or you failed me.

You know, when we use this verse and we get the outcome we desire, it's a great day, right? In our

perception, God fulfills His promises. He does give me strength. He gives me ability. He gives me means.

God does hear my prayers and He loves me and He answers me. God hears me and God does. He desires to

bless me. And look at how God has blessed me with knowledge. Look how God has blessed me with finances.

Look how God has blessed me with health. We walk away when the misuse of this verse happens.

But we get the outcome we want. I am strong. My strength comes from the Lord.

But when we misuse the verse, right? The opposite. God has failed. God must not have heard me or He didn't answer. He doesn't care.

Is God punishing me? Is God punishing me? Am I weak in my faith? Is God weak in His strength?

When taken out of context, the danger becomes that God made a promise that God didn't fulfill.

When taken out of context, when taken out of context, when we get the outcome we want, it puts us on the foundation that won't hold over time.

The problem is, does the Bible say, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me?

Yes. Yes, it does.

It's the verse that we read. It's the verse that was on the screen. It's the verse that's in your Bible.

That's what the Bible says.

But this verse needs to be understood and applied in context and not in isolation.

When Paul writes this, what I want to say is more, what does Paul mean by strength?

What does Paul mean by all things?

What is Paul communicating? Who is Paul communicating these things to?

Let me give you the context of this letter.

Philippians was written by Paul to the church at Philippi.

Philippi was the first church that was started in Greece.

And Paul desired to write them.

We see the formation of this church in Acts 16, when a woman named Lydia comes to faith in Christ.

Powerful, powerful part of Scripture.

The church at Philippi would be a church that would grow numerically and spiritually and become a very healthy church.

In fact, the church helped to fund the work of Paul and other church plants.

And so we begin to see this healthy, vibrant church funding the work of Paul.

We see the work that's being done in and amongst them.

But also very early on, they understand, what we understand as a church is that it's not just here so that we can bless ourselves, but how can we bless God?

And how can God use us in the work all over this world?

And so even though they are young as a church, they're still looking to how can we help plant other churches?

And so Paul writes them a letter, and Paul writes them a letter for some reasons.

It's so important that we know the reason why an author writes something.

And this is what we see.

So here's what Paul is doing.

He's thanking the church for their support.

Very early on, this is what we see.

He's thanking the church for their support.

He's updating the church on the work that is being done.

He's encouraging them in their faith.

They're growing, they're maturing, well done.

But he's also exhorting them, right, to move forward in their faith.

And even as we see, like, maturing in faith and being in obedience, there's always how God is so good in your life and mine.

There's always the next step of faith.

There's always the next step of growth, right?

If we feel like we've arrived, if we feel like we've achieved, boy, are we way off.

And so there's always that next step where we can go.

But specifically for Paul and the church at Philippi, what we see is he does not want them to become attached to the world.

And instead, what he wants them to see in their lives is consistent joy that comes from a growing relationship with Christ.

Not necessarily a joy that is found in the situations that surround them.

Maybe a little bit of what Paul is living out as he's imprisoned, where he may be executed.

My circumstances that surround me cannot find my joy, but the relationship for Christ can.

And what he is seeing in the life of the church, when we begin to focus in on our circumstances and not in the relationship with God,

what begins to creep in is worry.

And I see, worry is the opposite of joy.

Worry is oftentimes found in the circumstances and things around us.

But our joy is set in Christ, in Christ alone.

And that's the danger when it comes to worry.

Worry creeps in and hijacks our faith.

And when worry hijacks our faith, it hijacks our obedience.

It hijacks our joy.

It begins to wreck our perception of God, of how God wants to use us, and the contentment that I have in Him.

Jesus, when He gives the purpose of the parable of the sower in Mark 4, 19,

says this,

the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for things enter in

and choke the word.

And it proves unfruitful.

So when we begin to focus in on the cares of the world and all the things that are surrounding us,

it begins to choke out the very word of God.

Now God wants to work and move.

In a book that I was reading about worry, it says this,

that the truth is when we are wrapped up in worldly things and distracted by our circumstances,

it hinders our spiritual growth and squelches our usefulness in God's kingdom.

So Paul is going to encourage the church to stand firm in faith.

Stand firm in faith.

And this is going to be hard work.

This isn't easy.

Stand firm.

Foundation.

Landed.

Stand firm in your faith.

And toward the end of Philippians, he begins to give them and walk through this.

He says,

in this, as you are a part of the body of Christ and you are his and he is yours,

that you need to view yourselves differently than the world.

Philippians 3, 20.

But our citizenship is in heaven.

And from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

That we view ourselves differently than the world.

And if we view ourselves differently from the world that are standard,

and it's because not one day we're citizens of heaven.

That's hard.

When the chaos of what's around you, when it begins to feel like, how can this world get any worse?

Oh, but my citizenship is in heaven.

And while this life feels like it takes an eternity, it is but a vapor.

But what is waiting for me is eternity with him.

The second thing that he encourages them, he exhorts them to, is always rejoice in the Lord.

Philippians 4, 4.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say rejoice.

Now, always, for me, is difficult.

Some days seem easy.

Some days seem harder.

And all too often, on the days that seem harder, seems like the days that I can't.

But in all reality, it's the day that I just won't.

I can, but I won't.

Why?

Because it's easier to be miserable than it is to rejoice.

From his prison cell.

Execution awaiting.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say rejoice.

Then he tells them,

Refuse to be anxious.

Easier said than done.

Refuse to be anxious.

And instead,

pray about everything.

Philippians 4, 6-7.

Do not be anxious about anything,

but in everything,

by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,

let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God,

which surpasses all understandings,

will guard your heart and your minds

in Christ Jesus.

Today,

I choose joy.

Today,

I refuse to let the lies of this world consume me.

And here's why.

Refuse to be anxious and instead pray about everything.

Come in together.

Because with the understanding

that the miracle of God in the moment

is, God,

I'm depending on you

because every part of me

wants to run to the sinful idol of anxiety.

But God,

today,

today,

with everything,

Lord,

I come to you.

I can't imagine

Paul's

sleepless nights.

But in everything,

in everything,

in everything.

Paul says that they need to fix their minds

on the things of praise

and excellence.

Paul says in Philippians 4, 8,

finally, brothers,

whatever is true,

whatever is honorable,

whatever is just,

whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely,

whatever is commendable,

if there is any excellence,

if there is anything worth

of praise,

think about these things.

Paul says focus.

Put your mind on the things of God.

Put your mind on the promises of God.

Put your mind on the work of Christ.

Put your mind and your hope in Him

and fix your mind on those.

Get away from me, Satan.

Because let me tell you who God is.

And let me tell you of God's love for me.

Here's what Paul wants them to get.

Living by faith

is not always easy.

It's not.

It's not.

Living by faith

is not always easy.

Anybody who tells you

that it is,

I'd love to have a conversation with them.

I want to know

why it's easy,

how it's been easy.

Because here's the thing,

God doesn't promise us an easy life.

Jesus didn't have an easy life.

God doesn't let us get too comfortable.

God wants to work us

and move us

and shape us.

Paul's life.

Paul's life

is an example of this for them.

Paul's not writing them

out of a concept

that he learned in seminary.

Paul's not writing them

and sharing with them

some story of some martyr.

As Paul sits

in luxury,

Paul writes them

from prison.

Prison that he knew

all too well.

And he's speaking to

when the pursuits

of this world,

when the harshness

of this world,

when the struggles

of life come,

the joy of God

produces a gift of God

in the life of believers

and it's the wonderful gift

of contentment.

Of contentment.

Philippians 4, 10-13.

Paul says,

I rejoice in the Lord greatly

that now at length

you have revived

your concern for me.

You were indeed

concerned for me

but you had no

opportunity.

Not that I am speaking

of being in need

for I have learned

in whatever situation

I am

to be content.

I know how

to be brought low

and I know

how to abound.

In any

and every circumstance

I have learned

the secret

of facing

plenty

and hunger

abundance

and need.

I can do

all things

through Him

who strengthens me.

Paul's strength

is not in the act.

Paul's strength

is from the Lord

and what

can he do

in prosperity

and in punishment?

What can he do

in riches

and in poverty?

He can be content

in Christ.

I can do all

things

through Him

who strengthens

me.

When we understand

that this world

is not our home.

When our joy

is fixed

in the Lord.

When we refuse

anxiety

to become

the king

of our heart

and embrace

prayer

about everything

we fix our minds

on the things

of praise

on the things

of excellence

on the things

of God

the pains

of this world

may still

ring true

but joy

and contentment

are promised.

Paul's the example

of this.

This isn't

the first.

2 Corinthians 12

7-10

Paul says

so to keep me

from becoming

conceited

because of the

surpassing greatness

of the revelation

a thorn

was given to me

in the flesh

a messenger

of Satan

to harass me

to keep me

from becoming

conceited.

Three times

I pleaded

with the Lord

about this

that it should

leave me

but He said

to me

my grace

is sufficient

for you

for my power

is made perfect

in weakness.

therefore

I will boast

all the more

gladly

of my weaknesses

so that the power

of Christ

may rest on me.

For the sake

of Christ

then

I am content.

I am content

with weaknesses

with insults

with hardships

persecutions

and calamities

for when I am weak

then

I

am

strong.

So how do we

take this?

How do we

take

I can do

all things

through Christ

who gives me

strength

and apply it

to the situations

in my life.

you didn't

make the grade

well done

you prepared

you tried

you did

your best

and you

can be proud

of what

you've done

and I know

that you didn't

get the grade

that you wanted

but ultimately

the things

of this earth

do not

define you

but Christ

does

so in that

you can be

content

with who

you are

in him.

How about

when you don't

get the job

that you

wanted

that you

prayed for

that you

planned for

that you set

godly

aspirations

for

you didn't

get the job

but you're

not going

to get

bitter

you're going

to celebrate

and be happy

for the person

who did

because God

has a plan

for them

and guess

what God

has a plan

for you

and you

will be

content

with where

God has

placed you

and the

purpose

that he

has

and show

up every

single day

prepared

for the

mission

field

that he

has.

What about

the

doctor's

office?

What about

when the

report

comes back

and you've

done

everything?

The

medicine

the

prayers

the

diet

the

reading

your

Bible

man I'm

trying to do

all the

things the

doctor

I'm

trying to do

all the

works of

God

that God

has for

me

God

is going

to see

you can

do all

things

through

Christ

who gives

me strength

that while

your health

and your

body may

fail

God's

plan

for every

moment

of your

life will

not

and he

has

purpose

and he

has

reason

and every

moment

that God

gives you

breath

on this

earth

he's

using you

for his

purpose

and because

of that

because

of that

I will

give him

praise

in every

single

moment

on this

earth

in sickness

and in health

and in poverty

and prosperity

because here's

what

we

know

there's an

eternity

of praise

for him

that he

will give

us

and that

we can be

content

that our

life

is in

his hands

and our

eternity

is secured

in his

as well

in closing

if you're

asking yourself

this question

this morning

but how

can I be

content

how can I

be content

of the

things that

I'm dealing

with

the things

that I'm

going through

of the

things

that I'm

facing

while I

wish we

could take

those away

we can't

but what

we can

acknowledge

is the

sacrifice

of the

cross

and the

miracle

of the

tomb

that

Christ

came

and he

solved

the

unsolvable

problem

that you

face

that I

face

he solved

the problem

of our

sin

and in

solving the

problem of

our sin

he took

the punishment

that we

not just

deserve

but that we

earned

and that

should be

due

for us

and the

wrath of

God that

I deserve

and the

wrath of

God that

you deserve

he took

on

on our

behalf

and he

bore

the burden

of our

sin

he was

punished

and took

the death

that you

and I

deserve

we can

be content

in the

joy

in Christ

because the

sacrifice

of the

cross

but also

in the

miracle

of the

tomb

because see

his body

doesn't

still lay

there

but three

days later

that he

arose

and so

while our

life here

will not

end here

our life

when we

are found

in him

has the

promise for

a hope

and a

future of

eternity

and so

regardless

of what

this world

may bring

I can

find

contentment

in Christ

because I

can do

all

things

through

Christ

who

gives me

strength

my joy

my

contentment

my hope

and my

praise

is found

in him

would you

pray with

me

God I

thank you

for the

beauty

and the

truth

of your

word

God

whether it's

a baseball

game

or a

test

a job

interview

a doctor's

appointment

or to

any other

situation

that we

may find

ourselves

in

God the

outcomes

of those

events

do not

define who

we are

but God

we're

defined who

we are

in you

and in

you alone

so while

Paul writes

this from

being

imprisoned

talks about

the joy

that he

has in

Christ

and in

God

and in

the reality

of where

we find

ourselves

today

we can

cling to

the same

hope

and joy

in you

and in

you

alone

God

give us

and the

power

and the

working

of your

spirit

or the

ability

to cling

to the

promises

of your

word

God

that we

will not

find

ourselves

defined

by the

moment

we will

not find

ourselves

defined

by the

event

but we

will

define

ourselves

defined

by Christ

and Christ

alone

whatever

situation

there's

joy

God

I pray

for those

of us

here this

morning

God

I pray

salvation

in eternity

with you

would not

simply be

an event

that we

are waiting

for

but it

would be

a reality

that we

live in

every day

that the

joy of

my salvation

is evident

in me

now

it's a

testimony of

your faithfulness

to me

it's a

testimony of

your faithfulness

to others

and that

God we

would give

you

all the

praise

and honor

and glory

Lord

and it's

possible

not through

our works

and our

means

but possible

only

because of

the work

of Christ

and what

he did

in our

place

and what

he overcame

for us

God as we

prepare

ourselves

to go

into a

time of

response

a time

of worship

Lord

I ask

for the

working

movement

of your

spirit

as we

acknowledge

through

communion

the work

of Jesus

and it's

his name

we pray

amen

that's it

for this

week's

message

be sure

to check

back next

week for

a new

episode

and in

the meantime

you can

visit us

online at

willowridgechurch.org

or by searching

for Willow Ridge

Church on

Facebook

Instagram

and YouTube

thanks again

for listening

and YouTube