God Supplies Our Needs

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We as humans are not known for being the most patient species, right? Not always. And sometimes when we’re adults, we learn to fake it, although we’re not really all that patient either.

But kids are not great at faking patience. And some of my kids, now my older kids have learned, although they went through this as well, my younger kids, my younger two that can speak, so not, well I guess Abigail, some of her screamings probably feed me also. But number three and four are prone to saying, I’m hungry.

And they act like it’s the end of the world. They act like it is vital and crucial. Even if they ate ten minutes ago, they just whine and complain. And they have to come and remind you.

We took a road trip yesterday to a family reunion in Texas. And it was hotter here than there. That’s not right.

There’s something wrong with that. But we were in the car for several hours and had snacks there, but you still hear, I’m hungry. Like they’re dying.

They are on the verge of death if they don’t get sustenance soon. And this happens all the time. And I have to remind my kids, you know, we always feed you.

As a matter of fact, I have asked them, I’ve asked all of them at various times, have I ever forgotten to feed you? And naturally they sometimes say, yes. When was that?

When was that? That has never happened. I promise you, that has never happened.

I may have forgotten to eat on time, but I have never forgotten to eat in my life. And I have never forgotten to feed the children. And Charla is even more organized than I am.

So I can assure you, they have never missed a meal. And yet they will say, yes. Okay, no, that never happened. Have I ever forgotten to feed you?

No. Okay, then can you trust for just a few minutes that I’m going to feed you this time? Okay, and then immediately, I’m hungry.

Okay, we’re just right back to this again. But the Lord is sort of the same way with us, with Him being in the parent role. Because if you’re anything like me, you probably find yourself at times whining to the Lord about stuff you need.

And, you know, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We could do a lot worse than taking our needs to the Lord. But sometimes I get a little whiny about it.

And I act like He’s forgotten. And yet we have the promise in His Word, basically, I have never forgotten to feed you. Now I’m paraphrasing a little bit from the passage we’re going to look at today as we come to the end of our study in Philippians.

God makes the point through the Apostle Paul that He has never forgotten, He has never neglected to take care of the needs of His people. Now His definition of needs and our definition of needs are not always the same thing. What my kids need is food.

What they think they need is a particular brand of mac and cheese that I’m sorry they don’t sell at McDonald’s, alright? This is what we have. You need food, that is a want.

Our definition of needs and God’s definition of needs are not always the same thing. But we have the assurance from God in His Word that no matter how panicked we get, no matter how impatient we get, no matter how our timing doesn’t match up with His, we have the reminder and the reaffirmation in His Word that He has never forgotten to take care of us, and He’s not going to start now. And so as we come to the end of this study in Philippians.

We’re going to be in Philippians chapter 4 this morning. I want to go over this and look at some of what the Apostle Paul says to the church at Philippi on this subject of God meeting the needs of His people. If you turn with me there to Philippians chapter 4, once you find it, if you’d stand, if you’re able to without too much trouble as we read from God’s Word together.

If you don’t have your Bible or can’t find Philippians, that’s all right. It’ll be on the screen for you as well. But we’re going to start in verse 15, and we’re going to go through to the end of the chapter, and the end of the book, really, at verse 23.

It says, Now you Philippians know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed, I have all and abound.

I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever.

Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar’s household.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. And you may be seated.

So I’m just going to skip to the end, well, toward the end of the passage, and skip to the main point, give you the spoilers up front about what the point of this passage is, and that’s that God always takes care of His people. God always takes care of His people. Now again, to be very clear, His definition of what our needs are does not always line up with what we think our needs are.

And I know there’s the stereotypical idea that, well, I’m praying because I need a new truck. And God says, no, what you need is just this $200 part instead of the $20,000 new truck. Actually, nowadays it sounds like used trucks are $20,000.

Whatever it is. But I need this brand new thing, and God says, no, what you need is this over here. And there’s that stereotypical example where we in the flesh get our needs and wants mixed up.

But there have even been times that I have prayed earnestly over months and years for things that I honestly thought were God’s will. That I honestly thought were what was needed. Only to have God say, no, that’s not what you need.

You need this instead. So I want to be very clear when I say that God’s definition of our needs and our definition of our needs don’t always match up. that we’re not always talking about the difference between being spiritual and being selfish.

Sometimes we’re just talking about the difference in what we know and understand and what God knows and understands. Because I’m sure in moments, the church at Philippi thought praying for Paul and his needs, well, his need is just to be freed so he can go on preaching the gospel. Surely that’s what God would want.

And yet God had kept Paul in prison and in house arrest all this time in Rome. but you notice what he says at the end of the book there, that all the saints greet you, especially those that are of Caesar’s household. Paul had had opportunities to witness to people and lead them to Jesus Christ, who were part of Caesar’s family, part of Caesar’s staff.

People high up in imperial Rome that he would not have met and witnessed to otherwise if he had not been under arrest. And so what was needed for Paul was not necessarily what Paul or the Philippians themselves thought was needed. But Paul makes the point that God always takes care of His people. And he says this pretty explicitly in verses 19 and 20, and my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

And then now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Paul finishes this section of the text with this praise to God in verse 20.

He says that God deserves the glory, all the glory that could ever be given to Him forever and ever and ever. He says that God deserves this. We’re talking about the greatness of God and the goodness of God.

He’s worthy of all the praise that we could ever give Him. And part of that is He’s worthy just because of who He is. God is worthy of our praise just because of who He is.

If He had never done a thing for us, He would still be worthy of all the praise and glory we could ever give Him. But we have this added benefit of the fact that He has blessed us and He has taken care of us. One of the ways that we as short-sighted humans who get focused on our needs and our stuff in life, one of the ways that we recognize His greatness is by seeing how it benefits us, seeing how He has taken care of us.

And so Paul says one of the ways you can see how great God is, is by the way that He supplies your needs, going back to verse 19. And to understand that, we have to distinguish between the wants and the needs. He will supply our needs.

It’ll come in His way. It’ll come in His timing. It’ll come in the form that He knows is best for us, but He will supply our needs.

All of them. All of them. I can look back over my own life and see example after example after example of this, and I could start naming off examples for you, but we could be here all day.

I’ll just give you one blanket example, there have been times in life that many of you have experienced as well that there was way more month left at the end of the money than there should have been. That on paper, I didn’t know how my family was going to eat, and yet I never missed a meal. They never missed a meal. God always took care of that. I don’t understand how the math worked out on all that, but He’s always taken care of that.

As we’ve endeavored just to do what He called us to do and trust Him to take care of that, He always has. He’s never failed in that. Now I have a lot of wants that have gone unanswered.

Or I better said maybe the answer was no. But God has never neglected to meet a need. And we notice here at the end of verse 19, what he says about doing this according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. This is another important thing for us to understand.

If you’re a believer, God does not meet your needs according to what you deserve. God does not meet your needs according to your performance. If your idea is, well, if I was just a better person, I wouldn’t be struggling through this.

God will take care of it. God would do this for me. Listen, we can do a lot of things to mess our lives up and make our lives harder.

When we think about needs, a lot of times we think about money. So listen, we can do a lot of foolish things with our money. We can do a lot of things that are going to make that area of life harder.

But God’s meeting of our needs is not dependent on how well we perform. It’s dependent on how good God is. He meets our needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

So if you’re a believer, you can trust Him to meet your needs, not because you’ve earned it. Now when He does meet that need, don’t go out and be foolish with what He’s provided and squander it and make life even harder. But it’s not dependent on what we have earned as far as spiritually storing things up in the bank of heaven so that He’ll bless us extra special. He meets our needs and promises to meet our needs because He is our Father.

Because He is good, because He’s kind, because He’s gracious. according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. And God’s resources are unlimited.

Again, I don’t want to get too stuck on the idea of money though because that’s not all that this is about. We all have needs that have nothing to do with money. We all have needs that can’t even be fixed with money.

That no matter how much money we throw at that problem, it’s not going to fix it. We have other needs. And God supplies those just as much.

And His resources are unlimited. But what we need to understand from verse 19 also is that what gives us access to that supply that’s going to meet our needs is Jesus Christ. What gives us access to the riches of His glory is Jesus Christ. If you belong to the Father because you’ve put your faith in Jesus Christ, then He has promised to take care of you. That’s the bottom line.

We could parse this out. We could look at every aspect of it word by word and build entire lessons around it. But the bottom line we need to understand is that if you belong to Him, He promises to take care of your needs.

spiritual, financial, whatever it is God promises to take care of your needs and it may come in a way you don’t expect it may not be the answer you had hoped for but it’s going to be the answer that you need and Paul gave his own situation as an example of this he’s writing to the church at Philippi about this and he says I can attest to you from my own life that God has always met needs because I’ve seen the way that he’s met needs in my own life Paul knew something about God’s care for his people And so in verses 15 and 16, he tells that story.

Now you Philippians know also in the beginning of the gospel, that’s the beginning of his ministry, after he left from them and he went on to Greece, he went on to Thessalonica, and he went on presenting the gospel to the people, that when he departed from Macedonia, he said there was no church that shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. He had experienced some pretty desperate times in the beginning of his ministry.

As he had gone off to these other regions of Greece where he didn’t know anybody, there weren’t any Christians yet, and he went to go and start churches and went to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with him, he didn’t have a lot of financial support, and he went out and did all these things surviving on only what he could earn. Now, I know a lot of us, our minds go to, well, isn’t that what most people do? Just survive on what they can earn?

But Paul here was working a more than full-time job already doing ministry, and yet still had to find time to make enough tents to sell and support himself. Paul’s working a couple of full-time jobs here, trying to make ends meet. Imagine, just for a second, that Christianity had never come to this part of the world, and you were called by God to come to Lawton, Oklahoma, and share the gospel and do ministry and plant a church.

Now imagine that we had a church this size, people like, I don’t mean a building, but I mean a group of people like this, and you, being the missionary, were sent without support to go and work a full-time job to take care of your own needs, and also you’re supporting all of the work that this body of believers is doing to get things off the ground. Would that be a financial strain? Would that be a financial strain for you?

Would be, I think, for all of us. For any one of us to support all the work that goes on. And that’s what he was having to do.

So that gives you a little idea of how tight things were. And yet there were moments in that struggle that the church at Philippi would send gifts. This was not about the Apostle Paul.

Okay, listen, the Apostle Paul is not a guy on TBN trying to raise money for his third airplane. He’s out there trying honestly to do ministry, live within his means, and preach the gospel. and he says that at just the right times, the church at Philippi, and they were the only ones helping out, the church at Philippi would send a gift and it would come at just the right time to meet a need.

He said, I’ve seen how this works, that God supplies all of our needs because it’s happened in my own life. Repeatedly, when there was a necessity, the church at Philippi sent what was needed and they may not have even known what the needs were. God just impressed on them to send it and they did and it met the need.

And while Paul credits them for their generosity, he also acknowledges that God’s provision was behind these gifts. And so they of all people should understand God’s faithfulness to meet the needs of His people, because they’d been part of meeting other people’s needs for years. So he’s telling the church at Philippi, God promises to meet your needs.

And he says, I know it’s true because I’ve seen it in my own life. And you, Philippians, also ought to understand how true it is, because you’ve been used by God all these years to do this. And the supply came through at just the right time for the need, and you were part of that.

So we have all seen from experience how God works in this regard. He was using real life events to take this spiritual truth and make it very real and accessible to them. Something that they could trust in because they could look back and say, I’ve seen it.

And I think these real world examples are important for us even today because we’re human and sometimes our flesh gets the better of us. And folks, I know the promises of God to take care of my needs and my family’s needs. And yet sometimes in the flesh, I start to worry.

I don’t even want to say doubt because it’s not that well thought out. It’s not even well thought out enough to say, I don’t think God can do this. It’s just that sense of dread.

Any of you ever feel that? You know, You know God can do anything, but here in the pit of your stomach, it’s telling a different story. Now I know that God’s Word is sufficient, and I should rest on this.

But sometimes it helps me to do what He’s doing here, do what the Israelites did over and over when they came to a point of time when they needed to step out and trust God, of going back over the real life examples of what God’s already done for you and how He’s come through. And I start to think, well, here’s how He’s met this need. And again, I don’t want you to think, well, they’re just always talking about money at church.

Most of our needs have nothing to do with money. For some reason, that’s where our minds go first. But most of our biggest needs have nothing to do with money. And I come up against this need and think, how in the world is God ever going to meet this?

How in the world is God ever going to take care of this? And then I start to think about time after time in my life, He’s taken care of this. He’s done this.

And many times, maybe He’s already dealt with this same situation or something similar once before. And I see this real world application. I see this track record God has of faithfulness and coming through in ways I didn’t expect at just the right time.

And it reassures me that what He said is true. Now again, I fully acknowledge I should trust it just because He said it. In a perfect world, I should trust it just because He said it.

But boy, sometimes it helps the reminder of how He’s come through in the past. That’s what Paul’s doing for them. He said, we have this promise that He’ll supply our needs, but don’t forget that you and I both have seen in real life, in our day-to-day, how this works. And in the midst of this, Paul reminds them of how important it is that God has used them and that they’ve allowed themselves to be used to meet these needs.

Paul reminds them of how much it matters because he tells the Philippians that God notices their service to Him. He says in verses 17 and 18, Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed, I have all and abound.

I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent to you, a sweet-smelling aroma and an acceptable sacrifice well-pleasing to God. This is how I know that this is not a televangelist fundraising letter from the Apostle Paul. He says that as I’m talking to you about gifts, this is basically a thank you note portion of the letter.

As I’m talking to you about gifts, don’t think that I need another gift. I’m not seeking a gift, he says in verse 17. He said, I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.

He goes on again and says, indeed, I have all and abound. He’s not saying thank you so that they’ll feel warm and fuzzy and send something else. He says, I have everything I need.

I have all and abound. I have more than I need at the moment. Thank you.

He says, I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you. This is not a fundraising. This is not Paul’s way of manipulating a gift out of them.

He’s acknowledging that while their gifts were helpful to him, and while their gifts were needed, and while God used their gifts to meet those specific needs, he says the most important thing for him about these gifts is the fruit that they bore for the Philippians themselves. He says, I’m seeking the fruit that abounds to your account. He’s excited about the credit that God is giving them for their faithfulness, for their generosity.

And he’s acknowledging that God gave them credit for the gifts that they gave. Now he’s not telling us that this is a mathematical formula where if we give so much that God will bless so much, or that God pours out a certain amount of material blessings in direct proportion to what we give. What this means is that God sees the heart of the giver.

God was looking at the hearts of the people at Thessalonica, and he recognized the compassion, He recognized the faithfulness that motivated the gift. And that’s why he compares their gift to an Old Testament offering in verse 18 when he’s talking about a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice. That is Old Testament language.

And even in the Old Testament, we see glimpses of the fact that God was far more concerned with the heart of the offerer than even the status of the offering. Somebody could come and offer a sacrifice perfectly, and if their heart was distant from God, if they were cold toward God, if they were in rebellion, that sacrifice didn’t mean a thing. God looked far more on the heart of the offer.

And this is important because if you’ve ever wondered if you’re giving, if your sacrifices, and once again, this is not limited to money. It’s fitting that we should be at this passage coming up on VBS week. Some of you are about to make huge sacrifices that have nothing to do with money, right?

Some of you are about to spend, what, two and a half hours a night? I don’t even want to do the math. What is that, 12 and a half hours just with the kids this week?

I make it sound like I hate children, I don’t. But they are challenging. We were challenging when we were children, I’m sure.

It’s just part of it. But some of you are about to spend 12 and a half plus hours this week with children. That is a sacrifice that has nothing to do with money.

We may wonder sometimes when we make sacrifices, when we serve, when we do things, does it make a difference? Does anybody notice? Is there any point to what I’m doing?

The Philippians may have even thought that themselves. It’s just a little bit we’re sending to the Apostle Paul. How could we possibly make a dent in the need over there in Thessalonica?

And for all those who’ve ever wondered if their little contribution even matters, Paul is making the point that God notices. And if we’re doing things out of a genuine desire to serve Him, He’s going to honor that. Paul said their little contribution was like a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord.

It meant more than any sacrifice, any offering, any bull that was slaughtered on the altar. It meant more to God than any of that. It was their heart that was determined to serve Him.

Paul points out that God notices. And he says that fruit abounded to their account. And the reason this matters so much is because it is so easy for you and me to let our everyday concerns, our focus on the things we need, distract us from serving, to distract us from doing what God’s called us to do.

I do it all the time. I’m so bad at it. I’ve told y’all stories before about times that I really believe God has sent somebody in my direction for me to talk to them, and I’m so focused on what I’m doing at the moment that after they walk away, I think, that’s the kind of thing I’m talking about.

We can get so focused on this need we have. Maybe it’s money, maybe it’s something else. I can’t serve the Lord in this way because I need this.

Once I get all this straightened out, once I have everything I need over here, listen, our needs are always going to be there. Once those are met, there’s going to be another one. You’re never going to get to the point where you don’t need anything.

So if we say we’ll serve the Lord, when we say we’ll give to Him, when we say we’ll give our time, we’ll give our resources, we’ll give our energy, when we say we’ll make this sacrifice, we’ll make this effort, when all of our needs are met, you’re going to be chasing that time to serve until you get to heaven. We don’t have to let our everyday concerns prevent us from serving God. Because Paul makes the case here.

Our God will supply all of your needs through His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. He talks about how He’s already done it, how they had all seen it, and how they all went about their ministry and their service just knowing that God was going to do this. And I think that’s the most important takeaway for you and me today, is that as believers, as those who belong to Jesus Christ, we can be hard at work honoring Him.

We don’t even have to worry about the daily concerns. And I know how hard that is because I’m a worrier. I want to say it’s my spiritual gift, but that’s not really a thing.

I’m a worrier, but we can step back and we don’t have to worry about those things. I’m not saying be reckless with life. But if God’s called you to do something, if He’s called you to use your time over here, if He’s called you to use your resources over here, do what He’s called you to do.

And trust that He’ll meet those needs. We can be hard at work honoring Him, knowing that He’s working to take care of us. And folks, He can take care of us better than we can take care of ourselves.

He can meet our needs better than we can. So for us as believers, this is really a call to trust in God’s provision and to do ministry like the Apostle Paul, to do ministry like the people at Thessalonica, trusting that He’s going to take care of us. One of my favorite things that Charles Stanley.

. . One of my favorite things that anybody’s ever said, Charles Stanley has said over and over and over again, Trust God and leave the consequences to Him.

We can trust Him. We can go and obey Him and trust Him, trusting that He’s going to take care of all of these needs behind us. And if you’ve never trusted Him as your Savior, that’s the most important area we can trust Him is with our eternal destinies.

So many people are focused on, if I could just be good enough, if I could just do the right things, then God will love me, then I’ll be right with God. If I could just be a better person, if I could just be better at this, Maybe I’ll get my life cleaned up and I’ll go to church and then I’ll be right with the Lord. We can’t meet that need.

If we’re looking at the need to be good enough to be right with God, you and I can’t meet that need. Only Jesus could meet that need. We’ve all sinned and been separated from a holy God.

Jesus Christ took responsibility for our sins. He was nailed to the cross and He shed His blood and died for us to meet the need that we had of being right with God. this morning, if you know that you’re not in a relationship with God, you don’t belong to Him, you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, it is very simple.

You simply have to understand that you’ve sinned against God and that that separates you from Him. You have to understand there’s a need here you can’t meet, but that Jesus Christ died on the cross to meet that need and rose again three days later to prove it. And if instead of trusting in yourself and your goodness and your effort and what you can earn and deserve.

You simply trust in Jesus and what he did for you. This morning, you can have the forgiveness that he offers. You can be right with God.

That need can be met.