Sermon on May 24 by Pastor Roland Eskinazi

Scripture: Philippians 4:10-20

 

 

Do you feel your vulnerability as you look at your needs and as you wonder how they may be met?
As you plan for the future, you have:

1. A PERSONAL SUPPLIER WHO WON’T DROP YOU! “MY God…”

• “My God is no man’s debtor”
  Though in prison, Paul can be content because God has supplied the Philippians to supply him.
  The dungeon is often the place where we keep learning that Jesus is enough and more than sufficient to keep us.
• “My God is my God”
  “…The God of me will supply all my needs”
  God is not an abstract, but a personal God, always working on behalf of all who are personally His.

“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading. It is a life of faith, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing who makes us go.” (Oswald Chambers: ‘My Utmost for His Highest’)

2. A PRECISE SUPPLY THAT FITS YOUR NEED! “…will meet all YOUR needs…”

• God will supply all your needs, not your greed
  Paul did not live in a perpetual state of plenty. The promise here is for our needs, not all our wants.
  In desiring the wrong things, we inevitably lose out on what really matters.
• God will supply both the biggest and smallest needs
  God alone could meet our greatest need: the one we were least able to do anything about.

“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, richly give us all things?” (Rom.8:32)

Do not feel embarrassed about any need, but actively trust the Lord for every need and for the supply to meet your need.

3. A PLENTIFUL SOURCE THAT IS ALWAYS OPEN “…according to HIS glorious riches in Christ Jesus”

•  You can’t run dry what you can’t fill up
  God will give to you in accordance with the depths of His limitless glory and riches. (Romans 11:33 – 36)
  God is able to bring us through these virus days with a more infectious love for the lost, for His church and for Himself.
• You can live in ‘this moment’ and not the one to come.
  The secret to contentment is not ‘having no needs’
  Are you living expectantly, knowing that none of your needs will outstretch the love and grace of God?

Remember!

“Often we are not aware of how close we are to that need which we need but think we don’t have. In His grace God has placed some hidden gold somewhere in all of us that meets our need at a desperate moment.” (Ravi Zacharias)

 

 

THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION AND PRAYER

1. Where was Paul writing this letter from? Did he lack anything, and if not, who actually met his needs? (Two parties involved)
2. What does the Lord promise to supply? Name five gifts you have received from the Lord that you did not earn.
3. Why should our needs not hinder us from being content? In what ways do needy times mold us to be effective?
Learn Philippians 4:19 by heart, meditate on it during the week and ask the Lord to give you increased peace and daily joy.