Joy in God’s Provision
"And my God will supply every need
of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Philippians
4:19, English Standard Version)
Today, we're going to conclude our brief survey of
the book of Philippians. Paul closes
this great letter with a teaching on God's provision for His children. This is an area many Christians in North
America struggle with. Funny, you
probably never have to preach a message on God's provision to believers in the
Third World because they're living proof of God's provision. However, because of our great wealth in North
America, we are so tempted to think we don't need God as much.
Take a moment and reflect on the following: If you live in the United States of America,
you are blessed to live in the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth
during the most prosperous period of human history. Even people in the lowest economic strata in
this country (I am referring to the working poor, not people who are destitute)
would live like kings in some parts of the world. I find myself thinking, "Why did God bless
me in such a way?" Yet wealth is a
great obstacle to holiness. Wealth creates the illusion of self-sufficiency,
and self-sufficiency destroys intimacy with God.
Paul discusses the secret of
contentment--celebrating in what God has provided, and not wanting any more or
any less. There is a great passage from
Proverbs which states this principle: "Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me
before I die: Remove far from me
falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food
that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, 'Who is the
LORD?'" (Proverbs 30:7-9).
I see in this passage from Philippians three things regarding the secret
of contentment: 1) The who; 2) the what;
and 3) the how.
1. The Who
("And my God"). Who is it the provides for us? God.
Pretty simple, huh? Yet many
people stumble in this area (myself included).
It's easy to sit in church and say, "Oh, yes, God will provide for
all my needs. AMEN!!!" Much harder
to do when it's time to pay the bills and you don't have enough to pay them
all. Let's face it, many of us don't
behave as if God will provide. The Bible
calls us to give sacrificially, yet many of us don't even tithe (i.e., give
10%). According to the latest Barna
poll, less than 10% of evangelicals tithe.
The sad thing was that as incomes rose, the percentage of people who
tithed declined. I'm not going to argue
on whether or not tithing is mandated in the New Testament. Whatever your position, I feel that 10% is a
good starting point for giving, yet we
don't even do that much.
Why? Because deep down inside, we
don't really believe God will provide; we hedge our bets.
2. The What
("Will supply every need of
yours"). What does
God promise to provide? Every one of our
needs! People, this is a promise from
our heavenly Father! He has promised to
provide every single one of our needs!
Does God lie? Absolutely not (cf.
Titus 1:2)! Here's the
catch--distinguishing between "needs" and "wants." God, who is infinite in wisdom and knowledge,
has promised to meet every single one of our needs. Yet, we have the audacity to complain because
we don't get what we want. Question:
Who do you think knows better what we need? Us or God?
Every time you don't think you're getting what you want in life, take a
moment to consider this: Maybe God has a
better plan for your life than you do.
If you're not getting what you want, maybe God is saying, "You
don't need that in your life right now.
Just trust Me." I'd rather
trust my all-loving, all-knowing, all-wise Creator for my needs than my
shifting emotions.
3. The How
("According to his riches in
glory in Christ Jesus"). How will God provide for our needs? According to His riches in glory in Christ
Jesus. Here's another question: How rich is God? Umm...let's see...He owns EVERYTHING! God is infinitely rich. He can pour blessing on you that would
stagger your mind! Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob were incredibly wealthy. Job was
also incredibly wealthy. David was
fabulously wealthy. Solomon was stupidly
wealthy! God can bestow material
blessings. I want to make a careful
distinction here. The passage says God
gives "according to His riches."
Notice, it doesn't say "out of His riches." OK, what's the difference? Let's say I have $10,000. Suppose you come up to me and ask to borrow
some money. If I give you $100, I am
giving "out of" my riches. If
I give you $2,500, I am giving "according to" my riches. See the difference. If you want to see a good illustration of
this principle, see Jesus' encounter with the widow at the temple offering (cf.
Luke 21:1-4).
Bottom
Line. We need to get off the fence and trust God to
provide for every one of our needs like He promised to. I want to close with a passage from the Old
Testament prophet Malachi. "Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But
you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. You are
cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the
full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And
thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the
windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no
more need" (Malachi 3:8-10). God is saying here, "Test Me on this and
see if I don't come through for you in a BIG way!" All we need to do is take the first step in
faith!