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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Look at verse 18. Indeed I have all and abound. I am full. Because I have received, having received from Epaphroditus the things that are sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma.
An acceptable sacrifice.
Now, look at this last phrase: well pleasing. to God. That's the highest motivation. To do anything, to give anything. because it is well pleasing.
Yeah.
Now, did you notice in this verse? The language that the apostle uses is the language of the temple. Sweet-smelling aroma. If you were to walk in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, it smelled very different than it does today. First of all, if you walked in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago during the time that they would have morning or evening sacrifices, it would smell like barbecue to you.
a massive barbecue. Because they were taking that animal and putting it on an altar, and the smoke was ascending up to God, and you'd walk through and go, Oh man, I got to get some of that. Where's that? That was going on in the temple. Add to that the incense that was going up that represented their prayer.
So the incense and the animals on the altar made this wonderful aroma. And what Paul is saying here is that's what giving is like to God. It's like the purest, best sacrifice where he goes. Um I like that. It is well pleasing to him.
And again, this ought always to be our highest motivation. It's not, well, I'm giving because the church needs it. It should be, I'm giving because God is worth it. It is well pleasing to him. Now, notice that he says in this verse, he calls it a sacrifice, an acceptable sacrifice.
well pleasing to God. Just the fact that he uses the word sacrifice means that the person who offers it Has got to feel it, right? I mean, I'm missing something here. I'm giving it away. It's sacrificial.
It's like David said, I will never. Offer to the Lord anything that doesn't cost me something. But I always get asked the question about amount.
Well, how much should I give? Are Christians supposed to tithe? And if we tithe, should we tithe on the gross or on the net? We get really complicated about it.
Well, first of all. Tithing is not even a New Testament concept. It's an Old Testament concept. That's where the tithe came from, 10%. But if you were to actually study the tithes Um You find out that Israel didn't have one tithe, but they had two annual tithes.
Plus a third one every Third year. Add to that the giving of a temple tax. Add to that letting their fields be un Cut on the edges, ungleaned, so that others could glean it, the poor could glean it. And you have the children of Israel giving out of their annual income between 25 and 30 percent.
Now about now you're going, boy, I'm glad I don't know the Bible that well. Because that's already a lot, just 10%.
Well, what you need to realize when it comes to percentages Yeah. You don't own anything. It's not yours. It all is his 100%. In the prophet Hosea, God said: All the silver and all the gold is mine, saith the Lord.
It's all his. And then in Deuteronomy 8, the Lord said, For it is God who gives you the power to get wealth.
So, if God happens to give you anything or let you keep anything that's already his to begin with, that's where you thank him for. Instead of saying, oh my goodness, I have to give 10%. How about this? God lets you keep 90%. That's the way you look at it.
It all belongs to him.
So when it comes to amount The New Testament says nothing about a mount. It would seem that these Old Testament believers who get saved in the New Testament began as the baseline with a tenth. But then Paul said this. 2 Corinthians. Let each one give as he purposes in his heart.
Not grudgingly. Nor out of necessity, for God loves uh tell me. Cheerful, literally hilarious. Giver. The Lord loves a hilarious Give right.
Mm. The New Testament, the only thing it talks about in terms of amount is proportion. We give in proportion to our income.
So if you make a little, you give proportionally. If you make a whole lot, you give proportionally.
So, Peter Marshall, somebody I've always greatly admired in his writings, he was one time a chaplain for the United States Senate. Said this, give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving. I laughed when I saw that. And so I actually thought about that. What if God took your financial offering, multiplied it by 10, and made that your income?
How would that be? Would it would anything change? How much would you make?
So generosity is commended. That's the first insight. Second one, Interest is compounded.
Now this is where it really gets good. Verse seventeen, he says, not that I seek the gift. But I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.
Now, we are getting insight in this verse into heavenly accounting procedures. This is how God works the heavenly account books. Because verse 17 is filled with financial language from the ancient money market. And when he says, Not that I want the money or seek the gift, but I seek fruit that abounds to your account. That literally refers to interest accrued on the credit side of the ledger.
Interest accrued on the credit side of the ledger.
So here's how it worked. Paul would go out and preach the gospel. They in Philippi would support him. And of all the fruit that came because of Paul's ministry, They would get the eternal credit. God would accrue that, mark that.
on their credit. There are some wonderful implications with that. That means when you get to heaven, How would you like this?
Somebody walks up to you and says, thank you. And you go Who are you? I've never met you. Why are you thanking me? I know you've never met me, but you supported that ministry.
Where I heard the gospel that day or that night or that book or that tract or that crusade or that church, I heard the gospel and I'm here in part due to your faithfulness. That's fruit to your account. Yeah.
Now, when Paul says, I don't seek the gift, I seek fruit that abounds to your account, there's something else implied by that. And that is We need to be careful where we invest our finances. We need to ask this question: Is this ministry or whatever ministry I'm considering supporting? Are they being fruitful? Are they producing fruit?
We should not approach it by saying, well, I want to find out which ministries really, really need it, which ones are really struggling. No, that's not. How you're to do it. You want a good return in your investment. You want to find those who are producing fruit.
That's just good business sense. Jesus said, Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven. All right.
So you want to look for fruitful ministries because you want a good return on the investment. There's a great old story about George Truitt. George Truitt was a pastor in Dallas, Texas, years ago, First Baptist, Dallas. And a Dallas, Texas. Um you probably know, is has a lot of wealthy people.
And he was at a home of a very wealthy gentleman. who had a lot of land and they went up to the top veranda of the house and The man pointed in in a direction. Where there were grain fields with oil drills on them. And he said, everything your eye can see in that direction, I own. And I own everything in that direction.
I own everything in that direction and I own everything in that direction. Pastor George Truitt put his hand on the rich man's shoulder and said, Let me ask you a simple question: How much do you own in that direction? How much are you laying up for yourselves treasures? In heaven.
So generosity is commended. Interest is compounded. That's the second insight. Third insight, Is that giving is rewarded? Not only There in heaven.
on your heavenly reward ledger. But here and now, verse 19. And my God. shall supply All your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. What a comforting verse.
one that you probably know well. Unfortunately, it's a greatly misunderstood verse. It has been taken out of context largely. That's how I've heard it over the years. and it has become sort of a blanket promise.
And I've heard people quote it. As if to say, you know, if you're a Christian, no matter how you live, no matter what you do with your finances, that's up to you. But God will just automatically care for whatever you need.
Well That's not what the verse means. You know, every text has a Context. And I've always gone by this rule. Any text taken out of context can easily become a pretext. You can make the Bible say anything at all you want to.
You can just take it out of context, you can make it say anything that suits your fancy. But every text has a context. And the context of these verses. betrays That idea. What Paul is saying to the Philippians is: to you, Philippians, who have been so generous with your finances, my God will supply all your need.
You see, he didn't write this promise to the Thessalonians. He didn't write this promise to the Colossians or to the Corinthians. He wrote it to the Philippians, who had time and time and time again. Been faithful with their finances. And by the way, just in case you might be thinking, well, Philippi probably was a rich town, and they had a lot.
The opposite is true. Paul bragged about the Philippians to the Corinthians. And this is what he said about them. He said, out of their most severe trial and extreme poverty, they have welled up in rich generosity. He said, They're a very poor congregation, and yet they are very generous.
In fact, Paul even used the word rob. He said, I have robbed other churches to minister to you. He was referring to the church of Philippi, the Macedonian churches. What he said is, like, I felt bad taking the money that they had sacrificially given. It was as if I was robbing them.
You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, the generosity of friends like you helps reach more people with God's Word, changing lives through clear, practical Bible teaching. And this month, we want to thank you with a powerful and inspiring resource from Skiff's wife, Lenja Heitzig. It's her book, Reload Love, Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds. This remarkable book tells the true story of how God took Lenya's heartbreak over suffering children in war-torn regions and turned it into a global movement of compassion, melting down bullets to build playgrounds and bring hope where it's needed most.
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Now let's return to today's teaching.
Now look at verse 18. He said, Indeed, I have all. and abound. This is what the offering that they have provided has done. I am full.
Having received from Epaphroditus the things which are sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your needs.
Now, there's two words I want you to join together. In verse 18, the word full. And in verse 19, the words supply. You see those two words? I am full, you made me full.
Verse 19, God will supply. In Greek, it's the exact same word. In English, it's two different words. Same word in Greek: play ra'o. It means to fill up.
Or to fill. to the brim.
So here's what Paul is saying in the Greek language. You filled me up. My God's going to fill you up. You made me full. My God will make you full.
It's beautiful. The principle, then, is God generously treats those who treat others generously. And I hope you know that that is a scriptural principle. over and over and over again. Greatest authority we have, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, said this, Luke 6, verse 38: Give, and it will be given to you.
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure that you use it will be measured back to you. That agrees with Proverbs 11:25. The generous soul will be made rich. He who waters will himself also be watered.
And that agrees with Proverbs 22, verse 9: a generous man will himself be blessed. And Proverbs 3, verse 9 Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of your increase, so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow. with new wine. Same principle. over and over again.
You've been so generous, my God will supply all your needs. He'll fill you up.
So generosity is commended, interest is compounded. Giving is rewarded. Let's close this off with a fourth insight. And that is Family is extended. If you think about More and more people coming into the family of God.
It becomes a worthwhile investment.
Now look at this, verse 20 through 23, where we close.
Now to our God. And Father, be glory forever and ever. Amen. See what a minute. He said amen, but he's not done yet.
Well, that's Paul. He's going to say amen the second time, then it'll be done.
So between the first and second amen, he has more to say. 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. So, this is a farewell. It's a family farewell. Saints greeting other saints, saints not being dead people with halos. But live people.
You're a saint, I'm a saint. Here's the implication, though, of these verses. The Philippians' generosity enabled Paul to share the gospel and reach. Listen. unreachable people.
Unreachable people. What do you mean, unreachable people?
Well, notice what he says, verse 22. All the saints greet you, especially those who are of Caesar's household. That's the imperial family. Including the Praetorian guard that he was chained to 24 hours a day in six-hour shifts. They were part of the imperial family.
But it could also mean. Even family members of Caesar We're coming to Christ.
Now, why would this be important to Philippians? Because Philippi was a colony of Rome. And probably as a colony of Rome, The idea is, if you come to Philippi, it's going to be like Rome away from Rome, right? It's going to be like little Rome to you.
So, as Roman citizens in a colony of Rome, probably at the end of church services. The leader or the pastor would say, Hey, you know, we're supposed to give our allegiance to the government of our land. And so let's just pray for Caesar's household. Probably thinking, yeah, right, never happened. Nobody from there is going to get saved.
But let's do it. Let's just pray that.
Somehow they'd be reached with the gospel.
Now, Paul writes from jail and goes, Oh, by the way. There are saints here. Believers here from Caesar's household that want to give you a special greeting.
So the very unreachable people are now reached. Because of Paul's faithfulness and their generosity. Have you ever thought, by the way, what it would have been like to be chained? To Paul? Talk about a captive audience.
In six-hour shifts, you are chained to this man who can't talk about anything but Jesus and salvation. And if you've ever had a conversation with somebody where you've tried to tell them about your faith and they don't want to get spiritual, I'm leaving, man. I don't want to hear this junk anymore, right? They couldn't do that. They're chained to him.
That soldier's looking at his little sundial going, I got five and a half hours left on this shift. I gotta listen to this crazy bozo. But eventually, that seeped into one or two or three. And they became saints. And they became disciples.
and they were of Caesar's household.
So The family is now being extended even to the unreached peoples. Because of Paul's preaching and their support, and that will be tallied up. in heaven to their credit side of their ledger. Amazing. I want to close.
In one other passage, I want you to turn with me to Luke 16. We're going to close with this. And that will be my second amen. I'm going to close with this. Section of Scripture because it's one of the parables that I mentioned that Jesus talked about money.
Luke chapter 16, and we'll close here. He also said to his disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward. And an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.
So he called him and said to him. What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer Be Stewart.
So he gets fired. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig. I'm ashamed to beg.
I resolved what to do. That when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
So He called every one of his master's debtors to him. and said to the first, How much do you owe my master? And he said, A hundred measures of oil.
So he said to him, Take your bill. Sit down quickly. And write 50. That's fraud. Then he said to another, How much do you owe?
He said, A hundred measures of wheat. He told him, take your bill and write 80.
Now watch this.
So the master The guy who owns it all, the master. commended The unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.
Now notice what Jesus says. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation. than the Sons of Light. And I say to you, Make friends for yourselves. By unrighteous mammon, that is money.
That when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. He who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in unrighteous mammon money, Who will commit to you? Your trust true riches.
If you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God. And money.
This is a greatly misunderstood parable. At first, it looks like Jesus is commending a crook. But he's not. What he's doing is Using a bad example to teach a good lesson on finances. And he's saying, here's a guy who was a fraud.
He was a crook. He knew that he had to get bailed out of a bad situation.
So he went, and it was 50 cents on the dollar for one, 80 cents on the dollar for another. Jesus uses this as an attention getter. But the application for us is in verse 9. Just look at it again. I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.
In other words, use your Financial Possessions For eternal dividends, to win souls for Christ. The idea of friends is people one to Christ, those who are saved.
So they become, in effect, your welcoming committee. In heaven.
Use your money like that. Be shrewd. To use what you have as a steward to make sure that more and more people are gathered into his kingdom. That was always Paul's endgame. Future, heaven.
Apart from just now and this, it's there and that. Speaking of that. There are many things money cannot buy. Money can buy a bed but not sleep. Money can buy books, but not brains.
Money can buy food, but not an appetite. It can buy finery, but not beauty. It can buy a house, but not a home. It can buy medicine, but not health. Pleasures but not peace.
It can buy a crucifix but not a Saviour. They can buy a church building. But not heaven. We have been given whatever we have been given. We are stewards.
God is the master. God wants us to use wisely what He has placed in our hands. All of it belongs to Him, and whatever we place in His hands for His glory, He'll make sure that He takes care of us now, He'll supply our needs. And whatever fruit comes out of our investment will be tallied up to our account. in heaven.
It's a great way to live. Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember that your generosity helps share God's word around the world, bringing truth and hope to people who need Jesus. And this month, we'll send you Lenya Heitzig's powerful book, Reload Love, Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds, as our thanks for your gift. This inspiring story shows how God can turn bullets into beauty and how love can transform even the most broken places into beacons of hope.
Give now at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. We'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection. Make a connection. Shut down.
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