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His Promise to Provide - Part 1

In Touch / Charles Stanley
The Truth Network Radio
June 28, 2024 12:00 am

His Promise to Provide - Part 1

In Touch / Charles Stanley

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June 28, 2024 12:00 am

God assumes full responsibility for our needs when we obey Him.

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Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, June 28th. How do you discern between needs and desires? Today's podcast continues the Life Principles series to help you understand why that's such a critical question. One of the most popular themes in the Bible has to do with God answering prayer, meeting our needs. And when you think about that, you think about the fact that we all have needs. We have physical needs, we have emotional needs, we have spiritual needs. When I think about meeting needs and think about so much of what God has said about it, there's some very important things to remember because a lot of people say, Well, you know what? I've asked God to meet my needs and I still have them. I've prayed and prayed and prayed and God hadn't met my needs. So, if He's a need-meeter, why doesn't He meet my needs?

What's going on? Is there something wrong with God or is there something wrong with us? So, I want to talk about this whole issue of the fact that God assumes full responsibility for meeting our needs when we obey Him. So, I want you to turn to Philippians the fourth chapter. And the book of Philippians is a book all about positive things.

It's joy. And when Paul comes to this fourth chapter, he ends up thanking the people in Philippi for what they've done for him. And it's from this chapter I want us to notice several things. He says beginning in verse ten, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me.

Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. And what he was simply saying is this, that there was a time when Paul preaching the gospel and traveling here and there, that they would send offerings and meet his needs and then there came a time when they couldn't. And probably because he was in so many different jails that they couldn't keep up with him. And then he's shipwrecked and he is all over the place.

And then sometimes one of the reasons is because he didn't have anybody or the church didn't have anybody to send to him or whatever that need was. And he says, Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I'm in. Don't you wish you could say that as vividly as Paul said it? That is, I've learned to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in. I know how to get along with humble means. I also know how to live in prosperity. And in every circumstance, I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction. And then he says, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I'm in. Now, you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone.

He says, Now for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Now watch this next verse because it is a principle. It's a principle. It increases to your account. Here's what Paul was saying.

He says, It's not what you do for me. But in your giving, what happens is it increases to your account. That is, any time that you give with the right spirit and the right heart, he says it increases to your account. God's going to bless you because He says give and it should be given to you. He says give and it should be given to you. He says give and it should be given to you. Any time I ask people to give, it's because deep down inside, it's not that I need it or the church needs it or anybody else needs it.

God meets needs. I know what it does in the life of the person who gives. I know what happens when a selfish person learns to give, when a greedy person learns to give.

Their whole life changes. God's going to bless you because He says give and it should be given to you. He says give and it should be given to you. God's going to bless you because He's seeking for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I'm amply supplied, He says, having received from Epaphroditus what you've sent. A fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice will please the God. My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Now watch that. My God shall supply all your needs. Listen, all your needs according to His riches in glory. Now that's where people usually stop.

That's where they stop. My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory. My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory. My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory. I think you said couldn't we say God will supply all your needs according to, in other words, what we're interested in is that He will supply our needs I wonder why you were so late at that, when that is the most important phrase in the whole verse.

Well, that leads me to why I'm preaching this message. Because a lot of people say I have needs and they aren't being met. I talked to God about them and they're not being met.

So I want to answer those questions. Why isn't God answering my prayers? Why isn't He meeting my needs? Well, let me ask you something. Do you think the problem is with you, or is it with God? And the question is, if it is with us, what is it? What is the mistake we're making? Why is it that we have needs and this awesome God of ours says, if we have needs, that He will supply all of our needs and He says He will supply them according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Well, let's look at something. The question is, what is the basis? What's the basis of our expectation for expecting God to answer our needs?

Well, the basis of it is clear. First of all, He's promised to meet our needs. So, the basis of my asking Him to meet a particular need is simply this, He promised it. Now, when you think about God promising it, the value of any promise, think about this, the value of any promise, listen, goes back and is based on the ability of the person who promised it.

That's one thing. Somebody makes a promise, the question is, do they have the ability to fulfill that promise? The second thing that's involved here is that person's integrity.

Not only do they have the ability to do it, but do they have the integrity to keep their word and to follow through on what they promised to do? And with God, on both accounts, He passes. That is, He has the ability, He has the riches, He has inexhaustible supply that meet every single need of every single person, any time He chooses to do so. So, He can do it.

And secondly, He does do that. That is, when you go back to the Old Testament and see how God made promises and how He not only made promises, but He fulfilled them. And let's just take a couple, for example, in the Old Testament. You remember when God said to Abraham, He said, now, next year I'm going to give you a son. But, but, but, wait a minute, I'm a hundred years old, I'll be a hundred years old, I'll be a hundred years old, and my wife ninety, and you're going to give us a son.

Isn't this a little late? God said, trust me. Now, that's what God promised. He promised to give a man a hundred years of age, a wife ninety, a son. Now, the question is, could He do it?

Yes, He could. Did it take a miracle? Yes, it did. Well, did He have the integrity to follow through?

Yes, He did. So, whatever God promised, He fulfilled. Now, what I want you to see is this, this is who God is. This God, whom you and I serve and whom we love, this God not only has the ability to meet every single solitary need we have, and secondly, He has the integrity that if He makes a promise, He's going to keep it. So, if we have needs, and those needs are not being met, it's not because He's not capable, not because He doesn't keep His word, so the issue must be found in us, not in Him.

When I think about some of those promises, I want you to write this one down. Look in Psalm eighty-four for a moment and look at this verse of Scripture. This is a wonderful psalm. He makes this promise in the eleventh verse of Psalm eighty- four. He says, For the Lord God is a Son and a shield, that He's our protector. The Lord gives grace and glory, love. Listen, no good thing, no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Watch that. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. That's who He is. If you turn over to the eighty-first psalm for a moment and listen to this passage. God is speaking to the nation of Israel, but remember, when He speaks to them, He speaks to them in principle so that the principle is here. And He's chatting them because they're not believing them.

They're not trusting Him. And He says in the eighth verse, He says, O My people, I will admonish you. O Israel, if you would just listen to Me, I'm the one who brought you out of Egyptian bondage. I the Lord am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Which is what He was saying is, trust Me.

Just trust Me and I will fill it. Then He says, here's the kind of God I am in verse sixteen, I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. What was He saying? Simply this. And that is, I have the best for you. And the truth is, God has the best for every single one of us.

The issue is, if we're not getting our needs met, why aren't we getting them met? Because this is who He is. He's a God who makes promises and He can keep His promises. Remember what He said to Moses? He said, Moses, I want you to go down to see Pharaoh.

And the only thing I want you to have is your shepherd's staff. And you tell him that I said, let them go. And he says, I'm going with you.

It's going to happen. Well, did he do it? Yes, he did. He went with him.

And you know the story of what happened and the freedom of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage? God keeps His Word. That's who He is. He desires to meet our needs. This is who God is. If somebody says, well, what kind of God do you serve? He's a God who is interested in our needs. He's a God who has the ability to meet our needs. And He's a God who fulfills His promise.

That's who He is. And so, with that in mind, I can rest assured that if I have a need, I know where to go. And I go where the one is who can meet that need. Now, there are some mistakes we make. Failing to distinguish between needs and desires.

This is one of the problems. This is one of the things that God has to deal with. He's a God who has the ability to meet our needs.

He's a God who has the ability to meet our needs. For example, a person says, well, here's my need. Well, sometime it's a need, sometime it's a desire. So, let's answer the question. Is having a desire a sin?

No. He says, if you and I delight ourselves in Him, He'll give us the desires of our heart. He's not just interested in meeting needs, He's interested in the desires of our heart, listen, that contribute to our needs. And so, He's not interested in getting this need met.

He's not interested in getting nothing from you. He's a wonderful God who desires to answer prayer and meet our needs. Now, if what I'm interested in most of all is getting this need met, and I think it's my need, but it's not my need. Well, somebody says, well, how are we going to distinguish? Well, in the sixth chapter of Matthew in the eighth verse, here's what He says. He says, the heavenly Father knows our needs even before they're needed. And we have to distinguish between what we need, and what we desire. And here's what I pray for myself.

I pray, Father, this is, if I have some question, this is what I believe I need. If that's not a need in my life and You don't want to give me that, just let me forget it. Just take that out of my mind. Just take that out of my desires.

I don't want to want something that You don't want me to have. So, sometimes it's not always easy to distinguish between a need and a want. He's going to ask you to ask Him, Lord, show me, is this a need or is this a want?

You think, you say, well, God's not, yes He will. God desires that you and I know the truth. First of all, He wants to grant us the needs of our life. He also wants us to understand what the need is and what the desire is. Now watch this, can something be a need and a desire?

Yes, because for example, when you want God to meet the needs of your life that contribute, for example, to you being a godly person, that's a desire you have so it can be a need and a desire. What gets us in trouble is when we have desires that are not needs and they're desires and then we want to say, well God, why aren't You meeting this need in my life when it's not a need at all? So, one of the mistakes we make is we mix up in our thinking desires and needs. A second mistake we make is this, isolating a Scripture of promise from its context.

Now, what do I mean by that? I mean taking a verse of Scripture out of the context of what it says and pulling it out and just interpreting it to meet something for myself. And there are a lot of people who'll take a verse and just pull it out of context and say, well, here's what this says. No, what did He say? He said, on the basis of this relationship in Christ Jesus, for example, the Apostle Paul, if you read all of his epistles, Paul says, and I'll read it to you.

He says, He says, in his most favorite phrase, the key phrase in all of Paul's theology in understanding the theology that Paul gives us in the Scripture is on those two words, in Christ Jesus or in Him. In other words, it's relationship. It's because of our relationship with Him. Not because we deserve it.

It's because of our relationship with Him. And so, if I just pull a passage of Scripture out of somewhere and just say, well, here's what I believe. Listen to this, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge your own understanding. And so, if I just pull a passage of Scripture out of somewhere and just say, well, here's what I believe. Listen to this, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He'll direct your path. Somebody says, well, the Bible says He'll direct my path.

Is that what He says? No, He says, trust in Him with your whole heart. Don't lean to your own understanding. I'm trying to figure it out. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, look to Him, trust Him, obey Him, then He'll direct your path.

So, if you take a passage of Scripture out of context, then what happens is it doesn't mean the same thing. So, did you get that? You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't.

You can't. And so, that's a big mistake many people make. And so, I certainly don't want you to make that. And when you read this verse, and people just quote it all the time, my God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches and glory.

And they'll trail off, in Christ Jesus. What about that last part? Well, I think we have to go back to when we read that verse. And I don't need to do that, because our needs met. We agree that God is capable of meeting the needs. We agree that He's a God of integrity, that He not only has the power to do it, but He fulfills what He promises. And all through the Scripture we see His fulfilled promises. Then why has He not met my needs? Well, I just answered one of them.

It's because of our relationship. And so, if God said, all right, I see your sin, I see your need, I'm going to answer your prayer anyway, what would that mean? Here's what it would mean. It would mean by His answering your petition that you, listen, that God is affirming this error. That you can live in sin and you can live in sin and you can live in sin and you can live in sin. That you can live in sin, ask God, He'll ignore that and meet your needs anyway. He's not going to do it. You say, well, I know a lot of people living in sin and God's meeting their needs.

No, He's not. They can manipulate, they can do all kind of things to get their needs met. It doesn't mean that they don't get their needs met, but here's what it does mean. They're not going to be happy about it. They're not going to have any peace in their life. They're not going to have any real joy and they don't have any security.

And besides that, most of them are going to lose it. And so, the truth is, when He says, My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus, it has to do with a relationship. And if that were not true, then He'd be affirming that you can live in sin and just ask God and He'll do it anyway.

You can't do that. Remember that verse, that if we walk uprightly, let's go back. I want you to be sure to get this verse. If we walk uprightly, this is the thing that matters to us. If I walk uprightly, no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. What does uprightly mean?

Uprightly, if something's upright, it's standing straight. If I'm walking uprightly, I'm walking in a manner that's pleasing to God. It doesn't mean that I'm perfect.

It doesn't mean that I never sin. But my heart's meant toward Him. I want to please Him. I want to make my life such that it's obedient to Him and He can use me in some fashion. That is, your heart's right.

You're walking uprightly. You're honest, you're a person of integrity. You want to be obedient to God. He says, one of the reasons people don't get their needs met is because they walk in sin and disobedience to God, and therefore, He doesn't do it. Those who walk blameless, uprightly, He says He will not withhold any good thing from us, whatever that might be. Thank you for listening to His Promise to Provide. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-06-28 03:07:29 / 2024-06-28 03:20:55 / 13

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