Well, tonight we have a missionary to France, one of our missionaries. We support Jonathan Voss and his dear wife Priscilla.
They've been in the States now for just a few months, and they're going to be heading back in three months back over to France. His father was a missionary in France, and they've done great, great work over there. He's going to be coming and preaching for us here in just a moment. He's going to be starting a church when he goes back over there. They call it the City of X. He'll give you the name in French, but he speaks fluently. He grew up there.
I will not even begin to challenge myself to say whatever that name is, and when he shares it with you, you'll know why. They're a great family doing a great work over there. We have a video we're going to show at this time, and then after that video is done, he's going to come and preach for us. Just let them know that they feel welcome tonight. Give them guys a hand tonight.
We can go ahead and show that video. Come on in and visit our auditorium. We're sitting in the auditorium where we were able to serve for the last three years. We want to say a big thank you to you for everything you did to allow us to serve here. Whether it was through your giving or through your prayers, we would not have been able to serve God here as we did without you. During our last three years here in La Guignon, we were able to assist the local church working alongside my parents and helping some of the people in the church grow. I'm thankful to the Lord for the preaching opportunities and teaching opportunities that I had in the church, as well as some of the discipleship opportunities. The Lord allowed me to work with three young men and their discipleship, as well as assist in the preaching training for two additional men in the church. Alongside that, we were able to run an evangelism discipleship course this past fall.
We're thankful for what God did and how He allowed us to serve here in La Guignon. We were so blessed to be able to be involved in the many activities organized by the church family. Each of these activities proved to be opportunities for evangelism and discipleship. These pictures of birthdays and potlucks show examples of the closeness of the church.
Prior to our departure to France, one of the goals for our first term was for me to learn the language and to become acclimated to the culture. By God's grace, this was accomplished and I was able to serve in a variety of ways in the church. God allowed me to be involved in the children's program and to be able to have one-on-one discipleship meetings, Bible studies with various and multiple women in the church. I was able to give piano lessons with the church children, who in turn brought their unsaved friends along.
We were not only involved in the young children, but also in the young adult groups through youth activities at our home. God gave us the privilege of assisting and then leading in Christmas programs each year, which again served as tools to bring unsaved people through the doors of the church. We are also thankful because during the past three years we were able to spread the good news of the Gospel to the city of La Guignon and around the world. To the city of La Guignon first the Lord gave us many evangelistic opportunities, not only through our own personal evangelism and through the work of the church here in the lives of their friends and their family, but also through street evangelism and tract distributions. Every week our church met faithfully with about a dozen people coming every Wednesday afternoon to give out tracts, put them in mailboxes, and to engage in Gospel conversations in the local parks here in the city of La Guignon. We had many conversations with people that had never heard the Gospel, and we are thankful for the opportunity that the Lord gave us to share the Gospel with these people. We also had special evangelistic opportunities. The Lord brought some Ukrainian refugees in this city, and we were able to meet up with some brothers and sisters in Christ from Ukraine who with our joint effort were able to evangelize and share the Gospel with the people in refugee camp.
Our church in the fall of 2023 ran a food and first necessities drive here at our local church and allowed for them to preach the Gospel in the native tongue to these people that have fled war. We are also thankful for the ministry Gospel opportunity that we had in Paris this last summer for the Olympics. After two long years of hard work, we were able to organize an evangelistic outreach with our supporting churches out of our home church, Camp Baptist Temple, to reach the lost people that would be coming from all around the world into Paris for the Olympics. After three weeks of evangelism, our teams were able to give out over 45,000 tracts to all these people that came from many, many countries around the world. Our teams also had Gospel conversations with people from over 95 different countries, from some countries as closed as Afghanistan and North Korea. We're thankful because one man from Congo accepted Christ right there and then, and we know that the Lord has planted many seeds in the hearts through all these conversations that we had with these people. Over 50,000 people visited our website on which they're with the Bible to download and where you could also find Gospel presentations in over nine different languages.
We're thankful for what God did and how He allowed us to be lights for Him in France but also for the people of the whole world that have come to France. Because of this, the Lord has allowed us to see through the baptisms in our church and we pray that God will continue to grow the evangelistic work here in COVID-19. Over the past three years, we had the privilege of hosting multiple interns who came to discover the ministry in France.
God also gave Jonathan the opportunity to teach and to train the future generations of pastors here in France at the Institut Biblique et Pastoral d'Alconge. The Lord has blessed us with three years rich in ministry opportunities and Gospel preaching and we are thankful for that. But many of you might be wondering, what's next? And here's what's next, the City of X. The Lord has led us to a city of 150,000 inhabitants with universities growing and a suburb of a much larger city of 1.8 million inhabitants. The Lord has given us a big harvest for us to reap in the City of X and we are excited to go and plant this church and disciple these people and lead souls to Christ. We already have some people in the City of X that have been waiting for a church to start, that have been looking for a shepherd. The Lord has brought us in that direction and confirmed that in our hearts. We ask you to be a part of this, to continue supporting us, to continue praying for us and to maybe come and join us in the field as we embark in this great adventure of starting a brand new church in the City of X. We as a family with little Timothy here want to say a big thank you for your support and we look forward to what the Lord has in store for our partnership.
Well, good evening. Well, I always tell our churches when we come to present that six minutes doesn't do justice to three years of ministry, but it gives you a little bit of a snapshot of what we've been doing, what you have been participating in because I want you to know and this will be our text tonight that in the book of Philippians, Paul tells the church of Philippi in chapter four that their gifts was not something that he desired for himself, but he desired because he wanted fruit that would abound to their accounts and I want you to know my friends that you have well invested your funds and your prayers in that fruit has abounded to your account. Fruit has abounded to your account in three different ways. Number one, fruit has abounded to your account in the way of our ministry in the City of Draguignan. We're going to be moving to the City of Aix-en-Provence which is otherwise known as X, much easier than the full name as Pastor mentioned earlier, but where we were was Draguignan.
I'll try saying that, that's even harder. So we were in the City of Draguignan for three years and I want you to know that during those three years we preached the gospel to a lost nation. Every Wednesday afternoon we would have groups of people from our church who would go out and we'd put tracts in mailboxes which is legal in France and we would engage in gospel conversations in the parks. We would go out in the parks and I don't know what the park culture is here, but in Europe everybody goes to the park and relaxes and we give out tracts to people and talk with them about Jesus Christ and I want you to know that in all those meetings, in three years of hours of meetings where we just meet people in the street, that there were probably only a handful of people that had an idea as to what the gospel was before we talked to them. Over hundreds of conversations and probably only five people knew the gospel before we talked to them.
That's the state of France, but I want you to know that those people did not leave not knowing the gospel. That we preached the gospel to a lost nation, a lost world and let them know what Jesus Christ did for them. And that my friends is fruit that abounds to your account because the gospel was preached. By God's grace some got saved and we were excited to see them grow in the Lord and be baptized and we're really excited where one of them is possibly considering ministry down the road and that is fruit my friends that abounds to your account. We've also worked in discipling those who were already believers when we arrived and we invested in growing and maturing believers in the Lord Jesus Christ which is our calling right?
We are called to make disciples and to teach them what God has given us his word through Jesus Christ and Priscilla was able to lead some Bible studies with some ladies in the church. I was able to train two men in preaching at our church and build them up as leaders in the church where they can now rotate in the teaching and preaching responsibilities at our home church. We were blessed to also invest in other people in the church and grow and see them mature in the Lord and that my friends is fruit that abounds to your account.
But there is also fruit that has abounded to your account in a second way and that is the way of our special outreach opportunities. You've all seen what's been going on in Ukraine and Russia and Europe has seen a huge influx of Ukrainian refugees and our city was one of the host cities. We had 500 refugees from Ukraine who moved into our town but you want to know something? I don't speak Russian and I don't speak Ukrainian and they didn't speak French and they didn't speak English and we had a problem but the Lord provided a solution. He brought a man named Vladimir who was a believer from a Baptist church in Ukraine who had fled war and with his help we were able to run a first necessities drive at our church where families would buy a bag of a list of goods that Vladimir provided us that the Ukrainian refugees would need and they would leave with that bag but we didn't just let them come and take a bag for free. See their cost was an hour time where Vladimir preached the gospel to them and not only did he preach the gospel to them in their native tongue but we also gave them a New Testament in Ukrainian along with a Bible story coloring book in Ukrainian for their kids because we wanted to reach these people for the gospel and I want you to know that as a result Vladimir has planted a church for Ukrainian refugees and Russian speaking people just 35 minutes south of where we were.
That is fruit that abounds to your account. They saw their first baptism this past spring. We are excited because there was also other opportunities that the Lord brought our way. He brought the entire world in France in Paris this past summer. How many of you followed the opening ceremony of the Olympics this year? How many of you turned your TV off at one point? Amen.
I want you to know something. That's what Saint wants you to think the Olympics was about. That's what Saint wants you to think that there was going on in Paris but the reality is on the ground the gospel was being preached and people from the entire world were hearing about Jesus Christ. People had never heard the gospel. Our team, 63 individuals in total for over three weeks shared the gospel. We had conversations, hundreds of conversations with people from over 95 different countries in the world. We had a man from North Korea hear the gospel. I was able to share the gospel with two men from Afghanistan.
Those are fruit that abounds to your account. We saw one man get saved and we are excited because we know God was working through this in a very mighty way. We gave out 46,000 tracts and in the video I shared that we had 15,000 hits.
That was after the three weeks, immediately after. People have continued visiting the website. We've reached 40,000 hits and some of these hits were in closed countries where people took those tracts and went back to their home country and scanned the QR code where they were led to a website where they had the gospel in their language, they had the Bible to download in their language, they had a link to find missionaries in their home country and they had a link to the Jesus movie in their language. I can only imagine that some of these people probably took these tracts back home and scanned them and read some of these things and showed them to their family members. We don't know the scope of what God did during those Olympics, but we're excited because that brought forth fruit that abounds to your account. Finally, there isn't just fruit that has abounded to your account, there is fruit that will abound to your account.
And that is where we're going next. This upcoming March, Priscilla and I and little Timothy will be going back to France and we will be starting a church in the city of Aix-en-Provence. It's a city of 155,000 people and it doesn't have a Bible preaching church. It doesn't have the gospel.
Doesn't that break your heart? A huge city like this. University towns growing with lots of young people, energetic. They don't have the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are going to start a church there. By God's grace, we already have a core group of 20 people in total waiting for us and we are excited because we see not only that God has called us to minister to these people who have been in a city without a church. Can you imagine being in a city where there's no church you could go to? That's the reality of a city of 155,000 people in France and we're going to plant a church there and my friends, that is fruit that will abound to your account because of your faithfulness.
God will bring forth fruit in that city. We'll see people get saved and we will see a church be planted and believers discipled to become leaders and that is what you are sending us to do and we want to say thank you. Thank you for meeting our needs. Thank you for being a blessing to us, enabling us to do this, but thank you most and foremost for investing in yourselves, investing in your eternal accounts by investing in things that do matter which is the eternal fate of the world and so we're thankful for your support and we want to encourage you to keep on praying for us. Keep on being a part of our ministry. You have prayer cards in the back where I invite you to take one, put it in your fridge or on your fridge.
I say in your fridge because they'll have a shock value and you remember to pray for us, but take those cards and please pray for us. Pray for us as we start this new church in the city of X. I want to invite you to open your bibles to Philippians chapter 4. I alluded to our text already tonight, but we will be in Philippians chapter 4 and we are going to be reading verses 10 through 20. So if you have your bibles open to Philippians chapter 4 verses 10 through 20 and I was going to say I invite you to do is the way we do it in France to stand up.
You already do it. So fantastic. Philippians chapter 4 verses 10 through 20 and here is what the word of God says. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last year care of me have flourished again wherein you were also careful but you lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content. I know both how to be a base and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Notwithstanding you have done well that you did communicate with my affliction. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel when I just departed from Macedonia no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but ye only for even in Thessalonica you sent once and again into my necessity not because I desire a gift but I desire fruits that may abound to your accounts but I have all and abound I am full having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you an odor of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God but my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Lord Jesus we thank you for your word. Pray tonight that you would work in our hearts. Pray that you would accompany me assist me as I share what you have laid on my heart through this text and I pray that your word would change our hearts tonight and that we would not leave this church unchanged. We pray things in Christ's name. Amen.
You may be seated. If you look at the general state of missions today around the world you might be a little concerned especially if you looked at the general state of missions out of America around the world. If you look at how many missionaries there were 30 years ago that were sent out of America and how many missionaries there are now today there has been a total decrease of 30% of the missionary force around the world that has come out of America. Now don't worry God is providing workers from other countries. We are seeing people from South Korea, the Philippines, Brazil and other countries that are sending forth missionaries around and that is fruit my friends of the missionary efforts that our country has been leading for centuries. However America is on a very dangerous route when it comes to missions. The reality is that the more and more missionaries are retiring the generations past are now reaching retirement age and what we had a boom in missions is now coming to a boom in retirement of missions and the reality is that there is an also a problem with enrollment today in the sense that we have on average 75% less missionaries enrolling today than we did 30 years ago. Doesn't take an engineering degree to figure out that 75% less enrollment and a higher and growing contingency of retirement missionaries means that we are going to soon lose our status as the first nation that sends out missionaries around the world. Now we should find that to be a problem shouldn't we and we should want to address this problem.
We should have a desire to fix the problem and to fix this problem we need to find the cause. What is the cause of this problem and I believe that the cause is that we have fallen into idolatry in this country and I am not just talking this message isn't addressed to young believers primarily this is addressed to believers. This is a challenge for us tonight to check our hearts and determine whether or not we are ourselves prone to idolatry and have fallen to idolatry or if we are truly worshiping God as he ought to be worshiped that means fully because I believe that idolatry is the obstacle to not just missions but missionary work across the world including here in our evangelistic efforts and those who are called to ministry and those who are called abroad because we have chosen to erect other gods in our life and we are no longer surrendering to the one that we should be surrendering to. Now you might find this text to be a very curious text to choose when we talk about idolatry and I believe that Paul has purposely chosen this section to address the question in a very brilliant way. You see this letter is a very interesting letter it's a letter that Paul writes while he's in jail. This is an epistle a letter that was written from jail as a response to a gift that a church had sent this church in Philippi had sent a church by the hands of a man named Epaphroditus how many of you want to say that? Epaphroditus has brought a gift from the church of Philippi to Paul and he almost died on his way to Paul and Paul sends this letter in which he is talking about the importance of a dedicated life. This epistle has been coined the epistle of joy I think that that's a good qualifying term for it but I think it's also the epistle of dedication a full service in fact I think that one of the most well-known verses in this chapter Philippians 1 21 truly just epitomizes the idea that Paul is trying to share for me to live is Christ and to die is gain it conveys the idea that our life should be totally given over to God and I believe that apart from that total commitment we fall into idolatry when we are not fully given over to God we are falling into idolatry and so as an opportunity to address this question of idolatry Paul in his thank you note which is these 10 verses he doesn't really address the gift much in the first three verses he waits till chapter four to talk about the gift and in these 10 verses he gives his thank you note in which he continues his address against idolatry and so Paul gives us a test in these 10 verses tonight we will see that Paul gives us a test to find out whether or not we are idolaters and I want you to take this test with me tonight let's challenge ourselves tonight let's look at our lives look at our hearts through the scope of God's word and see whether or not idolatry has crept into our lives and if there is before we I preach this sermon will you commit to chasing the idols away to demolishing the altars that are in your life to foreign gods into putting God back at the center of your life Paul's test is very simple every believer that is idolatry free will exhibit two key Christian characteristics of an idolatry free life I call these two characteristics the two Christian characteristics the two guardians of the Christian temple your heart is a temple on which God should have total rule he should be the only one that thrones in your heart and as you enter into this temple where God should be on the throne you will see two guards at the door if you are not falling into idolatry and these two guards we will see them tonight number one the first guard that should be at the entrance of your door if you are not an idolatry is the guard of contentments contentment is that first Christian characteristic of a Christian who isn't falling into idolatry now remember what I said this is a thank-you note and so when you read chapter 4 verse 10 you find a very good start to a thank-you note right but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last year care of me have flourished again wherein you were also careful but you lacked opportunity Paul's thank-you note starts great he says I rejoiced he is congratulating them he's telling that he's thankful for their gifts but then comes verse 11 let's read verse 11 not that I speak in respect of once for I have learned and whatsoever state I am therewith to be content let me translate that for you he just said thank you for your gift I rejoiced in it but I could have done without it now tell me how would you feel if you as a church gave some of your Christmas money you sacrificed you gave of your money to send for the needs of a missionary that is in jail and the person that you sent to bring the money to be an encouragement to your missionary that's in jail almost dies on the way there and then the missionary sends you a thank-you note and he waits till the end of his note four chapters to say thank you and then when he says thank you he says that now tell me how would you feel I don't think you'd be very happy but remember what I said Paul's entire work in this book is challenging them to have an entirely dedicated life to God and so he is not going to use the opportunity of a thank-you note for a gift to create an idol remember what Christ said in Matthew 6 when he challenged the Pharisees in their giving he said they give so that men will see them since they have the reward already God challenges us Christ challenges us to give in such a way to our right hand would know what our left hand is doing the challenge is very simple do not elevate your own generosity as your own God your own pride as your own God in your heart God should be the only subject of worship in your giving should be an act of worship and so if you're giving it's truly an act of worship only God should receive the credit for it so when Paul's writing this thank-you note to the Philippians it's not about giving them the credit it's about making sure that they understand that God is still at the center of this letter including the thank-you note it's a challenge that he gives them by giving them his own life as an example of what a life idolatry free looks like it's a life that is marked by contentment what's contentment I hear a lot of people say I'm content and we tend to think that contentment means I don't want more I have what I need I have a great house I have a good job I have a good family I have good friends I have a good church I live in a great country whatever it is I'm content now just to say that's already hard to get to in America a lot of us tend not to have that kind of mindset but even if you did have that mindset that's not contentment okay contentment has nothing to do with you being satisfied of all the things that you have in fact contentment is quite the opposite contentment it's saying no matter what I have I am full of joy full of peace verse 13 is not has nothing to do with your abilities or you being able to dunk or you being able to do whatever it is you think that you need to be able to do verse 13 has everything to do with you being in the depths of difficulty and challenges in life and still holding fast to the Lord and still finding joy and peace and strength verse 13 has all to do with you being a job when you've lost everything saying the Lord have given the Lord have taken away blessed be the name of the Lord contentment is knowing how to be full in the midst of difficulty but also in the midst of wealth I love what Paul says he says it's not just in times when he's the best a base it's also when he abounds it's not just in the times where he's hungry it's also when he is full contentment is simply saying that God is the only source of your joy of your peace nothing else if you're trying to find today meaning for your life and joy and peace in your life then and anybody else than Jesus Christ my friends you will never be content you will always be chasing after a void that you cannot fill my friends don't make that grave mistake of putting things of this world your pride your family your job your friends you name it instead of Jesus Christ to find your joy because you will lose everything I want you to I just want you to know this you will lose your money you will lose your treasures you will lose your family you lose your friends you will lose your reputation you will lose your pride you will lose everything because one day no matter what you do and no matter what this world promises you you will die and you will face God how about you find true meaning for your life in Jesus Christ find in him the strength to face everything to be able to do all things through Christ which means that no matter what comes your way it's not going to take you down I want you to realize that when Paul says in verse chapter 1 verse 21 that for him to live is Christ and to die is gain he is talking about the possible outcome of his trial which would be death or life and he says if I die it's gain and if I live I live for Christ he's saying I win all I do is win if I die if I live I win put me through a trial I will win why? Because I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me you cannot say that if you're not based in Jesus Christ no I ask you to take this test is Jesus Christ the only source of contentment in your life are you trying to find joy in somebody else in something else are you trying to find peace meaning your identity and anything else than Jesus Christ I want you to run this simple exercise run your life through that of Job just for those of you who don't know Job loses everything he loses his children he loses his reputation because his friends come and start saying what have you done he loses his wealth he loses his health and the only thing he doesn't lose is his wife which encourages him to curse God Job loses everything and yet he remains faithful to God that doesn't mean that when trial comes it's easy okay it's never been easy and it never will be easy in fact you want to know something comforting when Jesus was going to the cross he had to stop and pray because he was facing such a large challenge ahead of him it was going to be hard it was going to be difficult it's not I'm not saying it's going to be easy but I'm going to say this if Jesus Christ is your strength if he is your meaning if he is your peace if he is your joy if he is your identity then nothing will take you away from him we have a God that is sovereign that is immutable that means he never changes he is all powerful he is faithful and there is nothing in this world that can separate you from him and if you put in him your identity then everything else will pass in life except him you want to know something you will pass but he won't and so that when you pass you're still in him isn't that wonderful that's contentment my friends so are you content ask yourselves that question am I content tonight is there something I could lose tonight that would make me walk away from the Lord that would change my my my my outlook on life and change my walk with the Lord if that's the case that's an idol that you need to uproot but there's a second characteristic of a Christian that isn't prone to idolatry doesn't hasn't fallen to idolatry the second guard at the entrance of your temple and that is sacrifice there's contentment and their sacrifice now I love what Paul talks about here and sacrifice the last verses of our text here from 15 to 20 have to do with sacrifice Paul after having talked about contentment wants to encourage them he tells them that they did a good thing right verse 15 verse 14 sorry you did communicate with my affectionate what you did well sorry and that you did communicate with my affliction Paul is encouraging them he says I know what I just said is hard that's basically what he's saying but I want to encourage you you did a good thing and not only did you do it once you've been faithful in doing it over time you did it in Macedonia when I departed from Macedonia you communicated with my needs you did it when I was in Thessalonica not just once but twice Paul is commending these people because they didn't just sacrifice once they regularly sacrificed to the Lord this is very important my friends because some people will think that if they can alleviate their conscience by doing one big thing once in their life or once in a month or I don't know what it is and that's okay they've done their duty my friend sacrifice is a discipline you do it over and over and over and over because you want to worship God through your sacrifice in fact my friends worship has everything to do with sacrifice and you'll test it out in the Old Testament and Paul in this text is clearly tying the Old Testament in because when you read verse 18 he talks about the sacrifice that they sent he talks about that money that was sent from Epaphroditus and he says that it has an odor of sweet smell it is acceptable and well pleasing to God those terms are expressions that you find frequently associated in the Old Testament when somebody would bring a burnt sacrifice before the Lord and if it was approved by God it had an odor of a sweet smell but if it wasn't it stunk exactly God accepted they were well pleasing sacrifices to him you want to know something interesting about idolatry in the Old Testament when the prophets condemn idolatry in Israel they always bring out two main problems that the Israelites had regarding idolatry is one they went to other gods for blessing and protection right the prophets condemn them for doing that that's what that's their contentment they went to other gods for their all and secondly he condemned their sacrifices to those gods that they would build altars in the the prophets and the judges had a commandment to either destroy the altars or slay the the priests that would encourage these sacrifices sacrifices intimately tied to worship and Paul here is telling the Philippians your sacrifices demonstrates that you truly want to worship God and I want to ask you tonight are sacrifices regular in your life what are you sacrificing for the Lord and please do not say your tithe because that's that's not it the the Philippians here weren't sending their tithe to Paul this was a sacrifice they were making Epaphroditus when he almost died on the way that's wasn't just his top thing that was his life he was putting on the line I'm not just talking about your money what are you sacrificing for in time how sad it is when our investment in our Christian walk and in our service for Christ and our sacrifices to him are limited to a few hours a week of corporate worship you should be sacrificing to God your time and serving him in his church and serving the spreading of the gospel what are you sacrificing in your pride I find that a lot of people stay silent about their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because they're afraid of what other people will think my friends there is one definition for that fear and that is pride is pride standing in the way of you preaching the gospel because if it is it's an idol that you must slay and I'll tell you what you'll find out people are more open than you realize and yes some people will make fun of you and you know what you get used to it what are you sacrificing to the Lord are you willing to sacrifice your entire bearings of everywhere your world really your your culture your city where you grew up your country your family you know I'm a missionary kid I worked with my parents for three years it was very nice well my wife didn't see her family for three years she left the country and she went to a country she didn't know she left the language to go to a country she had no idea how to speak the language she truly made a great sacrifice for the Lord and Lord has rewarded it I want to ask you today what is standing in the way between you and the mission field because whatever it is it's an excuse it's an idol I'm not saying everybody here is called to the mission field but nothing should stand in the way except that you're not called and that's it I have a missionary friend and I love what he says he says everybody should plan to be a missionary until they're called not to how about we live our lives like that God I'm going to go to the mission field unless you close the door and trust me if he doesn't want you there he'll close the door but you have to be willing to sacrifice to say that and so I want to challenge you with that tonight take the hypothetical test and say I am going to go to the mission I'm going to pray for God I'm going to ask God to send me I'm not just going to say God do you want me to go oh I hear yes okay thank you Lord I want you to go to the Lord and say God I want to be Epiphytitis I want to be ready to put my life on the line for your gospel I want to bring the good news to the whole world and Lord I want you to send me somewhere and God if that somewhere is your in Xenia I'll be obedient and I'll stay but please send me please send me so I can go to the world and tell them about Jesus Christ because I don't want anything to stand in between you and me and I'll finish with this when we live lives idolatry free when we are consent when we are sacrificing to the Lord I want you to know that God will bless you abundantly he will bless you eternal rewards that's what verse 17 is about Paul is commending these Philippians for their sacrifice and for their gifts and he tells him that it's not because he desires a gift but he desires fruit that may abound to their accounts my friends I want to ask you this do you invest in eternal things in your eternal account we love to invest in our bank account right we have our apps we look at what it's like and we're like okay when does the pay come how can I make some more money how about we have a I don't know if we could create this but an eternal app here we can't but something where you keep track of what you're doing for the Lord how about you keep track of your investments how about you focus on what you're doing for eternal reward because when you do the Lord promises here that you will have eternal reward when you worship him idolatry free and you live a life of contentment and sacrifice but not only will he reward you eternally he will also reward you earthly now don't mistake me here this is not a prosperity method or gospel God is not promising you health and wealth but he is promising you this and this is a promise that the Lord made for us and that Paul reiterates here in this text verse 19 but my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus Paul just told them you did a good thing in sending that gift you made a sacrifice I want you to know that you will never be in need before the Lord when you are faithful to him and finally verse 20 we do this for his glory can I tell you something we were created in the very first place for us to bring glory to him that is our the meaning of our existence to bring glory to God you will feel unfulfilled you will always be left wondering why you're on earth until you understand that your reason to be on this earth is to worship and bring glory to God and when you do I promise you you will find fulfillment and joy like you never have and it will stay with you and it will be a blessing to your heart and to your life and I invite you to stop finding the meaning of your life in anything else those are the rewards God has for you they're eternal they're earthly and they're the fulfillment of the meaning of your life.
