You can have a seat in the presence of God. For being here and if we haven't met, my name is Josh and I would love the opportunity to be able to connect a little bit more with you today. So make sure you take a moment, fill out one of those new here cards.
If you didn't do that on your way in at our guest tent outside, we would love for you to fill one of those out this morning. Just as our way of saying thank you for being a part of our service here today. Well, if you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, go to Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. We have been in a series. In fact, this is week number eight of our series. It's the final week of the series entitled Joyful.
We have over the last eight weeks just kind of slowly walked through the book of Philippians together as we have looked at joy. And how many of you want to have joy in your life? Okay, all right, make sure everybody's got your hand up. And, and if you don't have your hand up, see me after the service because there's probably something wrong.
All right. And so because we all want joy, every single person in this place, every single person in our world, want joy. And what the book of Philippians is talking about is eternal fullness of joy.
It's fullness of joy, and how you can find it. Now, the Apostle Paul is writing this letter to a real church for four chapters, and he writes this letter. And remember, he's writing from prison. And so the the guy who's, you know, shackled and chained there in prison is the one who has the joy. And he's writing to a bunch of three people, the church at Philippi, about the joy that they can have in Christ.
We've seen several different ways. But the ultimate theme of the book of Philippians is found in chapter one, verse number 21, when he says, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. That is where true joy that is where fullness of joy is ultimately found. Well, this is our last week of the series, chapter number four. And if you are familiar with familiar with the Apostle Paul and his writings, you'll notice that normally, he always spends a couple of verses at the beginning of his letters, kind of a salutation, something just kind of kicking the book or the letter off and that kind of thing. It's sometimes hard to have a sermon on a passage like that. Well, he also at the end of his letters, a lot of times he will kind of give some thanks and then die or give some shout outs or whatever. And he kind of mentions things like that at the end of his letter. And sometimes when we're doing these book studies, and we're kind of walking through these things together, we can kind of skim over some of that stuff.
We could have probably finished this last week. So as I looked at the last part of chapter four, my first thought was like, Hey, where's the sermon outline going to come from? Now, I'm a traditional Baptist pastor. And so I like a few points and stuff like that. And so I'm like, where in the world is that going to come from from here? And it's amazing that when you dig into God's Word, he always gives you some stuff that you just didn't know was there you didn't see or you've skimmed over and things like that. And that's what we're going to talk about here here today. Here's the here's what we're going to talk about joy as we've looked at it. Today's message is going to be on this thought joy can be found in giving to the work of God.
Can we say that together? Joy can be found in giving to the work of God. Now, I want you to know he concludes this letter to the church at Philippi this farewell, and he really doubles down on this idea of, of giving, of giving. Now, I specifically did not say going in a lot of times I will tease the sermon topic before Sunday.
And I did not do that today because I know some of you wouldn't have showed up if you had known that it was going to be about giving. It's going to be about money, right? And here's what I want you to know is that for us, like in churches, I hear as a pastor, a lot of, you know, comments about money being talked about in the church, right?
And there's a lot of these kind of, you know, stipulations, all this kind of stuff. In fact, churches, I think a lot of times get a bad rep when it comes to money. I've heard things like this that, man, all that pastor wants is our money.
You ever heard that or possibly you might have been the one that I heard say it. And so I don't know. And but we say things like, man, all that pastor wants is money or all they talk about is, is money. And, and that's all that they care about.
And they just want, you know, my checkbook and, and things like that. And here's what I want you to know. And if you're wondering if you're kind of new and you're, it's like maybe your first or second time here, you're thinking, man, they're already talking about money. I want you to know, I've not talked about money in over a year on a Sunday morning. And so I'm kind of impressed by that. And so but here's the thing. We don't talk about it a whole lot.
But you know who did talk about it a whole lot? Jesus. In fact, in Scripture, there is a ton to say about money. So if you're in here today, and you say, man, I don't, I don't like how the church talks about giving the church talks about money, and all they want is my money. Here's what I want you to know is that the Scripture talks a whole lot about money.
In fact, just a couple of things for you. 15% of Jesus's teachings while he was on earth was about money. In fact, Matthew, if you look at Matthew, Mark and Luke, one out of about every six verses deal with the concept of money. Out of the 29 parables that Jesus told 16 of them, deal with a person and their, their money, Jesus taught on money and possessions more than he did heaven and hell combined.
Here's what I want you to know. And we're not going to pray like we're not locking the doors and stuff like that. And let's look at everybody's checkbooks today and stuff like that. We're not doing anything crazy. But here's what I want you to know is that in the local church talking to believers, there is a healthy conversation about money.
There's a healthy conversation. If there wasn't, then it wouldn't be just loaded with verses about about money. And here's the big idea. In fact, Jesus said it this way, and I'm going to just use his word as the big idea today is this, it is more blessed to give than to receive. It is more blessed to give than to receive. And what you're going to find here in Philippians chapter number four, is you are going to find the Apostle Paul, and he is going to double down.
And he's going to really talk about this idea for a few moments. And he's going to say that joy, eternal fullness of joy, the joy that every single one of us are looking for, and we're searching for, the Apostle Paul is going to tell us here at the end of his letter to the church at Philippi, that joy is found in giving to the work of God. And here's why the church at Philippi, just a little bit of background, they were a model church for generosity and for sacrificial living. In fact, they supported, the church at Philippi had supported the Apostle Paul, they'd supported him ten years before the book of Philippians was written. In fact, the church at Philippi, he references this here in chapter number four, is the church sent a man by the name of Epaphroditus, they sent him about 800 miles from Philippi to Rome with a care package that had a financial gift that was given to the Apostle Paul, he references that here in chapter number four. And so all I want you to know is this, is that he's talking a great deal about giving, and he's using the local church, the church at Philippi, to give us an example or a model of how the local church should be when it comes to generosity and when it comes to giving.
And so I want you to see just four reasons why it is better to give than to receive. Are you with me? Can you say amen real quick? And so I know anytime we talk about giving, you're getting a little bit nervous, okay?
You're sitting heavier on your wallet and stuff like that, right? And so I understand it. And so listen, we're going to look at this for just a couple of moments here together. The first thing you see this, it's found in verses 14 through 16, it's this, is that giving is commended.
Giving is commended. Look at what he says here as he concludes this letter. Well, let's jump back to verse number 11 real quick and we'll get to 14 to 16.
We looked at 11 through 13 last week, but I think he starts this narrative about giving in verse number 11. He says, not that I speak in respect of want for I've learned in whatever state I am there with to be content. What a great verse. What a great place that we should strive to be content in all things, including your money of where you are. He goes on verse number 12, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and on all things.
I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Remember, Paul's experienced all of it. I mean, he's in prison. That's pretty much the lowest of the low and he's learned that whether that be in prison or whether that be out in the world as a free man, it doesn't matter if he's in prison or free. He is joyful and he's learned to be content.
Why? Because I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Verse number 13. Then he starts this dialogue about money. He says, notwithstanding, ye have well done. Ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now, ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but you, the church at Philippi only. For even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Here's what I want you to know. There's a phrase in verse number 14 when he's talking about the giving and the generosity that the church at Philippi had given to him, Paul, the missionary. Here's what he says in verse number 14. He says, ye have done well.
Ye have done well. Now, as we talk about giving, here's what I want you to know up front. Money in and of itself is not evil. It's not evil. I mean, the love of money is what is the root of all evil, right?
The scripture talks about it. So it's not money. I want you to know that you can be godly and you can be wealthy at the same time.
Okay? And so if you're in here and you have money and you think, my goodness, man, he's going to talk about how terrible I am. I want you to know that money in and of itself is not the problem. It's the love of money. And you see that throughout scripture, there's plenty of people in scripture that had money and had possessions that were, you know, godly people. Abraham had over 300 servants, people that worked for him in his household job. God had blessed him not only with just finances, but with land and flocks and property. And at the end of his life, he lost it all. It said that God gave him more than what he had at the beginning. And so the point is, is that money in and of itself and possessions is not the problem.
It's really the love of those things. And so what Paul says is, he's kind of concluding this, he's commending the church at Philippi about their giving. And he says this, because you have given to me, you have done well.
You have done well. You know, the Bible talks about giving in a positive way throughout scripture. In fact, you can see this throughout scripture in the fact that it is commended. It is celebrated. It is, it is praised.
In fact, 3rd John, shortest book in the Bible, John writes to a man by the name of Gaius. And he says this, you're doing a good work for God when you give to those who are passing by, sharing the gospel and preaching the gospel. He says you're doing a good work by giving to them. Here's what I want you to understand is that giving is commended because generosity is a good thing.
Generosity is a good thing. Now I remember, you know, for me, when we were first, me and Abby first got married, you know, I was in the ministry and I didn't have a whole lot of money and you're just starting out and that kind of thing. And we had just bought a home and it was our first, you know, big adult purchase and all this kind of stuff. And we were so excited about it. But a home, there's this thing that they ask for every single month called a mortgage payment. It's like, I just tell them, can I get it next month?
And they didn't like that. And so, so they said, you got to have this every month. And so we would do that. And by the time we did, you know, that and all the stuff that we felt were, you know, priorities for us, it was kind of like, you know, the giving, you know, you'd have an evangelist come through or a missionary come through. And I remember early on in our marriage and I was still a pastor and I want you to know that we're human beings just like everybody else. And so some of you do this and just like what we used to do, we would sit there and at the end, you know, the pastor would get up, we just heard this great sermon and the pastor would say at this time we're going to pass the plates. We're going to give a, we're going to give a love offering and things like that. And I remember thinking like, Oh man, how much do we give Abby? Like, you know, we're kind of having this little conversation and occasionally just so nobody would hear us around the seats next to us, we'd be like, God bless.
You know, we say all this good stuff to each other and stuff, you know, so that I'm just kidding. We didn't really do that. And so she's not here today to vouch one way or the other. And so, but the point, she heard we were talking about money. She said, I'm out this weekend. So, but here's the point is that for her and us, we struggled, right?
We struggled. And for you that, you know, the Bible talks about a tithe and giving to the church on a monthly basis and stuff like that so that the gospel ministry can go forward. Sometimes that can be pressure on you and pressure on your life, right? Because you have all these other things that that need your money that are required and things like that. I couldn't tell the faith like, Hey, I don't have my mortgage payment, but I did tithe this weekend. Does that make it okay? And, and knowing that they don't respond well to things like that, it's hard for us and it can be stressful for us to give.
But here's what I want you to know. What Paul is saying here is this church at Philippi had supported the apostle Paul for the last 10 years. And on top of that support for him, you know what they did?
They would send, you know, a path for us and well, you know, hundreds and hundreds of miles. They would send them to Paul and when they would send it to him, they had this extra financial gift as a result. Here's all I'm telling you is that generosity is a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a commendable thing.
It's something that all of us should participate in. Listen, if you're new to the faith or new to church or, or possibly you just joined even here and you're trying to figure this thing out, let me tell you this, is that giving is not something that we need to begrudge and, and run the other way. No, giving is a positive thing.
It's a good thing. It's a scriptural thing. It's a biblical thing.
And you say, why, why is that? Why did, why is giving matter? Why does it matter if I give to the church? Why does it matter if I support missionaries?
Why does it matter if I do these things? He gives us two specific things here in this passage. First, giving your generosity turns people, turns yourself from just a person to a partner in the gospel. Philippians, if you flip back a couple of pages over in chapter number one, Paul was starting off his letter in chapter number one of this book, verse number five, he says for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, if you take that word fellowship and you translate it and you go all the way back into the original language, the Greek language, which it was written, here's what that word literally means, partnership, partnership. So he's telling them, Hey, listen, church at Philippi, I'm the missionary. I'm the one traveling around and, and preaching the gospel and going from community to community.
And I'm preaching you church, you know, you guys are, are showing up every week. I want you to know that because of your giving, it has turned you to not, it's turned you into a partner where you share in what is happening around the world. That's what giving does. It turns us into becoming partners. Look back at chapter number four, verse number 15 says this, you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but you only.
Here's what I want you to know. He's telling them this, that because of your giving, here's the good news. And this is why every single one of us should give is because it makes us partners in the gospel. In other words, it makes you a partner of the gospel that is being proclaimed all around the world. How many of you want to be a part of that?
I know I do. Listen, here's the thing. I heard one pastor say it this way is that every single one of us are either sent to go into full time ministry or we're the ones that should be sending. Listen, every single one of us, you should either be going and spreading the gospel or you should be financing those who are willing to go and spread the gospel.
You see, that's his point. Giving is a good thing because it makes you a partner. It makes you a partner with what all of us support over 90 missionaries. And they're all around the world and they are preaching the gospel just as we are here, depending on what time it is in their region and stuff like that, is that they are preaching the gospel and they're meeting with people and many of them left family behind.
They left comfort behind. They left everything that they knew behind to move to some place in our world because they were changed by the gospel and they want other people to experience what God can do. And here's the point is that we, when we give, when you take money and you give to the church or you give to missionaries or you give to something, here's what it does. It moves you into becoming a partner in what is happening around the world. In other words, the ministry that's happening around the world, you that are giving to that, you're a part of it. You get to share in that, that joy that they're finding when one soul gets saved at a VBS in some other country. Remember this, that you that it gave, that are giving to missions, you're a partner in that.
You're a partner in what he's doing. Not only does giving turn people into partners, but giving also pleases God. It pleases God. Look at what he says in verse number 18 of our text, but I have all and abound. I'm 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. So here's Paul and he tells him, he says, listen, I received your, your care package. If you would, that's what we would call this.
Okay. So the church at Philippi, they sent Epaphroditus and he shows up to the apostle Paul and he brings this, this care package, which contained clearly some, some money, some financial gift. And he gave it to the apostle Paul and the apostle Paul, that's what he's writing about here in verse number 18. And he said, when I received that, here's what I want you to know.
It was, it was like, he says it was like an odor of a sweet smell. It was a sacrifice. By the way, giving is always a sacrifice that was acceptable, well pleasing to God. Here's the second thing I want you to see about this, is that giving pleases, pleases God. Now he uses the, the idea of an odor of a sweet, sweet smell.
And you're like, what in the world does, does that, does that mean? That aroma, if you would, is very important because it would mean something to, to the church at Philippi. In the Old Testament, in fact, if you study this out, we just did some studies on this on our Wednesday night Bible study. In the book of Leviticus, the phrase an aroma, okay, that's what he's talking about, that, that sweet smell that's going up.
An aroma is mentioned in the book of Leviticus 16 different times. And here's what that would always mean, is that in the Old Testament, they were under that sacrificial system, is that when they had sinned or when they were worshiping, what would happen is they would do a sacrifice before God. And on that sacrifice is they would normally, you know, kill an animal and that kind of thing. And, uh, and they would, they would sacrifice the animal and what would happen, it always would follow in the book of Leviticus that when they would do that, it was like this aroma, this sweet smelling aroma would hit heaven. And what that meant was that that sacrifice, it pleased and it accepted and it satisfied God. It satisfied him. Here's what he's getting at when he says that your gift, you're giving your generosity.
It's like that aroma that goes up to heaven. So listen, let me encourage you. If you're in here today and you're like, man, I just can't give, that's so hard. You know, I got all these other priorities and stuff. Here's what I want to remind you is that when you give, and by the way, it's a sacrifice. We all get that. When we give out of what God has blessed us with, it's like we're sending up this aroma to God that is well pleasing to him.
He's satisfied with it. Listen, giving should not be, well, the church needs my money. Some of us, that's why we give, right? I mean, I'm going to feel guilty if I don't make sure everybody sees me walk past this box over here or as people judge me as the offering play is passed and stuff like that. No, giving shouldn't be, well, the church needs it or everybody needs to look at me or somebody told me to do this and things like that.
So here I am and you kind of have a bad attitude with it. No, his point is this, the foundational reason for why we give and why we are generous is because God is worth it. He deserves it and it all belongs to him.
And if he gave everything for us, why can't we give what we have back to him? That's the point because it pleases him. That's the motivation. It's the highest motivation for us to live. I don't know about you, but I want my life to please God, right? Don't you?
I do. I want my life to please God. And I fall short all the time with that. But listen, let me tell you, anytime it says that this something commands us, hey, if you do this, it pleases God. That's something that me, I want to lean in on that, right?
I want to be a part of that. I want that to be true of my life. And in this case, he's saying when we give, it pleases him.
It's acceptable to him. It's like that aroma, that sweet smell that is going up to him when you give to the ministry and to the work of God. Giving is commended. The second thing I want you to see is giving is an internal investment.
It is an internal investment. In other words, it carries interest well beyond this life that we get to experience one day. Look at verse number 17. What he says here in our text, not because I desire a gift, but I desire, listen to this, this is so good, I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
I desire fruit that may abound to your account. In other words, if you think about an investment, and many of you do this, and that's a good thing, I think we should take care of our money and stuff. When Abby and I, when we started having kids, we started thinking about the future. We started investing some money. We don't have a whole lot to invest, but we started doing things like that. When you invest it, here's what you're doing.
When we first got married, we did invest a little bit of money. Right then, when you see that it grew just by a little bit, you remember this, you want to go ahead and get it out. You're like, I want that.
That sounds great. They tell you that if you continue to invest in it, you continue to give and put more money into it, what happens is that one day, way down the road, which stinks because most of the time it's like, hey, when you die? It's like, man, I can't enjoy it. It's like the kids will be able to have that money, and by then it's doubled, it's tripled, it's even more, and it just kind of expounds upon itself. We get excited about the future if we decide to invest now.
You guys understand that. What the apostle Paul is saying here in verse number 17, and he says this, when you give, think of it like putting money into an account. When you give to the church and you give to missionaries that are coming through, and you give to the work of God, here's what happens is you put that money in, and you might not see that fruit.
You might not see it on this side of heaven. He's saying that, but what happens is once you give, and you continue to give, and you are faithful in your giving, it's like you're putting all this money in, and then one day your account is going to be full in heaven as a result of your giving now. In other words, it'd be like this, you know, we support a lot of missionaries, and I know we supported Lomax was in Germany, and Lomax, do you remember, I know this is catching you off guard a little bit, do you remember how many years the church supported you? And we still support you.
When did we start that? Okay, so they were on the field for 41 years, and that kind of thing, so we supported, so we as a church, and many of you in this place, here's what I really want you to see this, is that for you, you've given to missions, and you should. We don't talk about this enough, you should, okay, for the reasons that Paul's given here in Philippians chapter 4. For all these years, these 41 years, here's what I want you to understand, Lomax and Linda and their family are serving over in Germany for 41 years, and every month that you gave, it's like you're depositing money, right? Man, I'm giving some more, giving some more. You might not ever even visit Germany, but you're giving, and you're giving, and you're giving, and then it'd be like this, is that one day when you die, and you go to heaven, and you walk around in heaven, it'd be like this, that some kid or some adult, you know, they come running up to you, and they say, hey, thank you, and your first thought is, I don't really know who you are, like, can you kind of give me a little bit of context, and they'd say, oh yeah, I understand, I understand, and obviously I don't know how all this will work in heaven, but they'd be like, I grew up in a part of the world that you've never been, I grew up in this place called Germany, oh yeah, yeah, we had some missionaries that we supported in there, yeah, you did, and I'm just telling you thank you, because you gave to a missionary years and years ago, and because of that giving, it gave them what they needed to be able to share the gospel, and when they shared the gospel, it got to me, and I want you to know that you're partnering with that missionary in that, and I just want to say thank you.
That's what this is like. There's going to be every month that you give, and we're going on a couple of trips this coming year, we're going to Guatemala this fall, and we're going to Honduras this next year, it's like this, when you give to missions, it's like you get to heaven, and we don't know now the fruit, right, we don't know that fruit that abounds to our account, and what the apostle Paul's saying this, he's telling the church, hey, you continue to give, and when you do, there's this eternal investment awaiting you in heaven, this interest that just continues to grow in the fruit that God is doing in your life, and one day when you get to heaven, and you walk around up there, there's going to be many people that are in heaven because of your giving. I don't know about you, but that's the way I want to live. I don't want to live for what's going to be passed away here. I don't want to live for my possessions. I don't want to live for a house. I don't want to live for all the toys that we can accumulate. I don't want to live for the material needs, and listen, a lot of us, we are living for all the materialistic things that this world has to offer, and there's a lot of good in this, isn't there? There's a lot of appealing stuff.
I watch TV from time to time, and there are so many appealing commercials that I just want to buy whatever's on there sometimes because they've convinced me, right? And what we do is we invest so much stuff, and here's what I want you to know. All of those things are going to pass away one day, but Paul's saying this. When you give to the work of God, and you give to these missionaries, there is a fruit that abounds to your account that you have partnered with that you might not see on this side of heaven, but one day when you get there, you're going to see it.
That's why Jesus tells us to lay up treasures in heaven, to live for eternity, not to live for this life, but to live for that life. Number three, you still with me? You got still here? Okay. Number three, giving is rewarded. Giving is rewarded. We see that giving is commended. We see that giving is an eternal investment, but then you see giving is rewarded. Look at verse number 18 and 19 of our text. 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 need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
I saw this this week. This is new to me, and I want to share this with you real quick. There's two words there because I always look at word studies as I study to be able to share with you. I want you to see two things that just stuck out to me that I think will help you when it comes to giving. The first one is the word full. I want you to see the word full.
It is found in verse number 18. It says, I have all and abound. I am full.
I am full. Then, if you look at verse number 19, the word supply. The word supply.
Verse number 19, it's one of those verses that we always read about and we quote and we use and that kind of thing. But here's what I want you to see about those two words, the word full and the word supply. They're two different words in our English translation, aren't they? I mean they're used differently here. We don't use them the same. We don't use them interchangeable.
Here's the interesting thing. If you look back at the original language of the scripture in Greek, the word full and the word supply, identical Greek words. Say, what is Paul trying to tell us? They're identical Greek words. It's the Greek word plarum.
Plarum. It's where we get the word playroom. I'm just kidding.
That's a joke. That's kind of how it's spelled and sometimes I kind of see that. But here's the thing. It's the word full, the word supply, this Greek word, same exact word used both different times.
Here's the thing. In English, they look different. The word literally means in Greek, it means to fill up. If you look at the definition in a Greek dictionary, here's what it would tell you is it's going to fill up to the brim almost to the point of overflowing. It's like that top, you know, it's like when you go to a restaurant and you're, you know, maybe not a sit down restaurant, but you go to put your drink up like this happens to me. If you ever go to Dario, let me just tell you, if you've never been to Dario, just be careful with their drink machines because it'll overflow. It's happened to me a lot.
I'm getting better at it, but then it gets all over my hand and my hand is sticky and all this kind of weird stuff. And so, but you know what I'm saying? When you try to stop it right at the brim and sometimes you get lucky and there it is, it's right at the top and the fizz isn't going, you know, you're good. Here's what I'm telling you is that the word full, the word supply and Greek, it literally means to be filled to the brim. You say, what's Paul saying? Because in verse number 18 he says, I am full.
This is so good. He says, verse number 18, I have all, I abound, I am full. He's talking about himself. Paul's saying, I'm full, I'm full. And then he turns around in verse number 19 and he says, but my God shall supply.
Remember, same Greek word. Here's what Paul's saying. He's saying, I'm full because of your giving and because of your giving, here's what I can guarantee you is attached from your giving. My God shall fill, supply you because you have filled him. Do you understand that?
You see what he's saying there? He's saying, because you have filled him, my God will fill you. You've made me full, so my God will make you full. God fills those who fill. You want to write something down?
That's what it is. God fills those who fill. And here's what I want you to know, is that for me and for you, here's the challenge. We need to be fillers. We need to be fillers.
I don't know about you, but I want to hear from places like Honduras and places like Guatemala. I want to hear things like, whew, I'm full. When I go to Honduras, you know, in several months, I want our missionaries to say, I'm full. I'm full because you filled, because you gave.
And that's what we should do. And that's what I'm telling you. There's a promise attached to this that Paul's getting at to the church at Philippi. He says, because you filled him up as a missionary and you gave, here's the promise. God is going to return and he's going to give back to you. Listen, that promise, verse number 19, my God shall supply your need. I'm just going to be honest with you. I think we take that out of context all the time.
Because if you look at the context in which it's written, it's talking about the filling. Listen, you want God to fill all your needs. How many of you want that? Raise your hand.
All of us do. We're like, man, God's going to supply all our need. Here's what it takes to get that, to experience it. Give. That's the context. The context is about giving. The context in which he's writing is about filling up the missionaries that are called to speak the gospel and share the gospel around the world.
You give to them and you fill them up as best as you know how and as best as you possibly can. And here's the promise attached. Then your needs will be full as well.
That's the point. And that's what he's telling us. Listen, giving, it's rewarded. We get to see that reward. We get supplied and full because we chose to fill. God's generous to those that are generous to others.
He's going to fill you up when you fill others up. Last thing. Giving spreads the gospel. I hope you're still here.
I hope you haven't checked out. Okay. Giving spreads the gospel. Look at what he says in verse number 20. He says this.
Now this is where it gets hard. I want you to know as a pastor, this is where it kind of gets hard. You're kind of like, man, what's God want to tell us here? And every book of the Bible, every verse is there for a reason. What's he getting at? And I think there's something that I want to show you here in verses 20 through 23 as he wraps this thing up is that giving spreads the gospel.
Look what he says. Now unto God, he starts to give his praise and his shout outs, if you would. Now unto God and our father be glory forever and ever.
Amen. Salute every Saint in Christ Jesus, the brethren, which are with me, greet you. In other words, he's telling the church of Philippi, don't miss this.
He's saying, Hey, there's a lot of saints that are going to greet you one day because of your giving. You know what I would love to do? Here's the thing. And this is why we offer these things. We got Guatemala. We got Honduras.
That's just this coming year. I would love to get every single one of you on the field. I'd love it because I think it changed. I think it changed your life.
I think it would change your life because of exactly what he's saying. Think about this church of Philippi. They've been giving. They've been faithful in their giving. They're giving, giving, giving last 10 years.
They've been given to Paul every now and then they'd send a care package with some extra things and stuff and things like that. And they'd give, give, give, give, give. And he's saying, because of your giving, he's like, there's a lot of saints that one day they're going to salute you because you gave.
There's a lot of people that one day they're going to greet you because you gave. And he says this, verse number 22, and don't miss this. All the saints salute you chiefly they that are of Caesar's household.
Like why would he say specifically? Like he specifically just said all the saints salute you, but then he said, but there's this one group that's really going to thank you and salute you one day and it's Caesar's household. Like why in the world would they be singled out here? Here's what you got to understand about Caesar's household. They would be considered anti-God. These are the people far from God. The people at Caesar's household, they're the ones who wanted people that preached in the name of Jesus killed. Caesar's household that he's referring to, they're the ones that we don't want to take time for. They're the ones that it's going to take a whole lot to reach. They're the ones who are really hard towards the gospel.
They're the ones who really are anti-God. You say, what's the thing that Paul's trying to tell us in this last little thank you kind of moment here about our giving? Here's what Paul's saying, is that when you give, this is so good, and listen church, if you've missed anything, don't miss this, listen. When you give, when we give to the ministry that God has around the world, it's allowing missionaries, in this case Paul, to reach unreachable people. It's allowing the ministry to reach people that really are so far from God. Can you imagine for just a moment to be a Roman guard that's chained to the apostle Paul? You're anti-God, you want this guy killed, and all this guy can do in the middle of prison, and you're chained to him, is that, you know, all you got to do is listen to him talk about his Lord and Savior. And as a Roman guard that had to be terrible. I can imagine them looking outside to kind of see the sun, to see where it's at, to say, you know what, I got four hours on this shift left, can I persevere through that?
Right? And all this kind of stuff. And here's what I want you to know, is that many people that were chained to Paul, or when he was in these cities being beaten, or in these cities sharing the gospel and planting churches on all these different missionary journeys that he went on, or whatever, here's what he's reminding the church about, the church at Philippi. He's saying, because you gave, because you were generous, because you sent those care packages when, yeah, it was a sacrifice, I understand, we all need our money to survive. He says, listen, because you did that, is that now there's a lot of people, in fact, there's a whole lot of saints ready to meet you one day. There's a whole lot of saints that are ready to salute you one day, telling you thank you for your giving. And then he says, but there's one group that I can't stress enough. They're the anti-God group, the anti-church group. That's Caesar's household.
Guess what? Because of your giving, there's even some saints in the household of Caesar, far from God, as far away as you could ever get. And he says this, because of your giving, the gospel has been proclaimed, and the gospel has been spread to people that are really far from God. That's the point. Listen, that's what he's saying. Say, what does this look like?
What does this look like for us? Listen, it's very simple. And this is not a, listen, I'm just preaching the Bible.
I want you to understand that. Like, when I started this series, I knew Philippians joy. Talk about joy. That's what we're going to talk about. I didn't know how long this series was going to be. We're going to talk about joy. I never in a million years thought we'd be ending it with a sermon on money. I didn't.
Or else I might have chose a different book. But here's what I want you to know. It's just what Scripture, Paul's trying to remind us about our giving. And here's what this looks like for us. When you give, we don't talk about this enough. When you give, I want you to know that it allows, when you give to the church, it allows for ministry to go out right here in our community. Like, that's what it's doing. Like, that's what we're trying to accomplish the mission that God has called us to. Our mission here at Union Grove, it's to reach as many people as possible with the gospel and to disciple them into becoming devoted followers of Jesus. That's what we're called to do.
That's what we feel. And so what we're doing is we, when you give, we try to use that money. And we probably, as pastors, we probably don't get it right every single time.
I'll be honest about that. But what we try to do is we try to use the giving and the generosity of every single one of you. And we take that and we try to say, hey, how in the world, we have meetings all the time, how in the world can we take what's been given and try to get the gospel proclaimed locally right here? Like, what can we do to share the gospel to more kids? How can we get more kids in the room so that they can hear the gospel and their parents can hear the gospel? Even the ones that annoy us a little bit, even the ones that are far from God, the ones that don't look like us in the church and that come in that we're a little bit like, hey kids, watch out for them. We don't want them or whatever. Here's the thing.
Here's what they are. That's Caesar's household. That's Caesar's household. And what Paul's saying is those people, like, what can we do with the giving and generosity to get those people in so that they can be changed the same way we have been changed? So what I'm asking you to do is this. Some of you, you don't give. Then you're not a partaker in the gospel.
You're going to be straight. You're not a partaker in the gospel. He's saying that those that give, it doesn't matter how much. You can give a quarter. I'll tell you this.
You're going to have fruit in your account in heaven one day because of your giving. That's the point. That's local. That's the church. That's tithing. That's what we're supposed to do. That's what we're called to do. But then I want you to encourage the way we do it here is we say above your tithes we want you to give to missions. We want you to give to our missions department.
And here's why. It's because we want you to give to that. Not so that we can celebrate how many missionaries.
I think that's a really cool number, by the way. But that's not why we do it. No, the reason why is because there's a ton of places around this world filled with people like Caesar's household that need to be reached with the life changing message of Jesus Christ. And listen, we're sitting here and we're trying to get the nicest house and we're trying to get the nicest toys and we're trying to get the nicest clothes and the coolest shoes and all this kind of stuff. And here's what I want you to know. There are people all around the world dying and going to hell and there are missionaries that are willing to give up all those cool things we just talked about. To give their life to go to these places.
How dare us. How dare us not give to them. We need to give. Be generous so that the gospel can get around the world. Say why should I give is because for those who do, it's commended.
Paul calls it, you've done well. Those who give, they're laying up an internal investment in heaven. Interest is outrageous in heaven. And by the way, that's the only interest we should care about. Giving is an internal investment.
It's rewarded. I don't know about you, but I want my needs supplied here on this earth. Give. You want to be full? Make others full.
Fill others cups. And then giving spreads the gospel. Listen, I want, like, I think sometimes we think heaven's going to be just a bunch of people that just look just like us, don't we? We think heaven's just going to be people that just look like us. Bunch of church people. Bunch of Baptist church people.
And here's what I'm going to tell you. I want heaven full of the people that a lot of churches felt that we're not going to take our time for those. That's what Paul did. He gave his life to those people.
He gave his life to do that and he says, listen, you are going to, in heaven, man, what a reunion of the amount of people that are going to come. Think about it. Like we talk about Germany, just because Lomax is in the room.
But think about this. Lomax gets to heaven and all these people come up that they've been able to reach there in Germany that he hadn't seen, that maybe have died and gone on. And they come up, thank you Lomax for going and for sharing the gospel because I wouldn't be able to be here.
I wouldn't be able to worship at the feet of Jesus possibly if you hadn't have given your life. And Lomax is so excited to see him. And Linda, she's walking with Lomax and they're running around in heaven together. And he says, hey, he's holding them by hand maybe, perhaps, I don't know. And he runs over to, and he starts bringing them over to the people at Union Grove. And he says, hey, listen, here's somebody, look at this. Here's somebody over here. Let me introduce you. Let me introduce you. And this person like, hey, I'm so and so from Germany and Lomax led me to the Lord many years ago.
And I just want to say thank you. What did we do? We weren't called to give, or we weren't called to go.
But one day we said, you know what, it's hard, I know that, but I'm going to invest there more than I am here. And I'm going to give. That is what the Apostle Paul is saying. There is joy in giving. And like Jesus said, it's way more blessed to give than it is to receive.
Let's bow our heads for prayer. Message like this, sometimes you don't know how to lead an invitation. But I'll tell you this, for me, we need to be more generous.
My family does. And give more. We need to live for eternal investment, not for here. And I'm not going to do a show of hands kind of thing because I don't want to embarrass anybody.
I don't want to put you in an awkward spot. But here's what I'll tell you is that I think in a room this size, every single one of us probably have a next step. We need to be generous.
Generous of our time, our talent, our treasure, of our money, just generous people. So that one day in heaven there's going to be this eternal reward that we're going to see. There's going to be an eternal investment that we're going to experience.
We're going to meet people. That's what I want above anything else. And so what does that require of us here? It requires a sacrifice. It requires you being willing to give, even when it's hard.
Willing to give, even when you've got a lot of other things going on. Sending people. You might not be called to be sent and to go, but I'll tell you this, the scripture is very clear that we're called to send people. That's what we want to do. Would you do me a favor? Let's all stand.
I don't know where you're at today. I'm just going to let you, if God speaks to you, pray. I'm going to pray for you. Father, as our invitation starts, God, I pray that you, man, my heart is right there. I want to kneel and beg you for forgiveness for the times when I wasn't generous. But God, every single one of us, I want us to be a generous church because we serve a generous God. I want us to give out of the abundance that you've blessed us with and give, not just locally to the church, but give to missions so that we can be a part of that. God, what better way to invest our life than that? Speak to your people now, for it's in your name we pray. If God speaks to you, you come. And if God speaks to you in any way, you come.
