Sunday night in LeRoy

I can do all things through Christ...

As we continue through Philippians, we may have reached one of our favourite verses in Scripture, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Last time, we looked at learning to be content. That can be a process that can take a lifetime. Sometimes we wish our lives away, regretting the mistakes of the past and wishing that we had somebody else’s life, only to find out that they are satisfied with their life either.

Tonight, I’d like to read 3 verses of Scripture.

Philippians 4:11–13 NLT

Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Faith is a word that we often use loosely. You just need more faith. You just need to believe, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

It’s deeper than that.

What is faith?

Hebrews 11:1 NET

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.

Faith is more than an uncertain hope like, “I hope it doesn’t snow tomorrow”, but it is based on believing God’s ability to keep His promises.

Paul puts our faith in context. We need just as much faith and maybe more when we are going through the hard times as what we need when everything is going smoothly.

In the Old Testament book of Daniel, we have the story of three Hebrew slaves: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

In Daniel 3, the King decided to build a statue that was 90’ tall. The plan was that he would have the people of Babylon bow down and worship the statue. This went against everything that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believed.

Here’s the first two commandments of the 10 Commandments:

You shall have no other gods before Me, and You shall not make any graven images, idols, or statues.

Can you imagine how hard it must have been for them to stand up and say we aren’t going to bow to this image?

Slaves standing up to a king...

This made the king so mad that he decided to throw them in a furnace of fire. He even had it turned up seven times.

This is what they said to the king,

Daniel 3:17–18 NIV

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

This could have cost them their very lives, but they trusted in God no matter what. That’s the kind of faith Paul was talking about.

Paul had learned to trust God whether he had everything that he needed or if he didn’t have anything. He learned that whether his stomach was full or empty that he could still trust God.

Here’s a bit about Paul: He planted churches. He trained up young ministers. He went on missions trips. He was put in prison. He was beaten with rods and whips. He was even shipwrecked, and He still could say,

Philippians 4:13 NLT

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

It’s often when we are going through the toughest trials that we realize that we need Christ more.

We don’t need Jesus to give us a self-help, build up our confidence kind of pep-talk, we needJesus living in us and through us to empower us.

He’s not just our example. When He died on the cross, He became the Saviour of the world.

When we give our lives to Christ:

You might wonder what that means. That means that if we declare with our mouths that “Jesus is Lord.” and believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. This means that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. When we ask Jesus to come into our lives, He does. He lives in us.

In English, we use heart as the seat of our emotions. A person might say, “I love you with all of my heart.” As Christians we say that Jesus comes into our hearts. The Holy Spirit lives in every person who is a true Christian, and He gives us strength so that whether we are having a good day or a bad day, we have everything that we need to live a godly life in Christ.

Illustration

One day a small boy was trying to lift a heavy stone, but he couldn’t budge it. His father, passing by, stopped to watch his efforts. Finally he said to his son: “Are you using all your strength?’

“Yes, I am,” the boy cried, exasperated.

“No,” the father said calmly, “You’re not. You have not asked me to help you.” The child needed to learn to depend upon his father, as an added source of strength. (SC)

Lots of times we try to do things on our own

I might be the only one, but sometimes, we as humans, can be really stubborn. Now’s not the time to look across the room and let your friends know that you agree with that statement.

Have you ever had a job to do or you were going through a tough time, and you felt like quitting. You weren’t getting anywhere. What you needed was above what you were able to handle. You were like that child.

In the story it was a dad that wanted to help the child. If we knew how willing God is to help us when we are going through our stuff, I think we’d run to him a lot quicker, but I think that lots of times, we don’t even think of Him.

I want to tell you a story that Jesus told about a widow.

Luke 18:1–8 NLT

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’ ” Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

Jesus knows what we are going through and He will give us the strength to accomplish anything He calls us to do.

When you go to God in prayer, He hears you and He will make sure that you will get justice. I’m sure that your could tell me story after story of how God answered your prayer or how He gave you strength to overcome whatever trial that you were going through.

He helps us even when the story doesn’t end the way that we planned.

Psalm 32:8 NLT

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.

Let’s keep loving Jesus and trusting in what He has done in our lives. He is faithful and just. He will see that we get justice quickly.

Amen!

Pray for asking Jesus to come into our lives.

Pray that we would depend on Christ to work in us.

Pray for strength for each day.