Philippians 4:12: Giving Thanks in All Circumstances

Call to Worship

Psalm 100 ESV

A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Sermon

I want to start this morning by giving anyone who wants to a chance to share. What are you thankful for this morning?

Thank you all for sharing, we have a lot to be thankful for. This morning I want to switch gears just a little bit, and go to the book of Philippians. So if you’ll turn with me in your bibles, we’ll just be in a couple of verses there. Philippians 4, starting halfway through verse 11, and going through to verse 13.

Philippians 4:11b–13,“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

You’ve probably heard that last verse before, but this morning I want to especially focus on verse 12.

On days like thanksgiving, when we stop and take stock of what we’re thankful for, it’s sometimes easy for us to think about the good things we have and the good times in life. We tend to put things in a positive light. And I think that thats a really good thing, putting things into a positive light definitely helps us to remember all of the good things in life and be thankful for them, and praise God for them. And that is wonderful, but this morning I want to draw our attention to the other side of life.

Because life isn’t always sunshine and roses, I’m sure each of us could tell stories as well of times when life really felt overwhelming, and really got us down. When life was like the storm we talked about last week, when it just felt all consuming, and felt like we were drowning in it, grasping for air. Sometimes life is wonderful, and sometimes life is absolutely terrible. And to be honest with you, I think a lot of the time most of us feel like it’s somewhere in the middle, we’re just coasting, there are good things and bad things at the same time, sometimes a thing is both good and bad. And in that middle period, that most of us spend most of our time in, I think we miss opportunities to be thankful in the mundane.

You know a lot of people only pray when they’re going through a really hard or a really, really good time. When they feel like life is dragging them down they cry out to God in desperation, and when life is so good they feel like its a miracle then sometimes they’ll say things like “oh thank God” or “Hallelujah” (as a side not the word hallelujah literally means praise God, hallel is hebrew for “sing praise”, and “yah is the root of yahweh” so literally, sing praise to God)

Anyways, when life is a like a rollercoaster with massive highs, or plunging lows, then people tend to pray and cry to God, or thank God. But its in the mundane of ordinary life that I think that people often almost forget about Him. Christians too, you know we go to church, and we might read our bibles or listen to sermons throughout the week or different things, but I think a lot of the time we forget to pray and thank God in the times when we’re busy with ordinary life.

The late preacher Billy Graham said this about prayer in the ordinary times of life:

“True prayer is a way of life, not just for use in cases of emergency. Make it a habit, and when the need arises you will be in practice.”

I think there’s a lot of wisdom there, if we set a pattern of praying all the time, thanking and praising God for all aspects of life, asking Him for help and guidance in ordinary life, not just when life is hard, then I think we’ll have an easier time when life does get hard.

If we go back to the Philippians passage, its a very similar sentiment that Paul is teaching. He shows us that in all things He has learned to praise God and thank Him.

He says: “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”

Paul has faced the rollercoaster of life: plunging lows, and soaring highs. Paul has seen it all, and when we look at other passages we see exactly what he’s talking about.

2 Corinthians 11:24–30 ESV

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

And Paul continues on, and a few verses down he says that he has asked God to remove some of his hardships and weaknesses and this is what God said.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul understood what it was like to live a life where in many people’s minds there was not a lot to be thankful for. He faced almost certain death all the time, he often was cold, hungry, and in danger due to his surroundings. He had people who hated him nearly everywhere he went. He was almost constantly anxious for the state of the churches he planted. And yet he continues to boast in all of his weaknesses and hardships because in his weakness God’s glory was demonstrated.

And so Paul gives thanks to God for the hard things in life, for the mundane and boring things in life, for the things in life that he’s so overwhelmed by that he wonders if they’ll be what kill him. And Paul’s not alone in this.

In Acts 5 Peter and John are arrested in the temple for worshipping and teaching about Jesus, and then they were beaten by the council of Pharisees, but they weren’t discouraged, this is what it says:

Acts 5:41 ESV

Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

They thanked God, that they were worthy to suffer because of Christ. And this sentiment is repeated all throughout the New Testament.

James in the beginning of his letter says this:

James 1:2–4 NIV

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

We should be thankful not just for the good things in life, but also for the hard ones. And when we think through that a little bit, it almost sounds crazy. Why would be thankful for our hardships and weaknesses, or even the mundane and boring things in life? Shouldn’t we want more?

I don’t think it’s wrong for us to want more, and I actually think that that line of thinking is very similar to why we should also, as Christians, be thankful for the difficult parts of life as well. We’ve already heard our answer to this in some of the verses we’ve read.

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

2 Corinthians 12:10 “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

James 1:3–4 “because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

So what are we told?

In our weaknesses Christ comes to our aid to strengthen us. If you think about your own life maybe you’ve seen that? I know for myself in the times that felt the worst in life, where I felt the weakest and most hopeless, it was then that I saw and relied on Christ’s strength most. Christ is able to sustain us and help us endure all things.

Isaiah 40:31 “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

On our own we can do very little without coming to the end of ourselves, and facing trials and problems that we can’t get past. But when we’re relying on Christ’s strength through the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us, it’s then that we can be thankful for even the hardest things in life, because they point to Christ’s power.

It’s what Paul points to in our 2 Corinthians passage as well. In his weakness Christ’s power was magnified, and so he was able to give thanks even for the parts of life maybe he didn’t naturally feel thankful for, because it was in his weaknesses and hardship that Christ most strengthened him.

And the same sentiment is repeated by James, the difficulties, weaknesses, and hardships that we face in life produce greater character in us. As we rely on Christ’s strength, he changes us, and makes us stronger, we persevere and grow wiser and more mature in our faith, and we are stronger because of Christ’s strength demonstrated in us.

So we can give thanks in all circumstances because we know that no matter what comes in life, when we are relying on Christ’s strength nothing will be too much for Him to handle, and as hard as it gets for us, we will seem work mightily on our behalf.

There’s a song from an artist called Beautiful Eulogy, and he uses hip/hop and rap music to share about theology and the gospel. And I just want to share the first verse of one of his songs with you. It says this:

If in one unfortunate moment You took everything that I own Everything you've given from heaven above And everything that I've ever known If you stripped away my ministry My influence, my reputation My health, my happiness My friends, my pride and my expectation If you caused for me to suffer Or to suffer for the cause of the cross If the cost of my allegiance is prison And all my freedoms are lost If you take the breath from my lungs And make an end of my life If you take the most precious part of me And take my kids and my wife It would crush me, it would break me It would suffocate and cause heartache I would taste the bitter dark providence But you would still preserve my faith What's concealed in the heart of having Is revealed in the losing of things And I can't even begin to imagine The sting that kind of pain brings I would never blame you for evil Even if you caused me pain I came into this world with nothing And when I die it will be the same I will praise your name In the giving and taking away If I have you I can lose everything And still consider it gain

This verse reminds me a lot of the story of Job, that everything was taken from him, his wife, his kids, his home, his health, and yet he still worshipped and thanked God. He said this: Job 1:21b “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.””

The reality of life is that things are often not easy, we often have things that we are intially not thankful for, and a lot of the good things we are thankful for can be taken away in a moment. And maybe that’s not what you wanted to be thinking about on thanksgiving, but bear with me because as hard as that sentiment is, we still have good news. Because there are things we have to be thankful for that nothing can take away from us. Things that give everything else value. And those things are what we should be most thankful for, because no matter how difficult life gets, the things that are imperishable, that can’t be taken away from us, those are the most valuable things we have.

Romans 8 talks about a variety of promises that God has made to us that we can rely wholly on.

Romans 8:1 “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”

This means that when we are followers of Jesus, and have received our salvation we have eternal life, we won’t taste eternal death, instead Christ has saved us, and we can hold to that.

Romans 8:11 “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”

Once we’re believers the Holy Spirit is in us, and the same power that raised Christ from the dead is in us because of the Spirit, and we can trust in His promise that we to will be raised to new life.

Romans 8:14–17 “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.”

Once we have received the Spirit we have been adopted by God the Father, we are His children, we can turn to Him as our loving Heavenly Father to help us in all things. And even though we share in the suffering of Christ we also will share in His glory in Heaven.

Romans 8:18 “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.”

And alongside the last one, our suffering here is temporary, Paul talks elsewhere in 2 Corinthians about the weight of glory, if you think about one of those old fashioned scales wher you put weight on both sides, the weight of our suffering on earth, is immeasurably less than the weight of glory. Even death is not final, life just gets better. And like we mentioned earlier, the reason that we wish for life to get better, the reason we feel discontent with this world, is because we have something far greater waiting for us.

C.S Lewis put it this way: “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” The fact that we aren’t content with the pain of this world, means that we were intended to live in a better one. And that’s the promise made her, that all of our suffering isn’t for nothing, we endure it for a little while, until we get to a world where the glory waiting for us there is infinitely more. And we can be thankful that we have the promise of eternal life with our Heavenly Father.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

No matter how tragic or hard life gets on earth, we can be thankful that no matter what happens, God will use it for His ultimate purpose and good. Sometimes in our lifetime here we won’t understand where the good was in something, we won’t be thankful for certain things, and that’s ok. But we also can hold fast to the promise that even when we don’t understand how He’s doing it, God is using even the worst situations to bring good out of them.

Romans 8:31 “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”

We have the promise that God is on our side, that when we are in Him, and He is in us, that He fights our battles for us. We talked about Psalm 46 a few weeks ago and how God gave King Hezekiah the victory over Sennacherib. Nothing and no one can stand in God’s way, and so we can rest assured, and be thankful, that in all things our God cannot be stopped, and He has our best interests at heart.

Romans 8:34 “Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”

Christ is our intercessor. He died to take our place and wipe away every sin. And now Christ is in heaven with the Father interceding for us, standing as the accused in our place. And nothing that happens to us, and nothing that we do ourselves can take away the salvation we have found in Him.

Romans 8:35–39 “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nothing in this world can take us away from the love of God for us, from our salvation in Christ, from the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, from the promises that God has made to us. When everything else is stripped away, when life feels overwhelming and sometimes even miserable, when we feel like we have nothing to be thankful for, we can remember this promise. That God loves us more than we can possibly fathom, His love for us knows no bounds, and nothing in the entire universe can take us away from Him or Him away from us.

So as we reflect on all of this, we can remember the words of Paul we started with: Philippians 4:11b-13 “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

No matter what life throws at us, we have more reason than anyone else to be thankful. In every circumstance, in the plunging lows of poverty, hunger and pain, or in the roaring highs of beauty, and new life. We have reason to be thankful, because we have a good God, who is very faithful to us, who takes care of us and loves us, and who we cannot be taken away from. These promises to us are imperishable and no matter how difficult life gets we can trust in His promises, and be thankful for them.

Let’s pray.

Benediction

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”