Helping Paul in His Time of Need

Helping Paul in His Time of Need

Philippians 4:14-19

By Sean Kelly

You would help him to clearly give us our lives. Let's go ahead and read our verses 14 through 19. Matt, go ahead and read that for us.

Quoted from Macedonia no shirt says of me concerning giving any sin for you only you send eight once and again command accessories, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your crown. Indeed, I have all been bound and four have been received from you are closest my summary or my initial thoughts here is Paul, after sharing how he is content and that he has learned to be content, whether he has all that he needs or nothing of what he needs, turns to praising the church for their provision to him. As always, amidst the praise, Paul uses their example to teach about God's provision and about the responsibility of believers to give to meet each other's needs.

So that's what we're going to look at. This is kind of a continuation of last week's lesson, but again, I wanted to break it up so that I wasn't talking for 2 hours, which some people would greatly appreciate that I don't do that. So yeah, so we're going to start out in verses 14 through 16.

We'll see that the Philippians gave to meet Paul's need. Verses 14 and 16. It says, nevertheless you have done well, that you shared in my distress.

Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only, even Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities. So Paul starts out with this thankfulness for the care, even though he is content. He just talked about, if I don't have anything, I'm fine with that.

I'm good. God is in control of those things, and I'm trusting him. But he also says, okay, you guys provided for me, and I'm very thankful for that.

So even though we're going to be content, no matter the situation, we can be thankful when God does provide and when God does work and when God does move in our lives. And that's what Paul was doing here. Going back, just looking at the context of this.

Philippians 411 twelve let's read that, Nathan, go ahead. Not that I speak in regard to needing, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to avow everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

So that's the context of this passage here. As Paul's teaching on being content, no matter what the situation. But again, the Philippians are providing for him, and Paul is going to show how not only he is thankful for that, but that is a good thing that they are doing.

And just because his needs are being met doesn't make him less thankful to God. Here he talks about that they shared in his distress. This word distress here has the idea of hard circumstances.

And so when Paul was in distress here, in looking at the context of what he's talking about, this was when he was in great need. He didn't have anything. He was, to use his words here.

He was hungry, he was not abounding. And at that time, the Philippians gave to him and supplied the need that he had. So they shared in Paul's distress.

Let her be here. The church had been faithful in caring. We see that this is something that the Philippian church had done in the past, and it's consistent with who they are.

I remember last week when we talked about that the Philippians wanted to share, but at one point they didn't have need or they didn't have the means to do that. They didn't have the ability to share. Well, there were other times where they did have the ability, and that was consistent with who they were, that they shared to meet Paul's need.

One of these times is in two Corinthians eight, one, four. Who would like to read that for us? Jonathan? Go ahead. Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God, that in the great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and the deep poverty abounded in the riches of the liberality.

For I bear witness that according to their ability. Yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency, that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of administering to the saints. So that this.

You kind of wade through the words here. There's a lot of words in here. But basically what Paul is saying is that the churches in Macedonia, remember, this is where Philippi is in Macedonia.

So this is one of the churches that they were able to give. And even when they didn't have a lot, not only did they give according to what they had, but they gave above and beyond what they had. So the testimony of the Philippian church is one that they sought to provide for Paul's need, and they wanted to give over and above even what seemed like would be fair for them to give.

And so they were more than willing to support Paul's ministry. And here, verse four, it says, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift. That's the provision that they're providing for Paul and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

So this is part of their fellowship, is to meet Paul's needs and serve him in a way that provides for the things he needs, the food, just the daily supplies that he would need. And Paul in this passage here talks about that no other church shared with him concerning giving and receiving. So this was a testimony that was unique to Philippi.

There was no other church that was doing this. They were more than willing to give. And Paul is praising them for their desire and their actual actions of giving to support his ministry.

I use this term, another church shared with me concerning giving and receiving. So I kind of waded through this. I'm not really sure why he uses giving and receiving here.

The giving is obviously what the church is doing. The receiving, Paul's receiving. So that could be what he's talking about, the giving and his receiving.

But whatever it is, the Philippian church here was the only church to support Paul. We see Paul has talked to other churches, other people, about giving and caring, especially for those in ministry. I want to look at a couple of verses on that, because this is a pretty important concept in scripture, is that those who are ministering the word of God need to be supported by those who are being ministered to.

So the first place we says in one Corinthians 913 14, who would like to read this morning? Abigail, go ahead. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple? And those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live in the gospel. So he's going back to the Old Testament here.

And if you go through, like, books like Leviticus, you see that when the offering was brought, God commanded that certain parts of the offering be given to the priests to support their physical needs, to support the things that they needed to eat. Part of the grain offering went to them. Even different parts of the animal went to the priests to support their ministry.

And he's saying, this is true in the old testament, this is how God designed Israel to work. He said, just in the same way for us in the church, somebody's living for the gospel. If that's what they're doing, they're preaching the gospel, that this is what God wants them to do, then those who are receiving the benefit of that ought to be helping them along and supplying the needs that they have, Lynn.

Yeah, they did have that, but this was talking mainly about the offering. Yeah, because that was something that, you know, offering is brought to God. It's brought to worship him.

But God said out of that, I'm going to supply for the people that are serving and are ministering the offering. And so he's saying that the gospel, you know, this is the gospel from God. The person that's preaching the gospel is not the one who's originating the gospel.

It's not their gospel. It's God's gospel. It's God's message.

And so they're doing the work of God. And Paul is saying, if they're doing the work of God, then the people who are benefiting from that ought to support that so they can continue to do what God wants them to do. Another passage here.

First Timothy 517 18. Eric, go ahead. Let the elders who do labor, the word and doctrine, for the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox while it shreds up the grain and the laborer is worthy.

So let's take this apart a little bit. It says, let the elder who rules. Well, what's an elder? A pastor.

Remember elder, bishop, overseer, pastor, shepherd. They're the same person in the church. What's that? Yeah, the elder refers to like the age part of it.

Now, you don't always have old elders. I don't consider Pastor Jordan very old. Some of you do, maybe, but I don't.

You know, even when Paul talks about Timothy, to let no one despise you because of your youth. Timothy is probably in his forties when Paul said that. So there is the idea of the elder, the older person, but that's not always true here.

But we know that elder in this case refers to a specific position in the church. This is the pastoral position. So this is somebody who is leading the church, who's shepherding the church, who's over the church has a responsibility for the church, and those who rule well become worthy of double honor.

I'm not going to go into double honor. There's a lot of theories on what this means. Is this double pay, is this you honor them and kind of honor and honor them in pay.

There's a lot of thoughts on this, but I think 18 makes verse 18 will make it clear here. But it says, especially those who labor in word and doctrine, that's what the pastor is supposed to be doing. They're supposed to be laboring in the word and the doctrine, that's their primary purpose, is to be an equipper of the saints with the word.

And so if they're doing a good job of that, they're worthy of this double honor. Now, what does the double honoring include? Well, verse 18 makes it kind of clear for scripture says, and it gives two examples here, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. What does that have to do with a pastor? Is our pastor an ox? No, the ox is working.

The ox is doing the work for the farmer. Right. So while he's doing the work, he has a right to take from what he's working on as he's treading out the grain.

He has a right to eat of that, to keep going to do the work that he's supposed to be doing. But then a pastor. The pastor is working with the gospel, with the ministry of God's word.

He has a right to receive something back from that. That's part of what we should be doing. And then it gives another one.

The labor is worthy of his wages. How many of you have a job? Okay. How many of you go to work? And then when your paycheck comes, go, I don't really need that.

That's not what I'm here for. I'm just here for the fun of working. Anybody? Nobody? Wow.

I think of even, like, professional football players, and I think they get paid way too much. But you don't see them going, you know what? You don't have to pay me. I just enjoy the game of football.

It's just fun to be out here. No, even they get something out of what they're doing. It should be the same for those who minister word, especially for those who minister word, especially those who are doing a good job, that they're getting wages for the work that they're doing, and that they're supported.

And Paul here is talking about that. The church in Philippi, they gave to Paul to support his ministry. They helped support him so that he could minister the word of God.

And we're going to see in a second that that's not all that happened, but that's part of it, that when Paul was in need, the Philippian church said, we're going to give to Paul so he can continue to minister. So letter C here, Paul then refers to a specific instance. So in verse 816, he says, even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities.

So this happened when Paul was in Thessalonica that they sent aid. And I think we read two Corinthians eight one, four there, where it talks about that the Church of Macedonia gave to him. This is probably what it was referring to.

So they sent aid for Paul's need, the gift from the Philippians, and Paul's willingness to work men he did not need to take from the Thessalonians. That was part of it, that he wasn't there to necessarily earn on the gospel. And we'll talk about that in a second.

But because the Philippians gave and because of what he was doing to support himself, he was able to administer to the Thessalonians without requiring anything from them. So first Thessalonians 8929, it should be, heaven always says eight, nine. There is no first Thessalonians.

Eight, two, nine. Let's read that. Go ahead, Johnny.

For you, remember, brethren, our labor and toil, for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you who preach to you the gospel of God. So Paul also supplemented what he was given by working. Again, his goal was not to be a burden to the Thessalonians as he was preaching the word to them.

So there's a little bit of that, too, that, you know, if someone who's mentioning the gospel, they have the right to, to receive from those who they're ministering to, but they can also work and not be a burden. So Paul, we see that over and over again where Paul would go into the city, he would set up shop as a tent maker, and he would work to provide for himself while preaching the gospel. But here he's praising the Philippians that they gave to meet Paul's need.

Now, verse 17. Paul makes a point here, and this is where he gets maybe more into a little bit of teaching. Paul's focus is not on his gain.

One of the things I think you see in modern culture is the disdain for the televangelist. Right? You see these guys on tv, and I don't think a lot of them are even saved. Maybe some are, but there's always the thought if you send money, you'll receive a blessing from God type of thing.

And the idea people get is that these guys are just out for the money. They're just out to get stuff for themselves. And there may have been people that are saying, well, Paul, look at Paul.

He's trying to just earn money by spreading the gospel. And Paul's saying here, no, that's not the point. Again, he's saying, if I don't have anything, I'm content in the Lord.

I'm going to continue to do what God wants me to do. But here he says verse 17, not that I seek the gift, not that he's ministering to the Philippians so that they will give to him, but I seek the fruit that bounds to your account. He's focused on what's happening in the Philippians life, how they're growing, how they're becoming more Christ-like in their life.

That's his goal. He doesn't care if they're giving him stuff or not. His focus is not on himself.

His focus is on the church that he's ministering to. Now, again, he's thankful that they provided, and he's thankful that God moved them to do that. But that's not his focus.

That's not why he's in it. So Paul is not seeking financial gains. That's why he said, I do not seek the gift.

I'm not trying to get rich off this. I'm not trying to have an abundance of food and stuff and be full all the time. That's not my goal.

First Corinthians 915, we were in. First Corinthians eight, we were in one Corinthians nine before this is 13 and 14, talks about that. Those who minister the gospel should live by the gospel, right? So verse 15 is the next verse in that.

And see what Paul says after he says, hey, if we're ministering the gospel, we ought to earn. We ought to get something from that. Then he says this.

Lynn, go ahead. So here he says, the Lord commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. But I haven't used none of these things saying, I haven't gathered anything from you.

I haven't requested that you provide for me. I haven't requested getting paid from you because I don't want my boasting to be in vain. I'm focused on the gospel.

So Paul's goal, if his goal was to just earn money, if his goal was just a gift, he would have turned around and said, look, those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. So pay me now because I've ministered the gospel to you. In fact, he tells the Corinthians that, you know, you owe me because I brought the gospel to you, and a lot of you were saved because of my ministry.

So you really owe me your own lives by saying, I haven't sat here and said, I want this from you because my focus is not that. My focus is on the gospel, on preaching the word to you. And that's what he's trying to do.

So he's not seeking his own fighting actual gain. Paul seeks the fruit and the life of the Philippians church. So fruits can mean a lot of things in the Bible.

A lot of people, as soon as they sing fruit, they go to Ephesians six and go to the fruit of the spirit. Here in this passage, it says, the fruit that abounds to your account. So this seems to be the profit that probably abounds to their account.

This word abounds is not the same word as earlier. It's actually super abounds. This is like, if abounds is overflowing, this is like it's overflowing, getting all over the floors and then going out the door of your house.

I mean, this is just a lot. It's a super abounds. Let's look at two Corinthians 910.

This is a couple verses previous to these verses that we've been talking about. Go ahead, Olivia. We're going to talk a little bit in a few moments about God's provision for those who give.

But part of that, Paul is saying, you multiply the seeds you have sown, that the things that you've given. And remember, this passage is talking about the Corinthians giving to Paul's ministry. If you've given to me, may God multiply that, but also that you increase in the fruits of your righteousness.

So he wants them to be growing. I think when we see here that the fruit that bounds to your account, I think this is talking about their spiritual growth. Paul is seeking that the church grows in knowledge of the Lord, that they grow in faithfulness to serving God, that they grow in doing the things that God wants them to do.

This word account is interesting. It's the word Lagos. The word Lagas is usually word or message.

It can also mean matter, and in that sense, an account. And so it's just a very interesting word. It's used regularly like this, which I did not know until I studied this.

Lagas is a pretty normal word. And in fact, we have words like geograph, not geographical. Now I can't even think.

Never mind, I won't go there. My brain shuts down that sign anyway. So it's just an interesting word.

That's why I put that in there. But Paul is, his goal is for the benefit of the believer, not for the benefit of himself. And that's what you ought to see.

Even if you're supporting a missionary, even if you're supporting a pastor and meeting their needs, you want that person to be really seeking to do what God wants them to do and seeking to serve the people that they're supposed to serve, and that would be their focus. And that's kind of what Paul is doing here. And Paul is setting an example for us of that.

So Paul's focus is not on his gain. Now, number three, the Philippians gift met Paul's need. And you're saying, well, that looks very similar to the first point, right? Well, I think point one is that focused on the Philippians giving.

Now, this is focusing on Paul's need here, that the Philippians gift met Paul's need. So Paul says, indeed, I have all and abound, I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent to you, a sweet smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. So here we see that Paul's needs are fully met.

He uses the idea that I have all and I abound. So he's in this category as he talks about whether I'm a base, whether I'm bound, whether I'm a full, whether I'm empty. He's on the bound side right now.

He says the Philippians have given and he has more than enough. He has everything he needs because of the Philippians. He also goes on to say, I am full.

I wish my eleven year old would say that once in a while because he's always eating. We were talking about Nathan's. I don't know Nathan.

He's like a regular person now, Levi, like the other night, and I wasn't paying attention. Their bedtime is 830. It was like 845.

And I kind of looked up and was like, the clock was like, oh, it's 845 now. I look over, Levi has two sandwiches in his hand this morning, leaving the house. We were talking about something, about being full or something like that.

And, you know, oh, we were talking about the glass half full, half empty thing. And I said, I saw a meme once where it says the glass is always full. It's half full water, half full air, so it's always full.

And we were kind of joking around. I go, but Levi's like, never full. He goes, well, 98%.

I'm like, yeah, but you're never 100% full, are you? He's at that age. But Paul here is full. He has what he needs.

And then he mentions Epaphroditus here. Remember Epaphroditus? We saw him in chapter two. This is the only place he appears in the Bible is in Philippians.

Epaphroditus was probably one of the church members. Epaphroditus seems to be the guy who took what the church had gathered and gave to Paul and took it to Paul in Rome. Now, this doesn't sound like a big deal, but remember, back in these times, these guys weren't given personal time off, they weren't given vacation days.

So. And you didn't just take a flight from Greece to Rome and get there in a couple hours or whatever. You know, this was a big undertaking.

And this guy was willing to go to Rome and take the church's gift to Paul to minister to him while he was in prison. And Epaphroditus was probably also the guy that Paul sent a letter back through. And remember Epaphroditus, when he was in Rome, he had gotten very sick, came close to death, and the Philippians were concerned about him.

So I'm not going to go into whole detail about who, because we talked about that in chapter two, but that's just a reminder there. So Epaphroditus was a messenger, and Paul describes this gift as a sacrifice to God. It's interesting because when we say sacrifice, probably the first thing we think of is the Old Testament sacrifice, right? People sacrificing animals.

But Paul says that this gift is a sacrifice. It's an act of worship on the part of the Philippians. And they're giving to Paul, but they're really worshiping God and doing it.

And it just reminds us that, you know, we often talk about the worship service and we think, like, the singing or whatever, but everything we do in life is an act of worship. And the church here is worshiping God by giving to Paul. And in fact, Paul gives it three terms.

These are all kind of Old Testament terms, even, but they appear a little bit in the New Testament. First of all, he says it's a sweet smelling aroma. Let's look at Ephesians five two.

Go ahead, Lizbell. Believe it or not, this is the only other place in the New Testament sweet smelling aroma comes up, and it's talking about Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross, that it was a sweet smelling aroma to God. It was something that God saw and was very pleased by.

The other place where it shows up is the Philippians giving to Paul that same kind of sweet smelling aroma to God. So that's worshipful. That's something that honors God.

It's an acceptable sacrifice. He says, Romans twelve one is probably, when you think of New Testament words, the passages talk about sacrifices, probably one that maybe comes to your mind. Romans twelve one.

Who wants to read that for us? Nathan? Go ahead. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, fully acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. So this talks about just our whole lifestyle, our whole whatever, everything we do, our thoughts, our actions, our attitudes, that they are a sacrifice to God.

In fact, it says it's reasonable service. This is your reasonable worship is the word that's used there in the Greek. So again, they're sacrificed to give to Paul.

Their gift to Paul is in the same manner of worshiping God, of being a sacrifice to God. Then one more term he uses, that it's well pleasing to God. Let's look at a couple of passages here.

Two Corinthians five, nine. Who else would like to read? Ted? Go ahead. Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or advocate.

And this passage here talks about. This is the passage where it talks about that I believe to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The idea that if we're in the body, we're to be serving the God.

And so whether we make it our aim, whether present or absent, whether we're here or with God in heaven, that we want to be well pleasing to God, that we want to honor him. Hebrews 13 515 16. Go ahead, Lemuel.

Therefore, by him let us continually offer to sin sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But do not forget to do good, but to share. So here it talks about a number of things.

The first verse there, verse 15, talks about our speech, the things that we're saying, that we're honoring God with that, but it also says to do good. It also says to share. And with these things, all these things, God is well pleased.

And that's one of the most amazing things I think of, is that you and I, by the way we act, by the way we live, we can please the God of the universe. We can make him happy. We can make him satisfied with us.

That's an amazing thing. And it just comes from us doing the right thing. And here Paul is saying that the Philippians, in giving to him, have pleased God, that this is a sweet smelling aroma to God, that this is an acceptable sacrifice on their part, that they have made God happy by their care for Paul.

That's number three. The Philippians gift met Paul's needs. So finally, the Philippians needs would be met.

Remember, we read earlier, we read earlier that they gave out of their poverty, that they gave not only what they had, but above and beyond. For some of us, that's a concern sometimes, like we think, oh, I don't have a lot, I can't give a lot what's gonna happen. No, sorry, that's weird.

I hope so. But we just make sure me that was a little concerned about that people go, meat and then that Paul would have like meat, bacon. And he wouldn't really eat bacon, probably, anyway.

Philippians 419 and my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. So the Philippians needs would be met as they're giving and as they're serving God. Paul is saying, God's going to supply the things that you need.

So there's a certainty of this provision. My God shall, he will supply all your needs, the supply means to fill, fulfill, to make come true. He's going to give them the things they need.

We see over and over. I gave you a bunch of verses on proverbs. I like to go through these pretty quick here.

But they talk about that those who give, if they're generous in what they give, that God's going to be generous back to them. Proverbs 1124 and 25. Olivia, go ahead.

But at least poverty, the generous soul will be made rich and seasoned. So the first part I talk about, the one who scatters, the one who gives out will increase more, and that the one who withholds more than is right leads to poverty. Now, our human minds think the opposite.

We think if we hold onto our stuff, if we save, then we're going to have stuff later. And God is saying that's not how it works with him, that since he's over all things, he's sovereign, he's in control. He wants his people to give, he wants his people to share, he wants his people people to meet each other's needs.

And if you do that, God's going to make sure that you're taken care of. If you decide that you're going to hold on to things and you're going to keep things tight, and when you see needs, you're not going to do anything. The hearer says it leads to poverty.

Verse 25 says, the generous soul will be made rich. The person who gives will be made rich. Now, this isn't a guarantee.

You can't say, well, I'm going to give dollar 500 a week to the church and then God's going to make me a billionaire. That's not what he's saying. But the idea is that you can't outgive God.

If you're going to give to God's ministry, to help God's people to share with people in need. God's going to make sure that you have what you need. God's going to make sure that you're taken care of.

Proverbs 22 nine. Another reader. Go ahead, Deb.

He who has generous eyes will be blessed, for he gives up his brain. So the person with a generous eye, he's going to be blessed. And here it says specifically, if you give food to the poor, that's what he's talking about here.

That's what qualifies as being generous, is giving to people who have need. And God's going to bless you for that. Proverbs 28 27.

Who else would like to read? Jonathan, go ahead. He who gives the poor, he will not lack that. He who hides his eyes.

So again, if you give to the poor, if you give to those in need, God says you're not going to lack. Even if you don't have a lot to start with, God's going to take care of you. Now say, well, that's proverbs, that's old testament.

Let's look at two Corinthians nine, five, six, and this is again the same two Corinthians nine, passage. Matthew, go ahead. Before him that you had previously promised that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a judging obligation.

But this, I say, he who sows sparingly will also eat sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also eat bountifully. Now, Corinthian church had promised to support Paul and give him a gift, and he's saying, okay, you need to follow through on that, and you need to do it not because you're obligated, but because you want to. That's how God wants it.

God loves the church. Cheerful giver. But here he adds on, if you sow sparingly, if you're going to hold back, if you're going to keep it for yourself or whatever, then you're going to reap sparingly.

God's not going to bless you in that. But if you give, if you sow generously, then you're going to reap generously. God's going to bless you for what you do.

And he's telling this to the Corinthians church, New Testament here, that again, we can't outgive God. If we're giving to God's ministry, to God's purpose, God at the very least is going to take care of us and make sure we have the things we need. I don't think I put this verse in.

Oh, I put it in later. We'll talk about it in a little bit then. So I was thinking about what I was studying.

So that's good. Now, why is God going to supply your needs? It's because of the character of the one who provided it. It's because it's God, and it says that he's going to provide according to his riches.

God is rich. God has everything. We're talking about physical needs.

So if we look at proverbs 50 or proverbs psalm 50, there's no proverbs 50, by the way, either. Ted, go ahead. So when we're talking about them giving, does God have the means to provide for those who give? He certainly does.

God owns everything. Everything is the Lord's. It's all his.

We don't really have anything of ourselves. We're just stewards of what God has given us. And God can provide and will provide if we're serving him faithfully in doing what God wants us to do.

So according to his riches in glory. So I think he adds this in glory because he's not just talking about the physical needs of the church, although that's true. He's also talking about the spiritual needs that God is ready to bless the church spiritually for when they're doing what's right.

One of my favorite verses, Ephesians one three. Who would like to read that? Go ahead, Abigail. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus.

Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We have everything we need of God spiritually.

We have everything we need of God to do what he wants us to do. We have everything we need of God to grow and become the people that God wants us to be. He has blessed us in the that way.

So I think not only is he talking in this passage about physical things, because that's what the passage is about, but I think he's adding on in glory, you have everything you need, not only here on this earth, but everything you have for all eternity, because God is the provider. And he says, by Jesus Christ, it's because of what Christ has done for us, his sacrifice for us, and him bringing us into the family of God. So the Philippians needs would be met by God as they're serving him.

I got only two takeaways this morning. Morning. So we'll go through those here, and we'll be done a little bit early, it looks like.

So as we are faithful to God and are seeking to do his will. God promises to provide for our needs. We need not worry about how we will survive or how the basic things we need will be provided because God promises to take care of it.

And this is the verse I was thinking of. Matthew 631 through 34. Olivia, go ahead.

For after all these things, the gentiles for your heavenly father knows that you need these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own needs, sufficient for the day's trouble. So the first thing I see here is that I'm a gentile.

So I'm a little offended. No, I'm just kidding. And he's talking to Jews here.

So the gentiles mean the unsaved people. So that's how we're going to take it here. But he says, therefore, do not worry, saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? These are pretty basic and important things.

Right? I'm going to go home because now I'm getting a little hungry and I'm going to have a meal when I get home. Hopefully if we made anything, or if we're going to make anything. Abigail says, we're not having meals today.

We're fasting today. I'm not going to have a meal. So I'm going to even be even more hungry.

But, you know, I think about that. I have my giant 40 ounce water bottle because every once in a while I need something to drink, I get thirsty. These are very basic needs.

Without these things, you die. Right? God says the gentiles worry about these things. Well, of course they do, because they die without them.

That makes perfect sense. But he says, change your focus. Focus on the things of God.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Seek his plan. Seek who he is.

And God's going to take care of the rest of these things. You don't need to worry about how you're going to be provided for. You don't have to worry about what God's going to do to make sure that you have the basic necessities of life.

If you're living for him, if you're doing what he wants, if you're seeking what he wants you to do. God promises that I'm going to take care of that. He's going to take care of that for us, Lynn.

Yeah. Yeah. They were going every day.

They couldn't go to the fairway once a week and then take it home and put it in the freezer. Right. So they were buying their stuff every day.

So it was a daily need. It was a daily thing to go out and buy. And I'm not sure about the clothing would be daily, but you get the idea.

These are basic needs. Eric, do you think there's like a fine line between some of the physical needs? I think about like retirement or life insurance, those things for families, ourselves. Do you think there's like a fine line where we should not worry about that at all because we don't know how long we're going to live? We don't know.

What I'd say is that God wants us to act in wisdom also. We do have that opportunity as God provides for us. I have a retirement fund, I have Roth Ira, and then I have another Ira that I rolled some 401 ks into.

I don't think that's a bad idea. God has given us, especially as Americans, over and above what we need. And so I think it's wise, instead of going out and saying, I'm going to spend it on a new Lamborghini, I'm going to put some money away for later.

That's not a bad thing. When we get to the point where dependent on it. Remember the guy, the story about the guy who had this big crop and he said, I'm going to say to myself, self, let me build some barns and put the stuff away and then I can sit back and take it easy.

And God says, you fool, your life is going to be gone tonight. You're coming to meet your maker at this point. And when we trust in those things, when we put our faith in, like, I'm all set because I got my retirement account set.

Well, no, God's in control of those things and we understand that. I think God wants us to be wise in that. So I don't think it's bad to have life insurance.

It's bad to have retirement. That's okay things as long as you have the means to do that and God's provided. So does that make sense? Right? And I think Matthew 631 34 talks about the things we eat, the things we drink, the things we wear.

Those are very basic needs. Now, you would argue in our society and stuff, maybe a car is close to a need because you can't really do anything. You can't unless you're growing your own food.

You need a car, probably to get to the grocery store and buy food. Unless you're able to work from home all the time. You need a car to get to work.

So you might say, well, that's kind of a basic need. As Ted said, the buses are there, there's other ways to do it. And there's a difference between saying I really need a brand new Hummer, as opposed to I need just a reliable car that runs and give me the work that I can spend a couple thousand dollars on, and it's like I was tomorrow itself.

We have enough things to worry about, but even, like, to deal, maybe even with sin. Tip for today, don't worry about everything. Yeah, I was just going to touch on that, too, about not worrying about tomorrow.

The whole idea of not worrying, and we talked about this in Philippians, you know, instead of worrying, what do you do? You pray about it, right? You bring it before God. You put it in his hands, let him deal with it. It says, do not be anxious for anything but everything.

In prayer and supplication, make your request to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your mind, our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So when we are worried, that ought to direct our focus back to God and put our focus back where it needs to be. And we do that by praying to God and giving it to him.

So, yeah, good thoughts. So we need to be faithfully seeking, as we're faithfully seeking to do God's will. God promises to provide those needs.

Number two, here we are responsible to provide for each other out of the blessings God has given us. If there is a need, God has given us our stuff, and I use stuff in quotes to meet that need. This is especially true of those who work at preaching and teaching God's word and those who share in the gospel.

So supporting missionaries, I think, is an excellent thing to do. And we do have a couple missionaries we support at the church. And I hope you're giving to help do that.

Supporting our pastor is an excellent thing to do because he's ministering the word to us. He's sharing that gospel ministry. And so I hope you're giving to do that.

If you have means and you can help others, that's great. I mean, even the physical help. A number of men went and helped move Jenny's coworker on Friday.

That's a giving. It's not a monetary giving, but it's a giving of time. It's a giving of energy.

We ought to be seeking to meet each other's needs. I remember when sue passed away and Bethany was in the hospital and stuff. We had a lot of needs.

It was hard for me sometimes they even function most days. And the church really stepped up and helped out and gave not only some resources, but their time, their energy, their care for us. And that's the way the church should work.

And we need to get better at that. I need to get better at that. I don't always do that perfectly.

And so that's something that I need to learn myself. So any thoughts, questions? I know you guys have been very engaged in the study already today, but anything else anybody wants to share? Okay, let's go ahead and close in prayer. Matt, will you close us in prayer?