Northside Church - Sydney
God is Able Week 2: …Able to Supply
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. It's clear from the fourth chapter of Philippians that on more than one occasion Paul was willing to do what a lot of preachers find very hard to do. That is to ask for money. It's very clear from the reading. He'd done this with the Philippians and with other churches. Look there's a lot of sensitivity among the people of God when it comes to the issue of money and the reasons are many and they're very good reasons. The fact is that this topic has been abused by a lot of ministers, a lot of preachers over the years and so people are very sensitive about it and people have been coerced and they feel like they've been manipulated to do something they didn't really want to do. I remember years ago I was at a rally for a certain missionary cause and the preacher came to the point where he was introduced to the offering and I'll never forget this. He said we're going to take up the offering and he was fairly defiant and arrogant and he said and tell you what, that's how we're going to do it. He pulled out the equivalent in those days to a $50 note and the message was fairly clear. If you can't do that then, I'm sorry, it didn't leave a lot of room for the Holy Spirit to sort of move people to give according to their ability, didn't leave a lot of room for people to give cheerfully because half are gripping and she's got no pressure, gee. I was at an African American church in Indianapolis, Indiana on one occasion and to my knowledge they still do the offering like this. All the designated tithers, the people who've been able to prove to the administration that they are giving at least 10% of their offering or more, they are invited when the offering comes, they are invited to stand and bring their offerings to the front. I've seen it twice. And the message is clear, that's the group you ought to be in. That's the group the pastor really likes, you know, they're the ones who are really on board. It was pretty full on pressure and we as guests would sort of sit down, can't go, sorry. Of course the most flagrant example of abuse of offerings on the people of God would have to be back in 1987 when the renowned tele evangelist and faith healer, Oral Roberts, declared to his international viewing audience that God had given him a message, that his life would be taken if $8 million was not raised for his new hospital. And people not surprisingly interpreted that as a possible threat of his own suicide. And that was heightened when he, for a period during that campaign, bunkered himself in the top floor of the administration block of his ministry and refused to reappear until the money was provided, it was bizarre. And they raised $9 million through that campaign. Well, and you're just sort of left thinking, wow, what was that all about? Who remembers that with Oral Roberts, come on, all you forties and over, yeah, oh, stacks of you, yeah, it was huge, it was big, Google it, it's there, must be true. Well you know, there's no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Paul had resorted to extreme tactics when asking the Philippian Church for financial assistance. One thing we do know though, they were the only church in that region to step up to the plate and give help to Paul when he needed it, did you, did you notice verse 15 of the reading, here it is, you Philippians know very well that when I left Macedonia in the early days of preaching their good news, you were the only church to help me. You were the only ones who shared my prophet and losses. Now friends, there are some very important principles for Christian giving in this little passage that we're looking at today and we do well to heed them. In the Christian life, we talk about God provides for our needs. We say things like, you know, God came through with the money. God made it all possible and that's fine and it's true. But look, in a very practical sense, in the first instance here in Philippians, Paul's financial needs were supplied by the generous Christians of the Philippian Church. That's how it happened. I mean, the shackles didn't drop miraculously from the sky. Here was a situation where the church of Philippi literally passed around the hat, passed around the offering plate, whatever, and they dug deep and Paul was the beneficiary. And you said to me, "Well, Graham, it's a pretty secular explanation of this whole thing. You know, what was God's part? Where did God show up?" Well, very clearly, God's participation in the process lay in what He had done in the hearts and minds of those faithful believers in Philippi. That was His part and that probably took place over a considerable period of time the way He had convinced them through the power of the Holy Spirit to have a generous attitude. The way they'd been helped to develop a broad kingdom perspective, this had been the work of the Holy Spirit over a long period of time since the church had become established. These things had clearly been part of their spiritual formation, part of their spiritual development. This was a congregation Paul dearly loved. As we look closely at the text, it's easy to identify some of the characteristics of their giving, some of the characteristics these people exhibited. And that the sort of characteristics we should all be aiming for in our giving to the Lord's work, these lead us into a deeper understanding of what effective sacrificial stewardship is all about. Look at this. We find, first of all, their giving was regular. We read in verse 16, "More than once when I needed help, you sent it to me." It was a willingness to give and to keep on giving out of their love and respect for Paul more importantly out of their desire to see the kingdom flourish. One of the best bits of feedback that I got last Sunday was when one of our senior well established and well respected members said to me, "You know Graham, I've never thought of giving electronically." But I can see how that's going to enhance the regularity of my giving and I'm going to be giving electronically from now on. It was great to think that somebody would take that message away from last Sunday. Here's something else. Their giving was generous. Verse 18, Paul says, "It has been more than enough." You're offering, says Paul, "Have been more than enough for me to do the work of God. I'm operating not out of a situation of weakness and deprivation, but out of a position of strength and abundance." Isn't that how we want to see the work of God, out of a position of strength and abundance? So we're really able to push through challenges and achieve great things for him. Finally they're giving one God's approval. Verse 18, Paul describes the gifts of the Philippian Christians as, "A sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to him," verse 18. Now friends, let's be clear. God's love for us is not conditional on the size of our offering, no way. But the Bible does teach that these components certainly enhance his pleasure and pride in us. 2 Corinthians 9 and 7, you're familiar with it. The Lord loves a cheerful giver, doesn't say he doesn't like a begrudging giver, but it does highlight that he loves a cheerful giver. Somebody who's really giving out of the joy of their heart, what about Jesus when he saw them presenting their gifts in the temple, all of these people? And he watched them all, and who was the one he dropped on to? And made a comment, which is enshrined in Holy Scripture and which is a tribute to that lady's generosity for all time, it was the widow who he said gave everything. That really touched the heart of Jesus, and it caused the writers to record that moment of history in the Scriptures. Friends, this is where we need to be. This is where we need to be in our giving, those last three points. Many of you are there. Many of us are still yet to aspire to that sort of giving, regular, generous, one that's pleasing to God. You know, when we talk about offerings, when we talk about giving, when we talk about stewardship, it must never be out of guilt and obligation and compulsion. At the bottom line, it's about our relationship. That's where it starts and ends. It's about our relationship with God. It's about the health of our spiritual walk with Him. And it's verse 19 of this fourth chapter, which I believe provides the clue. In response to their generosity, they've been very generous to Paul, he makes a promise. Now, look, on the surface of it, this promise looks like the sort of promise you'd expect from one of those health wealth prosperity preachers. I've decided to quote it here in the new international version because it kind of brings it out even more clearly. Look at this. He says, "My God will meet all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus." Now, look, that could be interpreted like this. It could be like, hey, you've been so generous with your money. Now, let me tell you something. God's going to give you back all that money and a whole lot more. He's going to give it back to you with bonuses. It could be interpreted that way. I was at a church many years ago where the minister introduced the offering and he said, "You cannot out give God." He said, "The more you give to God, the more you will get back." Then he made the extraordinary comment and I had to check with Bev to make sure I hadn't misheard it. She confirms this actually happened. He said, "If you want to see how this works, take a look around the staff car park." I was astounded and I took a look around the staff car park and there were BMWs and there were top-end cars of all makes and models. He says, "That's how it works." Now, friends like, we know from the stark reality of life that sort of theological interpretation can't possibly be true because for a start, a huge percentage of the world's Christians live in developing third world nations and they're absolutely poverty-stricken, but they love Jesus. Now, if God's riches was a reference to money and material wealth, which ultimately he owns everything, that would mean that God would have set everybody up with everything they need materially and there'd be no more poverty in the world. He would have sold all that so that just doesn't follow logically, apart from anything else. That is a logical conclusion if you take that line. Now, God's riches are not so much a reference to what he has. It's more a reference to who he is. That's it. That's the interpretation of God's riches and look, it's a biblical principle and we'll look at this a few weeks ago. Our value and our significance as people is not tied up in what we have, it's tied up in who we are. Paul referred to his past wealth and prestige as mere garbage. He refers to it that way in the book of Philippians. And of course, as garbage compared to knowing Christ, and then of course Jesus left the splendor of his heavenly realm in order to come and be a servant, in order to come and be the savior of the world. Because according to his riches is a reference to the spiritual wealth to be found in the person of God. And to my mind, an accurate, a more accurate interpretation of verse 19 is as follows. Our most vital spiritual needs are met by God through Jesus out of the richness of his character and nature. Now, notice I say spiritual needs because like they are our most vital needs. When we're right with God, we can cope with virtually any circumstance. Our circumstantial needs are our greatest need. We've got people in this church who prove every week you can cope with the most extraordinary circumstances. If you're right with God, you can cope with the most adverse conditions. Just remember, it's in this very chapter of Philippians, this fourth chapter that Paul makes one of the most remarkable and memorable faith assertions. When in the 12th and 13th verse he says, "I know what it is to be in need, what it is to have more than enough. I have the strength to face all conditions by the power Christ gives me." So, what are these spiritual needs? Let me drop onto a few of them. We're going to be beaten by time, but let me drop onto a few of them. First one is this, "Our need to be more like him." You go, "Gulp, Graham, whoa, wait a minute, to be more like God, hang on." I know, it's a big one, but you know, Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 3, 18. He talks about us reflecting the glory of the Lord. He talks about the Spirit, the Holy Spirit transforming us into Christ's likeness. It's in the Word. That's the ultimate aim of the disciple. To be more like Jesus Christ. That's the ultimate aim. Now, that's to be reflected in how we live, how we think, how we respond to human need. You know, the two most obvious and achievable ways that we can attain Christ's likeness are in forgiveness. You know, what's the old saying, "The earth is human to forgive his divine." God forgives. We can emulate that. And through our generosity, God is a generous God. He is an incredibly generous God. Now, most of us would struggle with omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, although I was certain my mother had that gift when I was a teenager, just always rocked up at the time when I just didn't really want her to be there. But most of us would struggle with those divine qualities, but we can. We can reflect the image of Jesus Christ through our forgiveness and through our generosity. So, that's a big part of being more like Him, our spiritual needs. Here's another spiritual need, our need to be more reliant on Him. When we take a leap of faith in our giving, as the Philippians did, it automatically strengthens our trust and reliance on Him because all the usual sources of security like money and possessions and material wealth, like they put on the back burner, they are given a new classification. They're temporal, they're transient, they are insignificant by comparison to our dependence on God. We put them to one side. Here's another spiritual need, our need to invest in eternity. Now, friends, you see, essential to God's nature is His eternal perspective on life. He just doesn't think of the here and now. He's thinking future, He's preparing us an eternity. He views people in terms of their eternal destination. Now, we draw on that aspect of the divine. When we see our giving as an investment in eternity, our financial and material resources are to be used, not just for the here and now, but for eternity. And investments in the ministry and mission of a church like Northside are investments in eternity. We're dealing with eternal issues here. We're dealing with the hearts and souls of people. We're dealing with their eternal destination at the bottom line. That's what it's all about as we seek to bring people under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Are you just about the here and now, or are you allowing God to develop an eternal perspective? Where what we have here and now is meant to be invested in such a way as to bring about outcomes that will have eternal significance. And there's a final spiritual need that I've only got time to drop on to today. And it's met out of the richness of God's character and his nature. And it's our need to be blessed by Him. Friends, we all have that need. We all have a need to be blessed by Almighty God. But you know what? He can't put anything into a closed fist. Listen to what Jesus says in this remarkable passage in Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 6 verse 38. Listen to this. The words of our Lord give to others and God will give to you. Indeed, you will receive a full measure, a generous helping poured into your hands, all that you can hold, the measure you use for others is the one that God will use for you, all that you can hold. That's the word of our Lord. Not necessarily money, not necessarily this world's goods, but an abundant supply of the richness of His grace and love and mercy. He can't put anything into a closed fist, but He can put His abundance into hands that are open and free and giving. Now, friends, during these sort of times in church life, we all respond differently. And it's not our nature here at Northside to be pressuring people and pushing people. It's just not our nature. We have too much respect for your integrity to do that, to some of the reasons I mentioned at the outset. You can see through those sort of, you know, faulty theological arguments. What we do is simply say, thank you in anticipation. That's my message this morning as a senior pastor. Thank you in anticipation for your belief in this ministry team, for your belief in this church and what it's seeking to do. Ultimately, thank you in anticipation for your belief in the God who is able, able to supply our needs. How does he supply our needs? How did he do it with the Philippians? Dropping out of the sky? No. Pushing the hat around. Let's get part of this, you know. Paul's got a need. We need to give. Check it out in Philippians 4 this week. It's all there. Let's be impressed, shall we?