Title: The key that unlocks the blessings
Text: Phil 4:18-20

The focal verse this morning is verse 19, "And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (NAS) I have struggled all week on this passage. I always struggle but this time more than usual to organize my thoughts. If I had a utility program for my mind I would probably have run defrag on my mind to get my thoughts in order.

There are three key words that I am going to use to provide some insight, I hope into Paul's words. They are Sustenance, Sufficiency and Sovereignty. Sustenance is providing the things needed for life. God is able to provide for your needs through Jesus Christ.

In verse 18 Paul wrote, "But I have received everything in full, and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God." (NAS)

In the Old Testament we see God sustaining the Israelites with heavenly manna and quails and water from a rock (Ex 16:31; Nu 11:31,32, 20:11; Ex 17:6; Ps 105:40-41) We see ravens bringing food to Elijah and flour and oil that were not used up to provide for him. (1 Ki 17:4,6)

In the New Testament we find God using the generosity of believers in the book of Acts to provide for one another and he used this means to sustain Paul. Giving is the key to unlocking the blessings of God and Paul explains that in this passage.

As we saw last week Paul had learned how to get by on a little or a lot, he was content with whatever God provided. He makes the point here that his thankfulness is not simply for the gift they have provided. He doesn't mention what the gift included. It may have included money, food, and/ or clothing. We know that Epaphroditus was part of the gift, they sent him to minister to Paul. He used a market term to say to them he had received everything in full. But what he received is not the important thing about the gift. That they gave the gift is most important.

In verse 17 he wrote, "Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account." (NAS) or as other translations say, "the fruit that abounds to your account." (NKJV)

Paul also wrote in 2 Cor 9:6-7 " Now this {I say,} he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.7 Let each one {do} just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver." (NAS)

Among the profit or fruit that abounds to the giver is a good conscience, enriched fellowship with other believers, a broadened outlook into the needs and interests of the church, and a greater sense of possession or inclusion in the ministry of the church. But we should always understand that getting is not the motivation for giving. Paul clarifies that in verse 18 the gifts they sent were a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. (NAS)

Giving is worship, sometimes we fail to see and understand that. But that's what Paul said here it is a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. In Matt 22:37, Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (NAS) Giving for the proper reason is one of the highest forms of worshiping God, because it is done out of love.

Through your giving God sustains the ministry of this church and God sustains me as well. Each month when we have business meeting we hand out a financial report, there is a lot of information on it about where the money you give goes. It's very informative but when you stop and think do you realize it is least informative about where your money goes and what it does. It tells about what we spent for advertising in the yellow pages and what we paid the phone co and the gas company and things like that, but it doesn't really tell how God has used what you have given.

We give a portion to the City Mission, most of us never see what goes on at the City Mission they send us a report once a month that tells how many people have stayed in the shelter and how many families and children have found temporary shelter and how many have been feed a descent meal and you're a part of it.

Matt 25:35-40  35 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me {something} to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink?  38 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  39 'And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'  40 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, {even} the least {of them,} you did it to Me.' (NAS)

Since the first moment I became a Christian I have been the recipient of the blessings of God through the giving of others. God's people put food on our table, they repaired our cars, they helped pay for my college education, they helped buy my books. And even before you knew me you were helping me get a seminary education.

The six Southern Baptist Seminaries have over 12,000 students, through your giving to the cooperative program you have an investment in each of those lives. Seminary education through one of our seminaries is probably the least expensive in all the world because of the faithful support of the people in local churches. And while tuition is reduced for Southern Baptist students your giving assists students from all over the world and from many other denominations as well.

Also you invest in the lives of missionaries all over the world. Each Sunday Nikki talks about a missionary in some part of the world you have an investment in their lives. Approximately 9,000 missionaries in the United States and around the world educated and on the field ministering in Jesus name because of your giving and that includes Wade and Barbara Akin who minister in Belo Horizonte and the area around Sete Lagoas, Eddie Hallock former pastor at Southview and his wife Brenda who minister in Rio, and Bob and Jane Grayson who were also at Southview who are ministering in the Philippines. Thousand upon thousands of people being ministered to, churches being established, people coming to know Christ and people all over the world being sustained by God because you worship Him through your giving.

Not only that, but in our own state and our own association your giving supports our Director of Missions, our church starter strategist, we help provide for Jim and Helen in the ministry at Tri-Community and we have a part in the ministry in the inner city of Omaha and the Native American ministry of Ron and Alpha Goombi.  God providing through what you place in the offering plate on Sunday morning.

How do we understand what these needs are and how God supplies? There is obviously a distinction between our wants and our needs. We want lots of things we don't need, and we need lots of things we don't want.

There is also a distinction between physical needs and spiritual needs. When we look at how God had supplied fully the things Paul needed we must remember that Paul had experienced need and distress and all kinds of hardships. Yet there was never any doubt that in all of that God adequately and fully met his needs. When Paul prayed about what he described as his thorn in the flesh in 2 Cor 12:8-9, he wrote, ". . .I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." (NAS)

Whatever our need, physically or spiritually, His grace in and through Christ Jesus is sufficient - sufficient for life and for eternity. That's what Paul had learned, that's what he shared having our needs met is not about abundance or lack. He learned that God's resources are limitless and believers are the channel through which His limitless resources flow. God has honored us by allowing us the opportunity to be a part of His redemptive purpose in this world. It is not a task, it is not a burden, it is a privilege and a blessing to be a small part of His kingdom work.

The blessings that accumulate to our account because of our faithfulness in giving to God a portion of that which God has given to us, not only of our finances, but our time and our talent and our availability so far out value our meager sacrifice that there is no comparison. It's like comparing the sun and the moon where even the beautiful light given off by the moon at night is only a reflection of the sun. So too even our giving is but a small reflection of the Son in our lives.

And that brings me to the last word Sovereignty, and I haven't even mentioned tithing. Paul closes this section with a doxology to God. God alone is worthy of honor and glory. Paul praised the Philippines for their faithfulness, for their gifts, for their concern, but the honor was God's. The thought of the Lord's sustenance and sufficiency no doubt prompted Paul to consider the ultimate purpose of life: to bring honor and glory to God. By whatever means, in every age, through all creation may God be glorified through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all creation.

Jesus is indeed Lord of all. Will you let Him be Lord of your all, your thoughts, your actions, your service, your possessions and most of all your heart.

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