Sunday, May 3, 2009: I Can Do All Things

I Can Do All Things
Philippians 4: 13

I. Introduction

There are many things in life that children do better than adults. Children have better imaginations than adults. (When was the last time you held up two dolls and had a conversation with yourself?) Children take better vacations than adults. (When was the last time you stopped everything you were doing to stare at the clouds and create animals and faces out of the shapes? Or lie down in the grass and watch a roly-poly?) Children are MUCH better than adults at memorizing Scripture. (When was the last time your Sunday School teacher asked you to recite the verse of the week at the beginning of class?)

We can make all the excuses we want, but there is no excuse for us as Christians to neglect the practice of memorizing Scripture. Psalm 119: 11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” This means that the Scriptures we have committed to memory (to heart) are one of the defenses God has provided to help us when we face temptation.

Author Donald Whitney says in his book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Nav Press, 1991) that memorized Scripture is life arrows in an archer’s quiver. When danger approaches, the archer reaches into his quiver to pull out an arrow. When temptation approaches, Christians reach into our quiver to pull out a Scripture… Now, imagine reaching into your quiver and finding Genesis 1: 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Or, what about John 11: 35, “Jesus wept?” Or even John 3: 16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

These are great verses to commit to memory and very important to our faith. However, these verses might not be your best source of strength to fight off temptation! (That’s enough guilt for today. Now, go home and start hiding God’s word in your heart, so you can be ready to face temptation.)

One of the verses we learned as children is Philippians 4: 13. It can be a source of strength for us when facing temptation.

Read Philippians 4: 13

I learned a very important lesson about Philippians 4: 13 when I was a college student working as a counselor and lifeguard at a Christian camp in Mississippi—Central Hills Baptist Retreat.

This camp was primarily a boys’ camp. For 10 weeks of the summer we had around 200 boys per week. But for 2 weeks we had 200 girls. During the weeks of the boys’ camps, I worked as a counselor leading a group of 10 – 12 boys through a week of activities. But during the girls’ camps, I worked either at the lake as a canoe instructor or at the pool as a lifeguard.

Central Hills required that every activity have a Christian emphasis and should always end with a spiritual application. This was not hard as a canoe instructor, because every camper came through our activity only one time every week. That meant we could give the same spiritual application every hour, every day, and no one would hear the same thing twice…This paddle is like Jesus…You can’t make it in the water without a paddle, and you can’t make it in life without Jesus.

But it was much more difficult at the pool. Every camper came to the pool every day. That meant that we had to come up with five different spiritual applications and use one per day.

Well, it just so happened that my first year as a lifeguard, I had spent a lot of time in the pool. And over that time, I had decided that I would learn how to do a one-and-a-half…That is a dive where the diver jumps off the diving board, does a complete flip in the air, then does another half flip and enters the water head first. I worked all summer on that one-and-a-half. I started out doing a flip. Then a flip and a belly flop. Until finally I perfected my one-and-a-half. And I must admit that back in my thinner and more athletic days it was a PERFECT one-and-a-half.

During the week of girls’ camp, I practiced my one-and-a-half in between the swimming groups.

In one of our last groups of the day, there was a little girl who was scared to death of jumping off the diving board. She finally got up enough courage to climb up on the board and loooooook over the edge into the water. But she would not jump.

She thought it would be easier if she took a running go before she jumped into the water. So she backed up to the back of the diving board and raaaaaan up the the very end and STOPPED! She baaaaaacked up…And raaaaaan to the end of the board and STOPPED!

Finally it was time for the group to end their swim period, so we blew the whistle and got everybody out of the water. But that one little girl was still on the diving board. So I got on the board with her to "HELP" her while everybody else sat on the edge and watched. And the same thing happened. She baaaaaacked up…And raaaaaan to the end of the board and STOPPED…Grabbed her nose and JUMPED. Everybody cheered!

When she finally got to the side of the pool, I stayed on the diving board with everyone’s attention. And I must admit, I used to really like having the attention of little girls. I started by reminding everyone about how she had been scared of jumping. I raaaaaaan to the end of the board and STOPPED! I baaaaacked up and raaaaaan to the end of the board and STOPPED!

Then, I told how she finally got over her fears and jumped into the water.

Then, I quoted Philippians 4: 13… I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Then…Can you guess what I did next? I ran to the end of the diving board JUMPED…BOUNCED…and did my "perfect" one-and-a-half…I knew that all the little girls were thoroughly impressed…

I swam to the side of the pool. As I was coming up to the ladder to climb out of the pool, I heard a little girl say… Now, do it off the high dive!

I had never done it off the high dive.

Can you guess what I did next? I cliiiiiimbed up to the top of the high dive. I took a deeeeeeeep breath. I raaaaaaaaan to the end of the diving board. And I STOPPED! I couldn’t do it. I was too scared to try it for the first time with all those girls watching. I couldn’t do it…AND…I was caught. I could not practice what I had just preached… I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

But is that really what Paul meant in Philippians 4: 13? Did Paul mean that no matter what you want to do in life, if you will just pray about it, then Christ will give you the strength that you need to do whatever you want to do?

The best way to determine the meaning of any biblical text is to read it in its proper context. In terms of context, there are two important things we need to consider: The Background and The Foreground.

The background of a passage of Scripture is what stands behind the text as we look at it. The foreground is what stands in between us and the text. Just like in a photograph (family on the beach). There is the subject of the photograph (the family)…There is stuff behind the subject that shows up in the photo (ocean)…There is stuff in front of the subject that stands in between us and the subject (sand).

II. Background (Read Philippians 4: 10 – 13)

Remember that Paul is in prison as he writes this letter to the church at Philippi…Even though he is in prison, Paul can find reasons to rejoice…

He rejoiced that the spread of the Gospel does not depend on him…Even though one of the greatest missionaries who ever lived is in prison, the Gospel continued to spread and people continued to believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

He rejoiced in the faithfulness of the Philippian Christians…This is one of the reasons why the Gospel continued to spread…Even though Paul gave a few words of instruction about church problems and conflict in this book, there is very little…The church was faithful to its task, mission, purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission.

He rejoiced that the Philippian church had sent him some money to help in his Gospel ministry…
And Paul rejoiced in his Contentment…This is an important word for understanding what Paul is saying in this passage.

It is reminiscent of the philosophical teachings of the Stoics. Stoicism was a philosophy that was very popular in Paul’s day and had infiltrated the Philippian church. Stoic philosophers taught that salvation was something that was possible for any man, woman or child to accomplish for himself or herself.

In fact, they believed that God had implanted a little piece of himself in every person. And all you had to do to be saved is to allow that piece of God to shine through in your life. They believed that piece of God was your REASON or your LOGIC.

Instead of being controlled by your emotions or your feelings, salvation is achieved by suppressing emotions and living according to your REASON or LOGIC.

Contentment = that Stoic state of salvation…Not happy…Not sad…Not angry …Not afraid…Just Neutral, or content…


III. Foreground (Read Philippians 4: 14 – 20)

There is a common belief among New Testament scholars that Philippians 4: 10 – 20 might be a second letter to the Philippians (i.e. 1 & 2 Corinthians), because it doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of what Paul said. And this theory seems to make a little sense…Listen to how the book seems to come to a conclusion in Philippians 4: 9… Read Philippians 4: 9…

This doesn’t really matter, because it doesn’t change the fact that we believe that the Holy Spirit inspired these words and they are authoritative for our lives…But it might affect how we interpret these words…

What if this is a second letter to the Philippians? What if chapters 1 – 4: 9 represent a LETTER and chapter 4: 10 – 20 represent a short note?

Well, that makes sense to me, because 4: 10 – 20 reads just like a Thank You Note! I know you have all written and received Thank You Notes, because we live in Texas…And people in Texas are supposed to write Thank You Notes.

Paul is saying Thank You to the Philippians for their monetary gift…But this is an unusual Thank You Note, because of two things that Paul said…

1) I really didn’t need or expect the money…
2) You cannot afford to give me so much money…

Paul didn’t need the money, because he was Content. He had learned how to be happy and joyful and thankful no matter what his circumstances looked like.

The Philippians could not afford to give because they were being severely persecuted…They were impoverished and unemployed because of their faith… Yet, they gave out of love…


IV. Ancient Prayer

I recently came across an ancient prayer written by that wonderful poet and writer of prayers named Anonymous…

Give me neither Poverty nor Riches.
Feed me with the food that is needful to me.
Lest I be full and deny Thee and say, Who is the Lord?
Or lest I be poor and steal.
And use profanely the name of the Lord.


V. Conclusion

As I read Philippians 4: 13 in context, I think it teaches us that we have three choices of how our lives will end up…

1) Frustration…Failing to achieve what we so earnestly desire…
2) Disillusion…Achieving what we desire and realizing that it will not satisfy…
3) Contentment…Achieving what we desire and being satisfied…

Paul teaches us that there is only one way to be Content.

Desiring Christ…Having Christ…Finding satisfaction in Christ…No matter what the circumstances of our lives…

No matter what the circumstances of life… I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…