Can I Trust God To Meet My Needs?

Title: “Can I Trust God to Meet My Needs?” Script: Phil. 2:4; 4:6,19.

Type: Topical message Where: GNBC 11-5-17

Title: “Can I Trust God to Meet My Needs?” Script: Phil. 2:4; 4:6,19.

Type: Topical message (Need Slide) Where: GNBC 11-5-17/RW 5-10-21

Intro: Often today I hear Christian people say: “I need to have my needs met.” This is often an excuse to abandon marriages or other significant relationships, leave churches, deal less than honorably with employers or employees, break contracts. (Chapter and verse please!) I would like to challenge you to show me all of the passages in the Bible that speak about our responsibility to meet our own needs as opposed to our duty to be used to meet the needs of others. (Show slide.) This issue of thinking we need to have our needs met is secular, not sacred, in its orientation. However, the mindset has completely infected the Church corporately as individual Christians have bought into this lie. Ultimately, this is a selfish mindset that seeks to self fulfillment instead of trusting in God. The psalmist wrote, "The words of the Lord are flawless, life silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times." You can count on God to do as He says because the One who created the heavens and earth and who established the laws that govern the universe actually owns everything and is far more capable of providing for your needs than you could ever imagine. The writer of Proverbs says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart...In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." I encourage you to make our Lord and His promises the foundation of your financial security.

Prop: Exam.3 verses in Phil. we’ll better understand how to Trust God to meet our Needs.

BG: 1. Spend much of our lives on our needs. Pursuing, attempting, etc.

2. All three passages come from Philippians. During 2nd Miss Journey Paul goes to Macedonia and plants first church on European soil at Phillipi.

3. This has been a very hard week for several in our church. Need to consider how reach out.

Prop: Exam.3 versed in Phil. we’ll better understand how to Trust God to meet our Needs.

I. 1st: We Need a Biblically Balanced View When Life Tells You to Meet Your Own Needs. (Phil 2:4)

“Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

A. There is a place for the Christian to attempt to meet his or her needs.

1. Christians, like all individuals have needs in life.

a. Illust: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. 1943 paper – Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, esteem, Self Actualization. It is a normal human response to want to have food and shelter. To live in a safe environment, to love and be loved, to have a sense of belonging in life, to feel respected, to realize his or her potential. Christians are not immune from having these needs that their secular counterparts also have. However, the way we are to go about realizing those needs should be radically different in some ways from our non-Christian counterparts.

b. James 4:1 tells us: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members” Every Christian faces a daily struggle. There are two forces operating within us seeking to control our lives. Our old nature says: “Please yourself!” Whereas our new nature says:”Please me!” How we go about the process of pleasing those natures can either be a sin or the process of sanctification in the life of the believer.

2. Purposely combat the natural desire to be selfish.

a. Please focus on one key word in this passage. Now, actually, in the original language, the word does not appear. However, this word is definitely implied in the passage. What is the word? “Merely”. “Do not merely look out for your own interests…” As Christians, we all need to consider how my actions will affect others. ILlust: I heard Chuck Swindoll say that he carries a list in his wallet of everyone who would be affected if he acted immorally and was defrocked.. Now in his 80’s and still a successful pastor, author, educator, in part, because he has always made sure to consider how his attempts to meet his own needs could negatively affect others. Mt. 23:11 ““The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves, will be exalted.” Christianity is not about exalting self and own needs over the needs of others.

b. Selfishness is a word that we are all too familiar with but I wonder how often we stop to think about what it actually means! ( “I need to have MY needs met.) Self–ish-ness … it’s about our tendency to put ourselves, our needs, our plans, our reputations before other people. Problem is, we notice when other people are being selfish to us, we notice when they put themselves and their own interests before ours but we rarely notice when the shoe is on the other foot. We rarely notice when it’s us who are being selfish. In fact, for most of my life, I never once thought of myself as being selfish when the reality was that ‘self’ was all I was interested in. How about you? How often do you think of yourself being selfish as opposed to other people being selfish towards you? That’s why selfishness is such an insidious sin. It rears its ugly head all too often without us ever really noticing that we are the ones being selfish. And this putting of self above and before other people, it takes so many different forms. Whenever my interests are more important to me than your interests, the easiest thing in the world is to put mine before yours and that … that’s what we call selfishness!