We have been studying this letter written by the Apostle Paul to the congregation at Philippi. We find ourselves in the last chapter and, in the passage under consideration, we finally learn what led Paul to write this letter to begin with.
The Philippian brethren learned of Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. He was under house-arrest until he had the opportunity to appeal to Caesar the charges brought against him back in Jerusalem. Paul was waiting for his day in court and Caesar himself would be the judge.
The Philippian brethren probably understood that individuals under house-arrest were held financially responsible, to a great degree, for their own needs. In other words, even though he was a prisoner, Paul was responsible for paying room and board.
Its awfully hard to make a living when you are under house-arrest and chained to a Roman soldier 24/7. It is a little doubtful that Paul was still able to make tents to sell. So, Paul was having to depend upon the charity of others to have his basic needs met.
This is where the brethren in Philippi fit in. Hearing of the Apostle’s plight, they sent to Paul a financial gift. The money was delivered to Paul by one of the members of the Philippian congregation, Epaphroditus.
While visiting Paul, in Rome, Epaphroditus became very ill. Paul says, in 3:27, “For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him.”
With Epaphroditus being well enough to travel again, Paul is sending Epaphroditus back to Philippi carrying this letter - 3:25-26, “But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need; because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.”
Epaphroditus was homesick and Paul agreed that it was time for Epaphroditus to return to Philippi so that he might relieve the congregation’s concerns and that Paul might send this letter of instruction to the Philippians. But, this letter is not only a letter of instruction but also a letter of thanks to the Philippians for their concern and financial gift.
Philippians 4:10, 14-18, “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me;.….you have done well to share with me in my affliction. And you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone; for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. 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.”
Let us note a few important points. In verse 18, Paul says that their financial gift of support was “an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.”
Paul is basically saying that their gift to him was also a gift to God. Anytime we financially support those who work in the Lord’s Vineyard in promoting the Gospel and enlarging the Kingdom, it is regarded by the Lord as an act of worship and service to Him. It is “well-pleasing to God.”
Secondly, every time we give to others, it is like making a deposit in our heavenly bank account. Each sacrificial act is, Paul says in Verse 17, “profit which increases to your account.” Come Judgment Day, we will be able to withdraw from that account and it will be our eternal reward. I think that is great incentive to make regular deposits each day of our lives into our personal heavenly bank account.
Thirdly, we should always remember that in giving of our resources and ourselves to others, we need never be concerned about our own needs going unmet. In verse 19, Paul makes this clear: “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
The city of Philippi was located in the Roman Province of Macedonia. Compared to other provinces, Macedonia was very poor economically and materially. The brethren in Philippi were not ‘well-to-do’ people. They were not materially comfortable or well-off. Yet, despite their own poverty, they were the most charitable and giving congregation in the Brotherhood at this time.
If you turn to 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, Paul uses the example of the generosity of the Macedonian brethren to shame the wealthy Corinthians into giving to the relief of drought-stricken Judean brethren: “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord, begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.”
These impoverished brethren begged Paul to let them send a financial contribution to help their brethren in Jerusalem who were suffering the effects of a severe drought.
Paul told the Corinthians that they need not worry about their own needs when they shared in giving to the needs of others. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, “Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.”
Paul says that we can give willingly and cheerfully and liberally and not have to worry about our needs being met. If you give in the name of the Lord, God will grant you “all sufficiency in everything, [that] you may have an abundance for every good deed.”
This is the promise and truth that Paul is telling the Philippians. They have faithfully and lovingly given of their means to support Paul and in return, verse 19, God would see to it that their needs are supplied.
In the remainder of our passage, this morning, Paul shares his attitude about material things. His perspective toward material things is one that is emphasized greatly through-out the Scriptures and we need to make it our attitude and perspective towards material things. Paul says, in verses 11-13, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
Paul says that, in his life, he has known times of feast and times of famine. He has had periods in his life when he lived in relative abundance and he has had periods where he has had almost next to nothing. There have been times when he had no need for the charity of others while there have been times when he had the need of assistance.
But, says the Apostle, no matter what his financial or material condition might be, he had learned to be content. Paul’s contentment in life was not based upon his material possessions. Paul’s satisfaction and happiness did not revolve around possessions, material stuff, or a fat wallet.
If there was ever a Society that needs to pay attention to what Paul is saying here, it would be our American Society. People in our Country are obsessed with the desire and drive to accumulate material possessions and abundance. And may I say, with all candidness, this form of worldliness has even crept into congregations of the Lord’s Church here in this Nation.
This concerns me greatly because this inclination toward material abundance can bar us from reaching our heavenly home. Listen to Paul, in Ephesians 5:5, “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”
What is the definition of covetousness? Covetousness is the inordinate desire for things. It’s the desire to obtain more and more material things. Or, it can be a person who is unwilling to part with their material things.
Covetousness or materialism is a sin. Searching for contentment or satisfaction in our lives through material goods is idolatry no less than if we were to actively worship a false god. In stead of finding contentment or satisfaction in our relationship with God and service to Him and others, we buy into the lie that if I had a nicer home, nicer car, nicer TV or Stereo, nicer bike, nicer toy, you name it – we will be happy.
Brethren, we are commanded in 1 Timothy 6:8, “having food and covering let us be therewith content.” Hebrews 13:5, “Let your character be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have.”
If we cannot be content or be satisfied with having the basic necessities of life. If we think that we need more in order to be happy, we have fallen into the snare of materialism and covetousness. If we can’t say “I can be content in all circumstances,” we are building our lives on a foundation that will bring doom.
I want to talk a little bit about how materialistic our Society is and how that has influenced us.
Outside the United States, the world’s other most affluent societies are found in Europe. Yet, the average American household has four times as much stuff as that of an average Middle European household.
The average home today, in our Nation, is twice as large as the average house constructed after WWII. The National Association of Homebuilders reports that the average American house went from 1,660 square feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004. But get this - while our houses have gotten bigger, our average family size has gotten much smaller. We are getting bigger houses because we have more stuff.
But, for many Americans, even bigger houses are not enough to store our stuff.
According to the Self Storage Association, a trade group charged with monitoring such things, the country now possesses some 1.875 billion square feet of personal storage. All this space is contained in nearly 40,000 facilities owned and operated by more than 2,000 entrepreneurs, including a handful of publicly traded giants like Public Storage, Storage USA, and Shurgard.
What this translates into is an industry that now exceeds the revenues of Hollywood. One in 11 American households, according to a recent survey, owns self-storage space—an increase of some 75 percent from 1995. So, our homes have more than doubled in size and yet we still need to tack on a billion-plus square feet to store our stuff!
By any standard, Americans are materialistic. This means that we value and collect more material objects than most people would ever dream of owning. It also means we give higher priority to obtaining, maintaining and protecting our material objects than we do in developing and enjoying interpersonal relationships.
The modern American typically owns:
two or more color television sets,
an electric hair dryer,
an electronic calculator,
a tape or CD player/recorder,
a clothes-washer and dryer,
a vacuum cleaner,
a powered lawn mower (for cutting grass),
a refrigerator, a stove, and a dishwasher,
one or more automobiles,
and a telephone.
The average American consumes twice as much stuff as we did in 1950. The poorest fifth of the American population today buys more than the average fifth purchased in 1955. In other words, the poorest segment of our society today buys and owns more than an average middle-class family back in the mid-1950s.
Yet, surveys show that many Americans feel like they’re just making it, barely able to stay even. But what’s remarkable is that this feeling is not restricted to families of limited income. It’s a generalized feeling, one that exists at all economic levels:
39% of all households making $50,000 a year say that they cannot afford to buy everything they really need!
33% of all households making $100,000 a year say that they cannot afford to buy everything they really need!
27% of all households making more than $100,000 a year say they cannot afford to buy everything they really need. Nearly 20% of these say they "spend nearly all their income on the basic necessities of life."
Overall, half the population of the richest country in the world say they cannot afford everything they really need.
Americans’ concept of need has clearly become distorted. Data reveals that a variety of consumer items are seen as necessities by an increasing number of people:
13% of Americans say that VCRs or DVD players are necessities.
17% say that basic cable TV is a necessarily.
25% of Americans consider home computers and answering machines to be necessities.
33% feel that microwave ovens are necessities.
45% can’t do without auto air conditioning.
53% say home air conditioning is essential.
The list of things we absolutely ‘have to have’ is growing. What was once considered a luxury is now seen as a necessity. This is materialism.
Not surprisingly, as upscale consumption intensified, family finances have deteriorated. One indicator is the rise of consumer borrowing and credit card spending. During the last 15 years, households have been taking on debt at record levels. And the largest increases have been not among low-income households, but among those earning $50,000 to $100,000 a year. (63% of these households are now in credit card debt.) The total consumer debt is at 1.7 trillion dollars. (You can visualize a trillion dollars as a stack of $1000 bills placed one on top of the other, flat side on top of flat side, reaching 67 miles high.) Bankruptcies are at historic levels. Bankruptcies have exceeded 1 million per year every year for at least 7 years now.
This is the fruit of covetousness and materialism.
Other surveys also indicate an expansion of desire and expectation. Asked what constitutes "the good life," Americans focus far more on material goods and luxuries than ever before. Items more likely to be part of “the good life” now include a vacation home, a swimming pool, a second color TV, travel abroad, nice clothes, a second car, a home of one’s own, a job that pays much more than the average, and a lot of money. Less likely, or no more likely, to yield “the good life,” according to respondents, were a happy marriage, one or more children, an interesting job, and a job that contributes to the welfare of society.
Living in such a materialistic society, it is no small wonder that materialism has crept into many American Christians’ lives. In many congregations, around the Country, there is a mad rush to have bigger cars or trucks, bigger and fancier homes, ranches and acreages, the newest and most advanced appliances and tech gadgets, state-of-the-art entertainment systems and brand-name designer clothing and footwear.
The number of brethren who are in situations of extreme debt is growing as they jump-on the “buy now, pay later” band-wagon with the materialistic “I must have that” mentality.
Tragically, in many congregations, those who are looked to as good leaders are not those who demonstrate spiritual wisdom and the fruit of the Spirit but - instead - those who have the biggest bank accounts, the nicest homes and the most expensive motor vehicles.
It is easy to get caught-up in this kind of worldliness. But we are not to be “conformed to this world.” Warnings against covetousness and materialism are found through-out the Scriptures. The accumulation of material goods and earthly wealth is often said to be spiritually dangerous and damaging.
Proverbs 28:20, 22, “A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished…A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth.”
1 Timothy 6:9, “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.”
Matthew 19:23-24, “And Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’"
Matthew 13:22, "And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Mark 4:19, “and the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”
I would like for us to note that Jesus speaks of “the deceitfulness of riches.” What is He talking about?
Jesus is talking about the lies about material abundance being tied to happiness and peace of mind.
The fact is that material abundance or wealth does not bring happiness but often brings greater distress.
“A new study by American psychologists has found that excessive wealth, particularly for people unaccustomed to it, such as lottery winners, can actually cause unhappiness. There is evidence that there are very wealthy people who are very unhappy, particularly people who were not born to wealth.” Source: BBC News
Happiness expert, Prof. David Myers, states that a study of 49 of the wealthiest Americans, as listed by Forbes magazine, found them generally to be no more happier than the average person, and that 37 percent of this group reported happiness levels less than the average person’s.
ABC Newscaster John Stossel interviewed numerous megabuck lottery winners, most of whom attested that the big money didn’t bring them anything close to big happiness, and often caused them unexpected problems -- leading some to the therapist’s chair. Many who have suddenly come into wealth, from whatever source, find themselves suffering clinical depression.
If you think material things or wealth brings happiness, you are being fooled by “the deceitfulness of riches.” Ecclesiastes 5:10, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income.”
The second lie is that once you reach a certain financial level, you don’t have to worry about your finances. You can focus on more noble pursuits rather than on money and material goods.
Tom Grey, spokesman for the National Coalition against Legalized Gambling, said Virginia state lottery officials found in 1999 that of 300 millionaire winners, as many as 60 eventually encountered financial problems. “Research shows that a significant number of lottery winners lose their winnings within five years,” said Stephen Goldbart, a psychologist and co-director of the Money, Meaning and Choices Institute in Kentfield, which advices people who come into financial windfalls. Proverbs 23:4-5, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings, Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.”
None of us here, today, will likely become millionaires. However, we all might think that if we had annual incomes of $75,000 - $100,000 that we would be comfortable and not have to worry about paying bills anymore. There would be greater peace of mind. This too, more often than not, is false.
We have already seen that people who attain to these incomes still want more. To think that we would be any different is a dangerous supposition.
But, beyond that, those who are more affluent will tell you that they still have their minds on their finances. They have to think about investments. They have to think about ways to preserve their finances from higher taxes. They have to budget like anyone else.
Let’s move away from money for a moment and just think about material goods. The fact of the matter is that the more material goods we have, the more they control our lives. They are more things we have to keep clean, more things that we have to store, more things we have to maintain and keep in working order, more things we have to protect with lock and key or buy insurance for. The more stuff that we have, the more it becomes a master over our lives. Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you have to take care of them! There is great freedom in simplicity of living. It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest.
The Scriptures discourage us from accumulating material goods and pursuing wealth. Instead, the Good Book encourages us to live a simple life where, being content with the necessities of life we are actively giving any excess to promote the Kingdom of God and helping those who are need.
Matthew 6:19-21, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:33, "Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys.”
Isaiah 55:2, "Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. This too is vanity.”
Luke 12:15, “And He said to them, ‘Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’"
1 Timothy 6:6-11, “But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang. But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.”
Proverbs 13:25, “The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, But the stomach of the wicked is in want.”
