You Can't Do All Things - Andy Cain

God Centered Theology

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:03

despite what many people have painted on their faces for football games despite what many have exclaimed no doubt when attempting some event or some athletic endeavor despite the what is probably one of the most misinterpreted verses in all the

00:29

Bible and I hope this isn't too much of a culture shock to you this morning but I'm here to report to you that you can't do all things it's just not so you can't my friends you can't defy gravity if you go on a tall building and jump off of it you're gonna find out very quickly that gravity is real and that it never fails you can't drink poison expect to live you can't drive over a hundred miles an hour into oncoming traffic and think that will end well the vast majority of people living today can't dunk a basketball

01:14

I came really really close one time but I've never done it nobody can run a hundred meters in five seconds you can't go into space without protection and last more than a microsecond

01:30

I could go on and on and on and on and on there are just simply some things you can't do you can't do all things that you can think of so no matter how loud you exclaim it no matter how much you may mean it you can't just say

01:50

I can do all things through him and then go do it so if that's not what the verse means and I'm here to tell you this morning it's not what does it mean this section of Scripture particularly verses 10 through 13 but even moving past that all the way down to verse 20 is a great lesson in things like context consistency of interpretation understanding the original authors intent understanding what the original audience would have understood knowing that you can't take a verse by itself and build a belief around it you see now that I've said this many times when

02:45

I've been before you and this for some of you this may be something you ever heard before many of you this may be review but keep in mind chapter and verse divisions in Scripture are not inspired they are a modern thing somewhere

02:58

I think it's somewhere around the 1500 somewhere there about is when we started having chapter and verse divisions the original

03:04

Scripture when it was pinned by the authors did not have chapter and verse divisions so the divisions of verses and chapters themselves are not inspired they are mainly there for quick reference to be able to you know pick out a section of Scripture and things like that so one of the downsides of having chapter and verse divisions in our

03:25

Scripture there's a lot of upsides I mean if you're going to like First Chronicles or something it'd be a lot easier to say

03:31

First Chronicles 6 5 and say well go about a third of the way through the book maybe eight lines down you know but one of the downsides is many a teacher and preacher and Christian have taken verses and just ran with it and say well because this verse says this well this must be the author's meaning so what's in view here well that's what

03:56

I want to talk to you about this morning what is actually in view here in this section of Scripture when

04:02

Paul says in verse 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me is anything and everything that God expects and wants you to do we gain a lot of understanding about the actual things that Christ will strengthen us to do by if you were to survey the entire book of Philippians now

04:29

Philippians isn't the only book that deals with these things but it's always good to get an understanding of what the author is saying in the full context now time will certainly not permit us to look and survey the entire book of Philippians but I want to just read off for you quickly 15 items that we find in just the first chapter of Philippians that God will certainly strengthen you to do in the first chapter of Philippians you will find things like Thanksgiving prayer the work of sanctification love for the brethren growing knowledge and discernment being filled with righteousness working for the progress of the gospel living for Christ fruitful labor for Christ living in a worthy manner standing firm in the faith unity in mind and purpose contending for the faith suffering for Christ's sake in his for his name and finally following the example of other faithful brethren that was just a cursory view of the chapter

05:32

I'm sure if we spent more time we could find more that's 15 items and just the first chapter of Philippians that I can guarantee you that God will strengthen you to do so that's an example of some of the things that we should be doing and some of the things that this verse would apply to but it's even deeper than that it's more than just identifying the things that God will strengthen us to do and the things that he won't strengthen us to do you see

06:04

Paul's message here in for Philippians 4 10 through 13 is not that God is going to supernaturally empower you to do whatever comes to mind or and as I often do when

06:19

I preach I'm preaching to myself here what you determine should be done we're very good at that I am very good at that I think you should go this way

06:32

I think this should happen I don't think this should happen I think I should be able to do this I don't want to do that God should do this for me

06:39

God should bless me in this manner I should have this type of house I should on and on and on and on we go no

06:48

Paul's message is that God is going to empower you to do all those things that Christ is in going to strengthen you to do you see the activity and the ability that results from the strengthening that comes from Christ is

07:10

God centered and not man centered it's a theme that seems to run through all of my teaching lately every single time

07:18

I preach or teach it seems inevitably at some point I mentioned the fact that the text the passage the idea whatever it is we're is in view is

07:28

God centered rather man sent rather than man centered because so much of the

07:34

Christian popular Christian thought in teaching and what we see and put in front of us if you look at it in its correct form and look at what's really being conveyed you see that it is so much man centered what

07:48

I want what I feel God should condition or adapt himself to me every single word every single passage every single verse of Scripture is

07:59

God centered it starts with God and we come down to us and not starting with us and in reasoning up to God we call that idolatry every so -called idol every so -called

08:13

God which really isn't an idol or God because there's none in existence but the true God is made up in the mind of man so what ultimately is

08:24

Paul teaching us about besides the things that God will indeed strengthen us to do well he's teaching us about two words that if you're like me has takes you a long long time to wrap your head around much less master and I certainly have not gotten to the point of mastering this but I would submit to you that the way

08:46

I handle this now is far better than I did before those two words are biblical contentment biblical contentment our world and the people in it including myself including you at different times in your life tend to be woefully discontent it reminds me of a man that became envious of his friend's house the house was larger it was more luxurious had everything he thought he wanted so he became discontent with his own house started fighting all these problems with it you know the kitchen isn't big enough the bathroom isn't big enough

09:30

I don't like the way this corner looks well he decided what I'm gonna do is

09:36

I'm gonna list my house sell it and with the proceeds I will go build a much or buy a much bigger house and then

09:44

I can be cool just like all these other people then I'll be happy then I'll be satisfied well he lists it and shortly after he's looking through the online listings and what's interesting just as a little side tangent here with this little story when you read it online it's got the original edition of it so it says things like newspaper clippings and I thought to myself what's a newspaper

10:09

I like we need to update this we go online and look at real estate listings now we don't have newspapers these things so that's what he did he was looking online looking through houses scrolling through realtor .com

10:20

or Zillow or all those good things and he found this one house he started looking at it and look at all the things that had like man this is perfect this is that this is it this is

10:31

I can be satisfied I can be happy if I just have this house so he calls up his realtor he's tell him all about it and talking about the things that he likes about it and so the agent real estate agents ask him questions and gets confused and said sir

10:46

I don't understand why is this the one you want he explains that well sir you don't understand the house you're looking at is your house wait my house yes the one you say you want is the one you listed okay yeah it's not really much to be said here so I think

11:11

I'm just gonna go awkward makes a good point on it grass is not always greener on the other side is it what was this person's problem they were trying to find satisfaction and contentment in the wrong things you see when one determines that their happiness and joy is based on their level of satisfaction with their circumstances then no matter how hard one works one will never be satisfied

11:49

I can speak from personal experience if my friends in my sound booth back there will pop the graphic that I have up on screen for just a minute and since we're live streaming

12:03

I don't want to leave it up for the I've tended to leave it up for the rest of the service but I think that will cause viewing issues so we'll look at this for a minute and then take it down but this is very interesting because I made this a long time ago it's got to be over a decade ago and when

12:21

I was thinking about using this I started realizing like huh

12:26

I think I actually do this now at the time it was a lot of good head knowledge and I felt pretty you know haha

12:35

I'm so smart kind of stuff and then I had to repent of that and humble myself and learn but now when looking at it

12:41

I'm like how could I have been thinking about it in this way then because I wasn't living it this isn't overly complicated but this is an example of what not to do okay so if you want to be discontent in life the circle on the right is the goals wants and desires those things you have determined you must have to be satisfied now the red arrow takes that up black arrow takes it across and the other red arrow going down is the understanding that you are forcing it down on top of your reality enjoy meaning that you can only be happy if what you've determined to be your goals wants and desires are your reality and joy now notice the arrow in the middle that's going left at these things determine reality and joy so then when you're going back notice that your reality and joy is that we're joy the middle is on top of the arrow going back to goals wants and desires what's that's what that is indicating is that if you attempt to force that what you've determined you must have on to reality your joy gets lost or your joy is submitted to whether or not you ever achieve those things so as I wrote there on the bottom you know if you take your goals wants and desires and bring them over and attempt to force them on to your reality to where we decide that they must determine our reality then we lose our joy into those goals wants and desires which may or may not ever be reality our joy can be experienced in reality if our joy is found in Christ okay brother we'll take that on down for now but the whole meaning in the understated behind that there's certain things

14:32

I think about when I started at food line and August of 2000 as a 17 year old and you know

14:39

I had determined that by a certain age I was gonna be assistant manager store manager district manager all these things

14:46

I was gonna do you know much like many of you I had all these ideas and stuff and as time went on and those things didn't occur

14:55

I just got increasingly dissatisfied discontent and angry and misplaced the blame on God because he wasn't giving me what

15:07

I wanted he wasn't doing what I wanted failing to recognize that God doesn't owe me nothing he doesn't have to do what

15:16

I want God does as he the psalm I believe it's Psalm 105 says that Yahweh does as he pleases doesn't say man does as he pleases and so you fast -forward and you know that I'm going into school looking to become a pastor and I carry over some of that discontented dissatisfaction you know it's got to be this kind of church or it's got to be this kind of ministry or I got to be able to do this type of thing or constantly discontent dissatisfied why because I've already predetermined not being

15:48

God that I can only be satisfied if I have these certain goals wants and desires I took them over and forced him down and said my reality has to be this or I won't be joyful now no one in that environment actually says those things but I can guarantee you it's in the back of your mind and it's controlling everything you do so what do you what do you what's going to happen what's going to change we've got to reverse our thinking we are not content you won't become satisfied by determining your reality or circumstances no you are content because we have everything we need to be satisfied from God regardless of your circumstances now this is a whole sermon for another day we're not going to delve on this long because time will not permit but this doesn't mean that we don't have goals wants and desires that could be biblical and Christ -centered

16:54

Psalm 37 I believe it is talks about how you know if you delight yourself in the Lord he'll give you the desires of your heart but the whole sermon for another day we would talk about how as you align your soul and your spirit and whoo yeah

17:09

I knew it was coming sometime Roy I'll be stealing that I'll tell you take it with technology these boxes are wearing out so I told him

17:16

I said if it does that too many times we'll just switch over to this one so don't worry you won't have to have your ears destroyed all service long but uh if you align your just goals and wants and desires what

17:26

Christ ultimately wants for you and find your contentment in him you find that what he wants for you is far better than what you ever wanted for yourself to begin with and so verses 10 through 14 here let's look at them in depth here he says you know by joy rejoice in the

17:44

Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your thinking about me indeed you were thinking about me before but you lacked opportunity now

17:51

I want you to notice here he's talking about biblical contentment and being satisfied but he does not dismiss or say that these

17:59

Philippians that gave him a gift they met his need financially or met some need and support he doesn't dismiss that and say that it's not important saying that we need to be you know satisfied in Christ content in Christ is not something where you know things in life don't happen we don't pursue certain things we don't have goals we don't have achievements we don't have you know needs and these things because ultimately what's being in view here is that God's going to fulfill all the needs that you have as you serve him and so in this case specifically there was a need that Paul had and they met that need is that they just sit around you have to wait it's like the you know the old joke of the guy he's on the desert island he's waiting for God to save him he sends a boat he sends a plane he sends all these things he's like turn them away saying you know oh

18:47

God's gonna save me and God's like dude I sent you a boat I sent you a plane I sent you all these things it isn't like that there are actual needs that need be met what we find is that there are a variety of ways that God meets needs and strengthens us as we live for him he says not that I speak from want or destitution or lack when he says not that I speak from want here the idea sort of is carried over from Psalm 23 when he says the

19:16

Lord is my shepherd I shall not want I find out I shall not find myself wanting or lacking not that I speak from want for I learned to be content satisfied in whatever circumstances

19:31

I am this word translated circumstances here literally could be rendered the things pertaining to me the things the state in which

19:43

I find myself and then notice he says I know how to get along with humble means

19:50

I also know how to live in abundance in any and all things

19:57

I have learned the secret of being filled and of going hungry both of having abundance and of suffering need it is in that light that he now says

20:10

I can do all things through him who strengthens me Paul's needs were met in some cases they were monetary in other cases they were prayer or individuals helping him housing maybe in the middle of suffering it was encouragement or peace may keep in mind

20:36

Paul's writing this letter from prison he's in a Roman house chained to a soldier that presents a couple of awkward situations

20:49

I would think going to the bathroom if you had some kind of medical emergency if you're trying to get up move around be kind of awkward to do that with some big old hulking soldier chained to your feet so it's just kind of things

21:03

I think about his situation and he's in this situation the same man that's been shipwrecked beaten betrayed all this manner of things happened to him he's saying

21:15

I'm good something must be wrong with this man doesn't he know that when things don't go your way you're supposed to get angry and shake your fist at heavens and say how dare you do this to me now we laugh is it not tempting especially when it's something that's gonna cost a lot of money it's tempting it's the old thing we say it's always something

21:46

Paul's saying we shouldn't be like that Paul's saying that the manner in which you find yourself does not determine your joy the state in which you find yourself the circumstances in which you find yourself do not determine your contentment or level of satisfaction because those are the things that are not making you satisfied

22:06

God he says if I'm rich I'm poor I'm happy I'm suffering need if I'm abounding

22:22

I'm okay things that God requires of me

22:32

I can do because he's gonna strengthen me to do them and sometimes the greatest strength we need from God is when we're doing well because then you get prideful tend to think you can do it on your own does that mean that Christian shouldn't pursue things if it doesn't you know leave you poor or destitute no we're not called to be poverty stricken and all these things on purpose it's certainly okay to work a job and make some money and have a house and have nice things and these things but that doesn't mean that that's the source of your happiness and as much as it may be hard to think about if God took it all away tomorrow we would need to be just as happy and satisfied in God as we did when we had those things that's why we need to beware of the and I was preaching a lot of a lot of this

23:26

I'll preach against what I call the extremes right so in one case as a Christian we don't need to be so hyper focused on wealth and accumulating things and on the other end we don't need to be doing as so a lot of people in Paul's day would do they'd mutilate themselves or you know purposely put themselves in poverty or say what you know

23:48

I can't have anything materialistically because I just only need to be satisfied in Christ well James said book of James says that every good gift comes from the

23:55

Father so it's okay to have things it's okay to even be successful in a certain venture things like that the point is not the circumstances not success or lack of it it's not having a big bank account or a small one we need to eradicate all those things and stop using them as prisms by which we determine success otherwise churches would five people in it would only be a failure churches with a hundred or five hundred well they must be successful my friends there are churches filled with people that are failures and there are churches with barely two people to look at each other that accomplished far more for the kingdom than mother was the size of a church the size of your bank account the size of your ministry that's not what is in view faithfulness obedience and no matter what comes my way

24:51

I have a guarantee from Scripture that I can do it and I'll be strengthened to face it and I can do all those things that I find in my life because God is going to strengthen me to do them finally as we close look at 2nd

25:12

Corinthians chapter 9 in verse 8 this is sort of a companion thought or verse to go along and sort of sum up what we've been looking at here 2nd

25:26

Corinthians 9 8 Paul says and God is able to make every grace abound to you so that in everything every time having every sufficiency you may have an abundance for every good deed