All right, folks, thank you so much for joining us here yet again at the Everlasting Truth broadcast, where we give you everlasting truth in an ever-changing world. I want to tell you thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here. My name is Caleb Osteen. I am the pastor privileged and blessed to be the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Live Oak, Florida, the big city there, and God has extended the ability to have this ministry as well, and so I hope it does just that. I hope it ministers to you and is a help and a blessing to you. I would like to say that over these last couple weeks, I've been getting some great feedback from some of you listeners and it is truly encouraging. It enables you to keep going when it feels like you're making a difference, and some of you have helped me to feel that way, and so I'm thankful for that. Number one, I'm thankful for the Lord using me. Isn't it amazing that God would use any of us? Those of us that were lost and were separated from Him because of sin, dying in our sin, and yet He comes along our way and picks us up where we're at. Saves us by his good grace and then uses us. Hey, he saves us by grace through faith and then Ephesians 2 10 says he ordains good works before us that we should walk therein and I'm glad God has given me this good work and I'm glad God has used it to be a help to you and I've been grateful to hear from some of you and let me know that but Anyways, I don't want to ramble on too long today. I want us to go ahead and get into the text, and we're going to do that in Philippians chapter number four. We just finished up in the previous weeks we've been dealing with a pretty intensive study, and by intensive I don't mean complicated, I mean heart-wrenching and convicting. study out of 1st Corinthians 13 on what biblical love is and we called that living up to love and We had to ask ourselves some hard questions. Are we living up to the biblical definition of love? And so if you weren't around for that I'd invite you to do a good hard study in 1st Corinthians 13 and look at what the Bible defines as love and ask yourself if you're living up to it, but we have moved on past that and we come to Philippians chapter number 4 and I want to give you some thoughts on a very important subject. I'll be honest, this is a subject that I actually just preached on this week at my church, and I usually don't do that on here. I try to give you something fresh. Rarely do I come on here and bring things I've already preached. Every once in a while I will, but I like to have something fresh and new. I don't ever want to get hung up in just repeating stuff. But as I was praying about what to present to you, it felt as if this was the direction that the Lord would have us go, and I believe it'll be a help to you. So with that being said, let's dive into it. I want to talk to you today about the relationship between the local church and the missionary. the relationship between the local church and the missionary. Open your Bible up, if you would, go to Philippians chapter number 4, and I want us to begin at verse number 10. Philippians 4.10 says this, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Now, isn't that a wake-up call? We hear football players quote that verse all the time, and athletes and different people in professional arenas about being able to excel in their field because, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. But what that verse is actually talking about in context is a missionary engaged in a missionary effort and going about preaching the gospel. That's the context. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding, you have well done that you did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all and abound. I am full." Isn't that a good thing for a missionary to be able to say? The Apostle Paul is a missionary here writing to a church that supports him, the church at Philippi, and he tells this church, he says, I have all and abound. I am full. What a wonderful thing for a missionary to be able to say. How does a missionary get to that position where they're full, where they're abounding, where they have all that they need? Verse 18, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you. It was the gifts, it was the offering, it was the sacrifice that the church at Philippi made that allowed this missionary to say, I have everything that I need. He says, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Let's leave it right there and let's begin to unpack the text and walk through it and see what the Lord has for us here within this text. Let me give you a brief context on what's going on here. Paul is writing as a missionary to a local church. We recognize Paul as being one of the first great missionaries. He had his missionary journeys recorded in the book of Acts. If you open the back of your Bible, there's a good chance that there's a map in the back of it that references Paul's missionary journeys. and he was a missionary. And what he is doing here is he is writing to Philippi, and Philippi was a local New Testament church that supported Paul in his missionary efforts. And we find that if we were to go back to Philippians chapter 4 and look at verse number 15, Paul makes it clear that Philippi was supporting him in his efforts. He said, Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. So he says, Philippi at one time was the only church giving to him. It was the only church he was receiving from. It was the only church supporting him. But Philippi was supporting him. If we were to go back to verse 18, we'd find the same thing. He said, And so it's clear that there was a point in time where Philippi supported Paul as a missionary. Now, this missionary effort was not for Paul to do works in Philippi, but Philippi and the church there was supporting Paul to go do ministry and missionary work in other places besides their hometown of Philippi. They supported Paul not to minister there, but in other places. If you look at verse number 16, we find that Paul said, for even in Thessalonica, you sent once and again unto my necessity. Paul says, when I was in Thessalonica, somewhere besides Philippi, the Philippians sent to me and aided me and supported me in my missionary effort there in Thessalonica. We know in verse number 15 that they supported Paul when he left out of Macedonia and set out to preach the gospel. He said, verse 15, now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. So when Paul left Macedonia, they were supporting him. When Paul was in Thessalonica, they were supporting him. It wasn't only the work that was done in Philippi that they supported. This local New Testament church in Philippi was supporting Paul wherever he went in his missionary efforts, and they had his back as he went out to the ends of the earth to proclaim the gospel as the Great Commission commands you and I to do. And so what we essentially have here in Philippians is a missionary, the Apostle Paul, writing to a supporting church. And so what that tells you and I is there is a great deal that we can learn about the relationship between a missionary and the New Testament church. And this is a relationship that I think gets very muddied in our understanding. And sometimes we don't know how to handle it. And as laymen and members of a church, not pastors, I know the majority of the people I speak to over these airwaves are not pastors. They're not ministers. They are members of a local New Testament church. And sometimes that relationship begins to feel distant between us and our missionaries and we feel disconnected and we don't really understand the relationship. And what that does is that causes our heart to dissipate from the heat and the fervor that we should have for missions because we feel distanced from it. And I believe as we study this text, it will put a fervor back in our heart for missions because it will renew the connection that the local New Testament church and its members and its congregants have with that missionary. And so we're going to break this text down. There's a lot of things I want to pull out of here, God willing, and I want us to examine and to look over. And I praise God. He spoke to me through this text. He spoke to my church. After preaching this to my church, It prompted us, and we as a congregation decided to greatly raise the amount that we are giving to missions by a significant number because of what this text communicates. And so my prayer for you is that this will give you a greater desire to be involved in missions. So now that we've read it, I'm going to do something a little bit different. I'm going to pray very quickly that God would do that for us, and that he would help us in that fashion. So let's pray, and then we'll unpack the text. Father, Lord, I'm asking you, God, to help these people to have a burden for missions. Lord, you commanded us to go ye therefore and preach the gospel to every creature. You said, go ye therefore and teach all nations. baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world. You commanded us to go. Lord, I pray, God, that if we're not able to go to the ends of the earth, that we would support and hold the hands of those that will. God, that we would help them carry the load. Lord, that we would encourage them and pray for the missionary. God, that we would support them financially, that we would be willing to make the sacrifice that Philippi made to help the Apostle Paul preach the gospel. May we hold our missionaries' hands. Lord, would you use this text, Father, please, to convict people of our need to support missions. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, let's go to verse number 10, and let's back up and begin to unpack this thing. Verse number 10 through 13, we find what I've called the suffering of the missionary. Don't you know that missionaries have to suffer sometimes? It's not a luxurious, lavish lifestyle that they are leading. Now, sure, there may be some missionaries who have abandoned ship. They have neglected their position, and they are simply drawing a check and living apart from the job they're supposed to be doing, just as there are some pastors that have done that. There are bad apples in every bunch, and so there may be some that have done that, but for the average missionary, it's tough. It's hard. And there is some suffering that the missionary is going through. And we find a little bit about this suffering in verse number 10 that the Apostle Paul was facing. The suffering. In verse number 10, we find a lack of support. A lack of support. Look at verse 10. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein ye were also careful, but you lacked opportunity. Now what Paul is saying here is that at the moment Paul is writing the letter to Philippi, they are in fact supporting him. And he says, I'm grateful, I praise God, I'm rejoicing in the Lord greatly that now at the last, finally, your care for me hath flourished again. He's saying I'm grateful that you are able to support me again. But he says there was a day in the past, there was a day previously, that you were careful, you wanted to give to me, he says, but you lacked opportunity. There was no financial means, so to speak, for the church at Philippi at one point to support the apostle Paul. They were not able to give to him, and Paul did not have the support that he really could have used, and the church was not able to supply his needs the way that they ideally would have been able to. And so what that leaves is a missionary lacking support. And this is where the great deal of our missionaries are. And let me just put this thought out there. How much more work could our missionaries be doing in the three to four years that they're on deputation trying to raise support? If God's people would get a desire and a fire for worldwide missions and begin to support these missionaries, they could be on the field doing the work rather than trying to raise support. But truth be told, they're lacking support. People aren't giving. to a degree that we're able to support those people that will go. And we pray as the Lord taught us to pray. He said, pray ye therefore the Lord of harvest that the Lord would send forth laborers into his harvest. God said we ought to pray for laborers. But from a pastoral standpoint, we have laborers out there right now that are trying to go labor, but they have yet to be supported to be able to go labor. And so if we're going to pray for God to send the laborers, then we need to be ready to send the support for the laborers while they go. And what Paul is saying, there's a point in time where he lacks support. Philippi was careful, they wanted to give, they had a desire to give, but they lacked opportunity. What happened when Paul as a missionary lacked support? If we look at verse number 11 and 12, we get that answer. In the lack of support, The missionary Paul learned to be satisfied. Look what he says in verse 11. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned. In the middle of my lack, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. What Paul is saying here, since I lack support, what I learned to do is I learned to go without. I learned both how to be abased and I learned how to abound. I learned to have plenty and I learned how to go in lack. Paul says I learned that whatever state I'm in, whether I am full and abounding or whether I'm lacking and losing, I have learned to be content in that state. I just learned to be satisfied. Because the truth about it is for the missionary Paul, he said, I don't always have everything I could have. Sometimes the opportunity that people have to give lacks. He said, therefore, sometimes there's a lack of support, but I've learned to be satisfied. So we say when a missionary is on the field and there's a lack of support, Whether it's prayer support, and by the way, there is such a thing as prayer support. We are to pray. That's why when the missionaries come to your church and they're on deputation and they give you that card, you know what they call that card? It's not a giving card. It's not a money card. It's a prayer card. They want you to pray for them. Every month that missionary sends in, or every quarter or whatever it is, they send forth that prayer letter that tells you what you can pray for for them. They need prayer support as well as financial support. But the question is, when the missionary goes with a lack of support, how do they keep going? Because truth be told, there's a lot of them that are going without. Verse number 13, after learning to be satisfied, there's a notice of the Lord's strength. Verse 13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. How is it that Paul was enabled to carry on even when he didn't have enough of what he actually needed? He said, it's Christ in me, the hope of glory. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. I can abound. I can be abased. I can be full. I can suffer need. Whatever it is, Paul says, I can go on with the mission that God has called me to. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. So verse number 13 is not about a football player being able to score a touchdown and say, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Now he might be able to apply that verse that way, but that's not its context. The context of I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me is a missionary who's lacking support and yet he's still going anyway. Praise God for men and women like that. You ought to pray for your missionary because sometimes they're suffering. There's a lack of support. And they're relying on the Lord's strength. And it's the Lord's strength that carries them on. And they deserve honor. The Bible says to render honor to whom honor is due. And they're going anyways, and they're relying on the Lord's strength and they can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth them. But let me ask you this church member. Just because a missionary can. Do the work of the Lord in a lack of support because they can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth them. Just because they can go without and still do the work, should they? Should we make them? Did Paul say in verse number 13, since I can do all things through Christ, even while I'm short and even while I'm lacking, don't worry about supporting me. Lord will take care of it. It's fine. Is that what we find as we read through the rest of the chapter? No. Paul continues to encourage the Philippians to give to his missionary efforts, but he says, even when you lack, I still will go on. Because there's a burning inside of him. It's like Jeremiah where he says that I could not help. But speak, there's a fire burning in my bones. Paul said, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. And so Paul went anyways. But just because we got missionaries with fire in their bones and a glory in their heart, and they can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth them, even when they go without, should the local New Testament church make them go without? And the answer is no. We should be supporting them. We should be doing more for them because the truth of it is that your missionary may be suffering. There may be a lack of support. And you know, a lot of times we think, and I'm getting ahead of myself, but a lot of times we think, well, you know, if I don't support them, somebody else will. So it's, it's not a big deal. Somebody else will take care of it. Not necessarily, not, not necessarily look at verse 15. I've read it two or three times already, but let's read it again. Now, you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church, none, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. At one time, Philippi was the only church supporting Paul. Now, if Philippi would have said, well, you know, we're not going to support him right now. Somebody else can do it. Would Paul have had any support? No. And maybe you and I, when we walk away from a missionary effort that God burdens our heart for, and we say, hey, that man or that, that, that family. They're doing a work for God, and I want to be a part of that. But then we excuse why we can't be involved in it. And we say, well, that's going to cost too much, and this, that, and the other. And we walk away from that opportunity. We say, somebody else will take care of it. That's not always the case. Because at one point, Philippi was the only one supporting Paul. And even furthermore than that, we remember in verse number 10, there was a time where Philippi wasn't even able to support Paul. Missionaries don't have people knocking down their doors to give them money like we act like they do sometimes. God gives a missionary a burden to get on the field and to go to some foreign country when they're genuinely God called. And before they can do that, they've got to spend three, four years traveling across the United States of America and begging God's people to come off a little bit of change just to help them go and sell their lives out for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we put expectations on them that we don't put on ourself. We expect them to go without things that we don't want to go without when they're the ones that are truly giving their life for this. I think we just need to be a little bit more mindful of the missionary. I think we need to be a little bit more in tune with where they're at. I think we could give a little more to them. I think we could pray a little more for them. And this text, and we're only beginning, I didn't even get, I just finished my first point. I got several more I want to make going through the end of the text, and you're going to find out it pays to support missions. It's not going to cost you. It's going to reward you. And so often that's what we say, well, I can't support missions right now because it's going to cost too much. It's going to cost you too much not to. God said, try me, prove me. He said, see if I won't open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. But for that crowd that said, oh no, it costs too much to give to God's work. The Lord said, it's like you got a bag with holes in the bottom of it and all that money you think you're saving is going straight out the bottom of that bag. But he said, he that soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly, but he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully. We'll get into more of that as the broadcasts come. We'll pick back up on this tomorrow, and maybe we'll finish it. I'm not sure. We'll see. But let's be mindful of our missionaries, okay? I hope you'll tune in tomorrow. Let me give you some more out of this text because there's so much more that I believe will encourage you in your missionary efforts and your love and your giving for the missions. God bless you, friend. We'll see you tomorrow.