Strength Misapplied
Some Bible verses get more attention than others––like John 3:16 plastered on billboards, printed on coffee mugs, and even tattooed on forearms! Pastor Nick Gatzke kicks off a series called Rethinking Your Favorite Bible Verses to help us get a better biblical understanding of the verses we love to recite, but often misunderstand.
Today, we are going to start a new sermon series called Rethinking Your Favorite Bible Verse. And our goal really is twofold. Number one, the goal is that we wanna be reminded and encouraged by these powerful words from God. I mean, after all, God gave them to us for that very purpose, to build us up as his people and to show us something about himself. The second goal is going to be to offer that gentle correction and proper application to some of these verses that are so often misconstrued or misapplied with the goal of when you do that, you often find greater meaning in what God intended as he spoke his word. And so today, we’re gonna start rethinking some of our favorite Bible verses and we’re gonna look at that famous verse, Philippians 4 .13. So I’m gonna ask you to grab a Bible and turn with me.
Paul is concluding his letter to the church at Philippi in chapter 4 and near the end We see this powerful verse that contains an element of promise to it He makes a bold claim as he says in chapter 4 verse 13 what I mentioned just a moment ago “I Can do all things? Through him who strengthens me” Here’s the common application of this verse the common application is that we can use this type of verse to become a champion This verse is so easy to cling to
And I can understand why, because we all regularly face challenges in this life, don’t we? For some of us, these challenges come at work. If you’re a student here today, your challenges most recently were taking your final exams. For some of us who struggle with depression, the challenge can be something as seemingly simple but practically difficult as getting out of bed in the morning. Philippians 4:13 tells us, doesn’t it, that you can overcome the challenges that are in front of you. For some Christians, this verse has become an almost mystical incantation that we say when there’s a challenge that’s before us, when we need to rise up, when we need to be the champion.
But is that what it really means? Let’s look at the surrounding passage a little bit further. Look with me, grab your Bible again. And I just wanna read a short section of it. Let’s look at verse 10. Paul writes to these Christians and he says that he’s thanking them essentially for a gift that they give him. He said, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I’m speaking of being in need for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Christ or through him who strengthens me.”
And as we read that, a few realities begin to pop out to us. The first is that the true provocative statement in this text is found in verse 12, when he says, “I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” Now that’s a secret that we all want to learn, isn’t it? How do you go through life in any circumstance and face it in the right way? And the original nuance of the Greek here is that this type of learning that Paul is talking about is not the type of learning that comes from a book. It’s not the type of learning that you can derive simply from a principle. This type of learning, to learn this secret, is one that comes through the slow acquisition of knowledge and experience.
And so what is the secret? And how can we learn it? Well, let’s look at Paul’s circumstances. We see in Philippians that he was, in fact, in significant need. Paul was not standing at the base of a mountain that he needed to climb. He’s not trying to conquer anything. There was no championship game in his near future. In fact, Paul is writing the book of Philippians while being in house arrest in Rome. It’s pretty difficult, I would imagine, to be wrongly imprisoned for something and to have a sense of joy in those types of circumstances. And yet we see this amazing reality in this book of Philippians that woven throughout the whole book is this theme of joy and the accompanying idea of rejoicing. Listen to some of the verses about this, this disposition of joy. Chapter one, verses three and four, he says, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, all making my prayer with joy.” Chapter two, verse two, “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord and one mind.” Chapter two, verse 17 and 18, he says, “even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and I rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”
Chapter three, verse one, “finally brothers rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.” Chapter four, verse four, he says, “rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.” And so what’s the secret? How can he face abundance and need? And still have joy? How can he be writing to this group of Christians from prison and still look forward to life ahead with joy? Well, we see that the secret to facing these things is found in verse 11 and it’s found in the idea of contentment.
Look with me at verse 11. He says, “not that I’m speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” Some of your translations might say, I’ve learned to be content in every situation. Contentment. Now we know that contentment has, always has an object of some kind, and here in this case the object of his contentment is the person of Jesus Christ himself. Look at the text with me. He gives this incredible sense of contrast. He talks about being brought low in verse 12. He talks about suffering from hunger. He talks about having great need. All of these are related ideas, and we know that there’s great temptation to suffer discontentment in those types of circumstances. It’s easy to wonder why something has happened to me.
It’s easy to feel like I’m trapped, that I can’t get out of the circumstance that I’m in. It’s easy to feel like I’ve battled illness again and again and again, and I never seem to get better. It’s easy to struggle with discontentment when you feel like you can barely scratch and claw to accomplish your most basic financial goals or needs. It’s easy to see how a person in jail would be discontent. It’s easy to see how some of you here today with all of the different struggles that you might have could fall prey to this type of disposition. It’s also interesting to note that Paul writes about having contentment not only in those circumstances, but in the opposite as well. You see he talks about abounding, having plenty, living in abundance.
And despite the fact that we regularly think the struggle for contentment is found in a lack of having things, there is an equal or greater struggle in finding contentment when you have abundance. And that’s why he mentions it. Seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? But I think that many more people struggle with contentment in our time, who are middle class and upper class people, because the temptations here are so multifaceted in their nature. The first temptation that leads us toward discontentment is found in the reality that no matter how much we have, contentment cannot ultimately be found in the things that our resources can provide.
The allure of nice things, the wonderful food that we can eat, the most enjoyable experience, this allure is so high and it is so within our flesh to naturally want to pursue them. Yet again and again and again, we find ourselves to be discontent. Maybe another vacation will do it. Maybe the rush of gambling will do it. Maybe another relationship will help me be content. Many of these things aren’t bad, some of them are, but in the quietness of our hearts, when we’re left with nothing but ourselves, we know that none of them will provide contentment.
Spurgeon once wrote that there was a piece of square paper That was put in the pulpit of famous preacher George Whitefield one day by way of a notice to this effect It said a young man Who has lately inherited a large fortune? Requests the prayers of the congregation Spurgeon went on to say right. Well was the prayer asked for when we go up the hill We need prayer that we may be kept steady Going down the hill of fortune. There is not half the fear of stumbling And so we begin to see the ideas of contentment and strength and how they relate. It’s in the secret to handling all circumstances. Contentment derived from faith in Christ leads to our strength. Let me explain further. Contentment derived from faith in Christ leads to our strength. Because strength has a lot more to do with contentment than it does with being a champion. Strength has a lot more to do with contentment than it does with being a conqueror. Now please note this with me though. When we talk about contentment in this life, we are not talking about laziness or apathy. To be content with what the Lord gives you does not mean that you don’t work hard.
But it does mean that your motivations for your work are rather different because contentment has to do with satisfaction And what Paul is saying here is that you can actually grow to become satisfied in the person of God himself so much so That the circumstances of life become of much lesser importance. I Wonder if you’ve ever thought about that before Where does your true? satisfaction lie We see Philippians 4 13 That paul’s contentment Leads to strength His satisfaction leads to strength based on the person of christ and some of us say well nick that sounds silly How could a spiritual relationship provide that type of contentment. I am a physical person. We live in a material world. And surely the physical and material things are what provide us contentment in this life, right? And besides, some of us might say, I’ve tried to pursue a relationship with God like that. I’ve pleaded to him, I’ve asked him. And again and again, I still, I’m not finding my contentment there. To which we must just very simply respond, then we don’t know Christ like Paul knows Christ. These words, faith, contentment, peace, strength, they’re all related ideas, aren’t they? Faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins ushers you into a relationship with the eternal God of the universe in which he is bigger than all of us. He’s bigger than all of our desires. He’s bigger than our circumstances. And once you begin to see him and you begin to know him, you begin to trust him. Your faith then grows and it moves from a faith that is saving in nature and it grows into a faith that is not only saving in nature, but it is abiding in nature. That you would trust God for your daily needs and your daily existence and trust him alone for those things.
We see that that faith then follows to trust, which talks then about the peace of God. If you consider Philippians chapter four in its entirety, the first part of the section, Paul says, rejoice, again I say rejoice. You can have the peace of God in your life when you do three things, he says. When you rejoice in the Lord, when you give thanksgiving to him, when you offer up your requests to him in prayer and supplication. Reliance on God in prayer leads to the peace of God that is upon you and so related ideas, faith and peace and contentment and strength. Faith leads to peace.
Peace of God in your life leads to contentment in him. Contentment then ultimately leads to strength. And so yeah, there’s huge challenges for us and we can rely on the strength of Christ. But they might not be the huge challenges that you would tend to think about. Rather than the huge football game, Paul is thinking about the task that the Lord has before him in the moment, the task that advances his purposes in his kingdom.
I mean, Christians were being killed. Paul had been beaten multiple times. He had seen thousands of people come to faith. He had experienced tremendous supernatural works and now he’s in jail. He’d seen the best of it and he’d seen the worst of it.
And through that all, he realized that strength has a lot more to do with contentment than it has to do with being a champion. Where does this come down to you and to me? Well, we see that indeed that the strength that God gives is something that gives us courage. Gives us courage to have that spiritual conversation with a friend. It gives us courage to turn from that sin that we’ve been finding so much comfort in. It gives us strength to risk something for the sake of the gospel. It gives us strength to even reorganize our lives in a way in a pursuit of serving God, because if it goes well or if it goes poorly, your contentment in this life is not based on whether or not people like you. It’s not based on whether or not there’s external success. It’s not based on whether or not you make more money. Your contentment in life is found in the Lord himself.
And that fuels you to keep following him faithfully, regardless of the external circumstances. Now surely this type of satisfaction in God that gave Noah the strength to build the ark against tremendous ridicule, that gave Moses the strength to go back to Egypt to face Pharaoh, it was satisfaction in the person of God that gave Daniel the ability to stand firm, even though he was going to be thrown into the lion’s den, that gave David the ability to write such psalms of praise, that gave Jeremiah the ability to prophesy to a people that didn’t want to hear the message that he had to say. It was satisfaction in the person of God himself that gave Jesus, his son, the strength to take up his cross and to follow him, and for his disciples then to do the exact same, to take up their crosses and follow him as well. Again and again and again throughout the Bible and throughout history, we see that when you become content in God, he becomes your strength. And then you can say with all of those who’ve gone before you, it doesn’t matter if I’m healthy or if I suffer illness, if I have great wealth or if everything is stripped away, if I have all or if I have nothing, as long as I have God himself, then that is enough.
Then you can say I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me are you content in him or are you still looking to find your contentment? someplace else friends strength Has a lot more to do with contentment than it does with being a champion You know God is Amazing in his ability to provide Contentment, you know that no two blades of grass are alike. I haven’t examined them all Yet, but that’s what they tell us no two grains of sand are alike
And the inventor of the microscope was able to confirm a fact that had been known in the sphere of the great to be true also in the sphere of the small. And that is God never repeated himself in his work. Think about that for a minute. A photographer who succeeded in photographing more than 10 ,000 snowflakes found each one to be of a different design, but mathematically perfect, all of them. God never made two people alike. And although we have varying personalities, we have diverse needs, we have differing ideas about what contentment in this life might look like.
Complete satisfaction in all things is only found in one place. It’s only found in the Heavenly Father himself. For our infinite needs, we have an infinite God. Come just as you are, he says, and you will find that the one who made the blades of grass and the grains of sand will take you to himself in a newness of reality that will give you perfect peace and satisfaction. So what’s the secret to facing all things, good or bad, abundance or need, all things well? Paul says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And strength has a lot more to do with contentment than it does with being a champion.
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** This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
