Philippians 4:13 "Defeated or Dynamic?" - Steadfast Hope with Steven J. Lawson

good morning coming to you from Dallas Texas from herbes house I'm Steve Lawson joined by my good friend Kent Stainback and we are looking together for a morning devotion in the book of Philippians in Philippians 4 in verse 13 I want you to get your Bible open it up follow along with me you're gonna love this study this is one of the most positive verses in the entire Bible Philippians 4 verse 13 I'm gonna read the verse I can do all things through him who strengthens me I mean Kim we could just go home right now I mean what a blessing to hear that verse read I can do all things through him who strengthens me but I want to walk around in this passage I'm entitle Ingush defeated or dynamic because when we find ourselves in a in a trial in a time of adversity which is where Paul finds himself we have to make a decision is this going to break me or is this gonna make me am I going to be defeated or I'm I'm gonna be dynamic and the Apostle Paul as he gives us his testimony under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he's telling the truth I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me he's not defeated he is he is dynamic in his Christian life and I want this for my life and for everyone who's watching us right now now it's Paul right this you would think Paul is sitting in a palace with attendants all around him and and that he is sitting upon a throne as he's making this statement but nothing could be further from the truth Kent he's sitting in prison he's not surrounded by attendants he's chained to Roman Praetorian Guard soldiers and yet his heart is soaring to the heights of of heaven and so if the Apostle Paul can live like this in prison in Rome and surely I can live like this in Dallas so I want this for my life and for your life and for everyone who's watching so let's just hop immediately into this text and there's three things that I want you to see I want you to see first of all the strength he begins with I can do I love that I want to be a can-do Christian I Paul says I can do all things through him who strengthens me he doesn't say I may do as if he needs permit a word of permission he doesn't say I might do as if this is a word a possibility or I should do this is a word of obligation no he says I can do with a god-given ability the word can do the verb can do means literally to be strong it means to have power it means to be made able to perform a task the Paul is spiritually empowered to do something now that leads second to the scope next two words all things and this is so important these two words are put in the emphatic position and begin the sentence actually in the original Greek it says all things I can do so all things here needs some qualifiers does it not he's not saying I can I am empowered to sin he doesn't say I can do all supernatural physical feats as if he doesn't have to eat and annete to drink didn't hit sleep anymore he's not saying our meaning I can perform miracles though Paul could I cannot no one alive today can he's not saying he's without human responsibility to be in the word to be in prayer but what he is saying is I can do everything within the will of God I can do all things according to the Word of God I can do all things for the glory of God and we get something of this spectrum Kant in verse 12 for he says I know how to get along in humble means that means to be without I know how to live in prosperity that means to have everything that I need he goes in any and every circumstance I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry of having abundance suffering need he's saying I can do all things in whatever the circumstance is whether I'm in the palace or I'm in the prison whether I'm in the penthouse or I'm in the basement whether I'm on the mountaintop or I'm in the valley I can do all things that God calls me to do in his Christian in my Christian life and it's true not just for the Apostle Paul it's true for you and me and sometimes someone will ask us to do something and we'll think you know I just don't know if I can do that well here's the deal if it's the will of God you can because God will empower you to do everything that's within the will of God now admittedly sometimes we we bite off more than we can chew and we we order more than we can eat and we exceed what God would have us to do or try to exceed but nevertheless if this is in the will of God by His grace and by the empowering Spirit we can do it because God enables us to do it now this leads to the third and last heading in this short devotion the source he says I can do all things through him who strengthens me not through me through him and the him refers to Christ verse 10 the antecedent is Christ some manuscripts like in the King James it actually says Christ through Christ who strengthens me that this word strengthens it bears me opening this up it's it's a it's a Greek word that comes into the English language as dynamite with a little prefix in front in in dynamite dynamic strength not just a little just a little bump but but earth-shaking strength life empowering strength and Christ strength let me just conclude this with giving you five things about this strength number one it's all sufficient Christ's strength is all sufficient whatever it is that God calls you to do he promises his strength is sufficient for you to do it second Corinthians 12 verse 9 the Apostle Paul asked the Lord to remove the thorn in the flesh and the Lord said to me verse 9 my grace is sufficient and the the word sufficient in the original language simply means his resources are far greater than your need whatever your need is his grace is more than sufficient it far exceeds your need my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness we supply the weakness God supplies the power ok I'm qualified you're qualified as you're watching this it's the great exchange your weakness for his strength and if you try to be strong you're not gonna have his strength you will only have his strength as you come to abide in Christ and rely upon with great dependence his strength and as you are availing yourself to Christ consciously aware in prayer and in meditation lord I need you Lord I cannot but you can I I so need your strength that is when He pours out his strength into our lives so my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell on me we just need to brag about our weakness so that we can brag about his strength in our lives he gives a greater grace very quickly second is comprehensive meaning this the strength that he gives mentally emotionally and volitionally the comprehensive every part of my life he gives me strength he gives me strength of mind strength of heart strength of will every aspect of my inner being he gives me strength third it's internal this is lived out in the depth of my being it's not something that's on the superficial no it's down in the very center of my life of evens 3 verse 16 Paul says that we are to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man did you hear that in the inner man we are strengthened with power and so on the inside we are to be strengthened with power where we were others cannot see God's at work on the inside of us last night I saw some ducks going across the surface of a pond and it just looked like they were cruising but underneath if I could have only seen those webbed feet were paddling strongly it's the same in our Christian life as we see one another it may appear to us that it's effortless but on the inside of our heart and soul God's power is driving us and energizing us to live the Christian life forth its individual this is true for every believer not just some believers every believer has this power and strength available to them and fifth it's mediated it is mediated through the means of grace through the Word of God through prayer through fellowship through worship through ministry through service through obedience it's not an automatic we just flicked the switch no we have to be in the word we have to be in prayer we have to be in fellowship we have to be in church that's the end of the word we have to be in the game we have to be serving and as we are then the reality of God's strength is made real in us so just think about this for your life I can do all things through him who strengthens me what encouragement may you and I enter into the experience of what Paul is saying here so Kent what what have we got I hope we have some questions yeah so in in regards to I can do all things through Christ is this verse is it sometimes taken out of context yes where someone would say you know I want a bat 350 and I can do that all things through Christ or I can win this golf tournament because I can do all things through Christ how do you how does that wrong or right think I can make this business deal yeah yeah well Kent I had when I was in college at Texas Tech I had this verse hanging on my wall over my bed okay so every every day every night I walk in my dorm room there's this first staring at me and I was tempted a couple times just to kind of claim this verse when I was unprepared for an exam okay thank you okay well the Lord exactly Lord you got it you got it you got to help me office yes all things yeah or you're trying to get a date with some girl and you just quite claiming this I can do all things through Christ or whatever nonsense I quickly found out that that didn't get me an A in the exam or a date with a girl or whatever yeah that this deals with everything in the will of God now the will of God for me was to discipline myself and study and not wait to the last second to study and and then just pray for some kind of a miracle hmm no I needed to have done my assignments and to have studied and been prepared so I can't take this out of context right and and think this is going to fulfill every desire something that you want yeah and and I mean I I wanted to start on the football team I didn't start on the football team I couldn't claim this verse to get me where I needed but God had a better plan for me because I began to preach while hoes in college and I began to be involved in ministry and I was able to do all things that God had for me to do which was going down a different path that that I would be prepared to do something like this this morning so would you say that all things would apply to someone let's say that's having difficult they're they're having to stay in their home yeah they have medical issues that maybe they're older or younger they're dealing with medical issues dealing with depression there yeah I'm having to stay at home they're believers would you say this would be good to say yes Lord I can't I mean is this is can you apply this verse to that absolutely you can what this would mean let's say for a shut-in mm-hmm and someone who physically is not able to get out of the house like they would like to mm-hmm I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me this does not mean that suddenly you're going to come out of your wheelchair and be able to walk to the grocery store but what it does mean is in your wheelchair you can have joy and peace you can be a prayer warrior mm-hmm you can encourage your family you can be a witness to everyone who comes to call upon you it means that you can live a transcendent dynamic victorious life that in reality may be a far greater testimony to the grace of God then someone who's healthy and someone who has all their physical strength and is able to move around what a what a powerful testimony it is for that shut-in there been many times as a pastor I've gone into a hospital room or called on a widow and gone to her home and I'll tell you who gets the greatest blessing it's me not them but me because I see in that weak frail body how they are living a victorious Christian life there's a twinkle in their eye there is a there's a dynamic about their voice as they speak of the Lord and I look in the mirror at my you know body that's relatively healthy compared to them and I think you know I'm I'm complaining I'm moaning and here you would think they're an Olympic champion if you didn't know they were living in a frail body like that so I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me in the circumstance in which Christ places me and it doesn't mean that this changes the circumstance and we just looked at verse 12 in humble means and in heaven all he needs is not where he wants to be necessarily is he he I mean he is a hyper hack hyperactive goal-oriented project driven male who has been converted by the grace of God for Paul to sit still for two years and in under house arrest in Chains I would it would it would kill anyone yet here he is dynamic in the Lord he's writing Ephesians Colossians Philippians Philemon he's disciple Assange he's he's leading praetorian guard to Christ he is he can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth this season of his life before he is released and in fact he says in verse four rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice and I mean this speaks volumes to me of what they're there's a lot of room for for spiritual growth in my life that's for sure so you would say then that maybe this teaching that's pervasive in Christianity today the health and wealth prosperity he's not even for use yes this verse for people yes I want this so the health wealth Christianity is not Christianity it's just positive thinking seminars on steroids throwing in Christian vocabulary putting it on a on that label on a bottle but it still got the bad content on the inside it's not biblical Christianity and and biblical Christianity is to be locked up in a Roman prison like Paul is but for his heart to be soaring to the heights of heaven yeah and knowing that he's not going to be released for a little while knowing that he's supposed to stand trial before Caesar who has the power of life and death knowing that the other preachers in Rome are talking bad about him and are ruining his reputation because they're jealous of Paul and all the attention he gets and his giftedness etc and he's having to bear all of this and at times even his closest associates forsaking him so no Paul is an example - he's the greatest Christian ever lived I think arguably and he was as the old country preacher would say walking on the sunny side of Hallelujah Avenue he was though his body is sitting in a Roman prison well can I guess we need to wrap this up I want to say thank you wherever you're watching from around the world we'll be back tomorrow morning and steadfast hope I trust is a reality in your life that you do have a steadfast hope thank you for spending this time with us I consider it a great stewardship entrusted to me that you would tune in and watch these these devotions may God take this truth and deposit it into your life and may you be a living epistle of this truth this day god bless you I'll see you tomorrow morning [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music]

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Length: 24min 4sec (1444 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2020