#icandoallthings

I was a little disappointed when we put the new carpet in last year, not with the new carpet but with the removal of the old carpet.

You’ve probably heard the story about how on Thanksgiving Sunday 2005, six weeks before the building opened, we had our first service in the building. 

The building was really just a shell, and after the service we handed out sharpies and invited people to write their favourite scriptures on the concrete floor to be immortalized.  That was the plan, and it sounded good in theory, after all we were using permanent markers.  But you know what they say, In theory there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice there is.

Last summer when we tore up the old carpet I was excited to see all the promises that we had written on the floor, and there they were, gone.  I would suspect that it was the glue that held down the carpet, combined with the scraping that eradicated our scriptures. 

However we are promised in Isaiah 40:8  The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”  And Jesus promised us in Matthew 24:35  Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.

I can’t tell you every scripture that was written on the floor, I do know what I wrote and it is on the concrete beneath my feet, I wrote 1 Corinthians 9:16  Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

And even though the writing on the floor is gone I can tell you that the one scripture that was written over and over again and that was Philippians 4:13  For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Our preaching series this Fall at Cornerstone is “Hashtag This” and we’ve been looking at various words and phrases in the Bible that deserve a hashtag.  For those who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about.   A hashtag is simply a means of identifying a common theme in social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.    So you type the #sign or hashtag followed by a description of your subject, written without spaces.

Week one was #gointoalltheworld  Week two was #castthefirststone and two weeks ago we looked at #turntheothercheek. 

I would suspect that 2000 years ago if Hashtags had of been a thing that when Paul’s letter was being read someone would have claimed Philippians 4:13 with the hashtag #icandoallthings, and while I love the verse and I have claimed it many times, most of those times I claimed it out of context. 

Let’s begin by looking at How We Take the Text Out of Context

We’ve been down this road before and you’ve heard me say it before but listen up this is really important.   As you read the bible and claim the promises of the bible always, always, always remember the words of D. A. Carson who often quoted his minister father saying  "A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text."

Like the man who was looking for direction from the bible and so he decided that he would simply open the bible and put in his finger and go from there.  So he did and his finger landed on the last part of Matthew 27:5 Judas hanged himself, he figured that couldn’t be what he has looking for so he did it again this time his finger landed on Luke 10:37 now go and do the same.  Well, that wasn’t getting him anywhere so he decided one more try, and this time he ended up at John 13:27, “Hurry and do what you're going to do."

And yes all three verses came from the bible, and if you put them together they would indeed say “Judas hanged himself, now go and do the same, Hurry and do what you're going to do."  But that wasn’t the intent, those texts may be from the bible but they are out of context.

So regardless of what you might think, Philippians 4:13  For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength,  does not necessarily mean that you can do everything that you set your mind to through the power of Christ.  We keep on using that verse, but I don’t think it means what we think it means. 

If that was the case we all be ultra-talented, uber-rich, super successful and very thin and we aren’t.  And as long as we cling to a promise which isn’t really a promise at all, we are destined for disappointment, guilt and doubt.  Because when we can’t do it, whatever it is then we feel spiritually defeated and think, “Well, Paul said that we could do everything through Christ, so how come I can’t stay on my diet, how come I can’t learn to sing, or how come my business failed?” 

And those are good questions, if we were meant to take Philippians 4:13 in isolation.  But Philippians 4:13 wasn’t written in isolation.  Paul didn’t just write those words on a slip of paper and send them to the Philippian church.   “Oh look everybody Paul wrote to us and said Philippians 4:13  For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength,  

So, what was Paul telling the people he wrote that letter to all those years ago?  Well to discover the truth here we first need to put Paul’s words into context.

We Need to Put the Text into Context

Remember this was a letter, we are reading someone else’s mail here.  The letter was written by the Apostle Paul to the church in the city of Philippi. 

And it was a special group that Paul was writing to.  Back in the book of Acts we discover that it was Paul who had started this church.  And it had begun with his preaching on a riverbank and with one convert, a lady named Lydia. 

And so Paul had seen this church born and watched as it grew up.  He is writing to the church as the founding pastor of the church, which meant he had a little skin in the game, so to speak.  And by this time the Church in Philippi was pretty much a mixed bag of folks. 

There were those Jewish, Roman and Greek backgrounds.  So understand not only did they come from different cultures they came from different faith back grounds and different economic and social backgrounds as well.

There were folks in the church who had been raised in the Monotheistic faith of the Jews as well as the Polytheistic faith of the Romans and Greeks.

There were servants, masters and small business owners.  But regardless of their differences they were one church and one family, they had all found a church to call home.

It’s now been eight or nine years since Paul started the church and he is now in prison for preaching the Gospel.  And it’s from his prison cell in Rome that this letter was written, it was one of four books in the New Testament that Paul wrote from his prison cell.  And for the most part this has been a letter of thanksgiving and celebration, a letter of encouragement written to lift people up.   

And in closing Paul wants to end on a positive note.  It seems that the church had lost track of Paul for a couple of years, they didn’t realize that he had been arrested and imprisoned.  

Remember this was long before social media, Paul was unable to update his Facebook status to indicate that he was in prison, he couldn’t tweet about it or change his “Linked in” profile from tentmaker to prisoner.  

But when the church discovered his predicament they sent a messenger from the church along with a care package.  And Paul is thanking them for what they’ve done, but he’s also assuring them that he isn’t upset that they had taken so long to respond.  And this is what puts vs. 13 in context.

So Paul begins this section by writing  Philippians 4:10  How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me.

The sentiment here gets a little weird, because he starts by kind of saying “thank you for your help.” But in the next verse he basically says “But I really didn’t need it.”  Philippians 4:11-12  Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.

So Paul is saying “Thanks, sort of.  It’s nice that I have what you sent but I was content with what I had before you sent it.”  You know when someone gives you a present and you say, “Thank you, but you didn’t have to.”  That’s what Paul was saying, and that is what leads into verse 13 and what puts #icandoallthings into context.

Let’s read it in context.  Philippians 4:11-13  Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.  For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Listen up folks, Philippians 4:13 is the secret to spiritual contentment, not necessarily the secret to worldly success.   It would appear that Paul was teaching a concept that was later spelled out by Alfred Nobel who said “Contentment is the only real wealth.”

Let’s flip it around and read it another way. 

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.  

And so while seeking the promise of success, we may very well miss the promise of contentment.  It was Bernard Williams who reminded us  “We may pass violets looking for roses. We may pass contentment looking for victory.”

And you understand that the real promise of Philippians 4:13 may be at odds with the perceived promise of Philippians 4:13.

Because the promise that we want to claim from Philippian 4:13 is often asking God to do what we can’t do on our own.   Or at least what we don’t think we can do on our own. 

One thing that we often miss is that God has already given us the ability to do the impossible.  Human history is full of instances where people have done the impossible. 

Before May 6 1954 it was thought to be impossible for a man to run a mile in less than four minutes, until Roger Bannister did it.  Now it is routine.

Before December 17 1903 the dream of heavier than air motorized flight was considered impossible, until 2 brothers proved it possible.  Remember until you try the impossible you will never know what is possible.

Before July 20 1969 very few people thought it would be possible for a man to walk on the moon, and there are some people who still think that is impossible. 

Every day we do what used to be impossible, from talking on cell phones to driving automobiles, to surviving cancer, simply because someone decided to do the impossible.

And if the truth was known, too often we want God to do the possible for us.  It’s just that for us to do it on our own seems like way too much work so we ask God for help.

For our first ten years as s church we met in rented facilities and we kept trying to find a way to get land and build, but we weren’t all that serious about sacrificing for it.   We really wanted God to provide a piece of land and a building without us having to pay too much for it. 

It was only when we moved ahead with the capital campaign and folks in the church committed over $350,000.00 toward the project that we realized that God had already provided for our building.

And today I still talk to Pastors of churches that meet in schools and theatres, and community centres and they want God to give them land and provide them with a building, but they aren’t willing to do it themselves.

And maybe if we listen hard enough we can hear God whisper those words that parents across time have told their children.  “You can do it yourself.”

You can quit drinking, you can lose weight, you can read the bible you can love the unlovable. 

And notice that Paul’s contentment didn’t depend on what he had.  He said he was content when he had a little and he was content when he had lots.  And sometimes it easier to be content with little than with lots.  We’ve all felt the curse of the desire for the “Next best thing.”  Perhaps today Paul would write, I’m content with a “flip phone or an iPhone 7.”

It was Charles Caleb Colton who wrote “True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.”   As a point of interest Colton was an English preacher in the early 1800s.  And while you may think you’ve never heard of him, you’ve probably quoted him.  It was Colton who wrote “Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.”  And “True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.”

The danger of discontentment is spelled out by Solomon in  Ecclesiastes 1:8  Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.

And Paul warns Timothy of the consequence of discontentment in 1 Timothy 6:6-10  Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.  After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it.  So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.  But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

But it’s not enough with knowing the context of Philippians 4:13 because while one danger is to take it out of context we have to Be Careful to Not Take the “In Context” Out of Context  And now you think that I’m just babbling. 

Paul tells the church in Philippi that they didn’t need to worry about him because he had discovered the secret of contentment.  But while Paul may have been content Paul was never complacent.

Had Paul’s contentment led to complacency, the church as we know it would not exist.  Paul was always pushing himself to do more, to plant more churches to reach more people.  His hashtag probably would have been #contentnotcomplacent. 

It was Jimmy Carter who said “I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it's so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.”    

Every one of us has the power within us to change our world if not the world.

God calls us to do better and to be better Christians.  We can’t be content to not grow as Christians, instead we care called to strive, to grow and to mature.  We can’t be content to see evil and allow evil without speaking out against evil.  Albert Einstein said  “The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.”

We can’t be content to let someone else to change the world, to let someone else rescue the slaves or feed the hungry or provide clean water in West Africa   And we can make a difference, if only we are willing to step outside of our comfort zone,

Which is why Benjamin E. Mays wrote  “The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.”

If the most famous prayer of them all is the Lord’s prayer.  Which by the way speaks to both contentment and complacency when Jesus taught us to pray “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”    We are content in the will of God but we can’t be complacent as long as God’s will is not being done in our lives.

So if the most famous of prayers is the Lord’s prayer I’d say the Serenity prayer has to run a close second.    Written by Pastor Reinhold Neibuhr in the 1940’s and now a staple for AA and other 12 step groups, it seems like a good way to end today’s message.  Let’s pray it together:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,  And wisdom to know the difference.