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good morning church and happy sunday it's already 20 21 but we're still working from home we still have our service online and for most it's uncomfortable for most we cannot wait for the day that everything is back to normal everyone can meet each other we can meet in person but it is my prayer that we do not wait for that time that we find joy we find peace in the circumstance that we are in right now as christians it is my prayer that we anchor our hope our faith in our lord not in our situation i hope that we anchor our faith in him and we also learn to praise him we learn to enjoy him even when the situations does not favor us even if the situation is uneasy and though this is a hard pill to swallow i earnestly pray that each and every one of us would have that heart so this morning as we sing our first song exceeding joy may we reflect on that but let us also continue to pray for those who have been laid off of their jobs who are finding it difficult to adjust to the new normal so let's join me in singing our first song and let's sing praise and worship to our [Music] found lord joy [Music] jesus [Music] mercy breaks eternal life [Music] praise me [Music] my [Music] he's done great things [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] for her [Music] is [Music] you seen me through the seasons [Music] [Music] you'll never let me [Music] [Music] the seasons [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] for your faithfulness me go [Music] everyone needs compassion love that's never [Music] let me [Music] nations [Music] my god is mighty the same [Music] jesus conquered [Music] [Music] again [Music] [Music] i surrender [Music] he is mighty foreign [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] singing for the glory [Music] [Music] he can move [Music] he is [Music] my god [Music] there is [Music] could search for all the eternity [Music] children's [Music] is [Music] [Music] i could search [Music] is [Music] welcome to the lighthouse with fatal bernaffle we are very happy that you can join us once again for our worship service this morning why don't we come to the lord this morning in prayer as we prepare our hearts to worship our god and king father we thank you father for today we thank you father for your grace we thank you father for your mercy because through your grace and through your mercy we are given access into the holy of holies lord because of your grace and mercy and because of what christ did on the cross we are able to come before you with confidence knowing that the divine the veil has been torn from top to bottom allowing us entrance into your presence father we come before your presence this day to once again father submit all our all our concerns into your hands the bible tells us that we are to cast our anxiety on you because you care for us and for that father we thank you we thank you because we have a god who is like a mother hen ready to protect us under the shadow of your wings we have a god who continues to provide for us like our father who continues to go out of his way to make sure that the child will have everything he needs father we thank you because in you we see a god who loves us and cares for us even though a lot of times we don't deserve that love father we continue to commit father each one of us into your hands this morning as we come before your presence once again we ask that your presence will be among us that your spirit would continue to work in us and through us that this morning we could once again focus on one thing and one thing alone and that is to worship you oh lord father we commit father each one of us into your hands father because i know that our hearts it's very easy for us to get distracted with us with a small noise with us with a wandering thought and it's very easy for us father to just simply lose sight of the one person we are supposed to be focusing on this morning father it is our prayer that indeed you would challenge you would continue to keep us in focus and be able to worship you in spirit and in truth father this morning father we ask the spirit to prepare our hearts that whatever may hinder us father me we may learn to submit them into your hands and to lay them down at your feet father you are our god and you deserve the best of our worship the best of our praise the best that we can bring to you and this morning remind us once again that that that is what we are doing today to give you glory to give you worship to give you praise father once again we ask um that our hearts may be ready to receive your word we pray father for our speaker pastor jojo pastor jose and may you be with him may you guide him may you um use him mightily father even as you continue to touch him with your words that the words he shares with us this morning will have your blessing we'll have your anointing father once again we commit father our church into your hands we pray father for your blessing we pray father for our church members we pray father for our country and we continue to live our father each and every one of us father that we can continue to grow and love you more father once again we thank you because you are our god and we continue to commit this morning's worship into your hands may your name be glorified through our worship may you be pleased with what we offer this morning once again we commit this morning's worship into your hands we bless you in the mighty name jesus we pray amen and amen a blessed lord sunday to all of our brothers and sisters in christ there at lighthouse of faith tabernacle and also to your pastor pastor stephen dime it is a privilege and an honor for me to be able to share god's word with you i would have wanted to be actually be with you in service but of course because of this pandemic we are unable to have our physical face-to-face worship but i believe soon and very soon uh we will do so and but i send you greetings from kalahan christian baptist church and um i hope and pray that all are well with you and with your family that you are all protected and kept safe from this virus but more so i pray that you are all growing in your faith in walking the lord despite the challenges that we are facing at these times let me begin by a story there was an airline pilot who was flying over the tennessee mountains and when they came across a lake he pointed this direction he called this attention of his co-pilot and and pointed direction towards the lake and said you know when i was a kid i would go row boating with my dad there uh at that lake and i would look up whenever there's a fly that would whenever there was a plane that would fly and hover over us i would make a wish and say that i would wish that would fly in that plane but now that i'm flying this plane and looking down how i wish that i was down there on the row boat fishing you know it's hard to be content nowadays isn't it you know we've contentment is a very elusive thing we feel that we go after what we think will make us happy only to find at the end that we were not contented with what we have gained in fact we're happier we could say when we started at the beginning if there's one thing that this pandemic has taught us it is this that we need to be content we were basically down to our bare minimums a lot of us were down to our bare minimums during the lockdown during the whole time of lockdown and so we learned the art of contentment but now that things are starting to shift back to new normal it is a challenge again for us to learn what it means to be content so how can we truly find contentment and what does it really mean for that we need to go to paul in his letters in uh to the philippian church specifically the last part of his letter in philippians 4 verses 10 to 19. you see paul was in prison in rome and he was writing this letter to the christians in philippi but the question is how did he end up in prison well it all began with his return to jerusalem after his third missionary journey to affirm to the people that he was still loyal and obedient to the law he went to the temple to participate in the ceremony there he was accused of teaching against the law and violating the temple rules and he was and there was a mob that was almost attempted to kill him had it not been for roman authorities that pulled him out and protected him eventually uh they kept him in custody to protect him from jewish enemies he spent two years as a prisoner in caesarea eventually appealed to caesar and it was shipped to rome where he again spent two years in prison during that time he wrote certain epistles um from prison one of which is this um letter to the christians in philippi or as we know it uh book of philippians and um why don't we go to the lord in prayer let's pray heavenly father may you speak to us through your word this is our prayer in jesus name amen now paul's unique uh in philippi is is quite unique it's indifferent in a sense that he was not imprisoned with other prisoners we could scholars saying that he was put in a house arrest because they couldn't really find a charge against him but they could not really release him until the case is settled so he was locked in with a roman guard well actually uh four roman guards every day for six hour shifts and he was tied to them that was how he was in prison and during the assignments i said he wrote this letter but what is more interesting is the kind of letter that he wrote to the christian philippi because this was a letter that he wrote with words like rejoice and finding joy and also contentment how could someone who is writing from prison writing to those who are free telling them to find contentment and find joy in christ you see from paul we learn the secrets of contentment he planned to go to rome as a preacher but he ended up as a prisoner what was interesting is that again this was a person who encouraged them to have faith in the lord and rejoice in the lord despite his situation the philippine church had sent financial gift as to support to him he wants to express his heartfelt thanks but at the same time he doesn't want to give them the impression that he was not contented prior to them giving him that help even though he was a very in a very difficult situation he doesn't want his owners to think he had been disconnected before discontented before the gift arrived he doesn't on the other hand does not want to know let them feel that their gifts were unappreciated so he combines his thanks with a valuable lesson on the secrets to contentment and and that's what i'm going to share with you this morning the first secret that we find here is the fact that paul encourages us to rejoice in the sufficiency of christ let me say that again rejoice in the sufficiency of christ philippians 4 verse 10 says this i rejoice greatly in the lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me indeed you have been concerned but you had no opportunity to show it here rejoices over the fact that the philippian church is able to support him and renew their concern for him he cites that indeed they were concerned about him but they took quite some time and they had no opportunity to show it the gift that the philippians had sent to paul caused him to rejoice but for a different reason he was not rejoicing because of the gift but because of the thought that came with it but we always say it's the thought that counts specifically as far as the philippian christians are concerned it is really their thought that truly counted for paul because it meant that they had this significant and relationship caring relationship that paul and the church had paul was afraid that he might be misunderstood when he mentioned that a considerable time had lapsed between between their giving and the most recent gift that they have had he did not want to wish to convey the false impression that he felt it had been too long since they had sent uh their gift kind of like saying what took you so long no that was not it at all you see paul did not want to be an added burden to the philippian christians he is careful that he does not come across as soliciting for their gifts you know kind of like we see the philippine christians love paul very much they are sensitive to his needs so probably if paul would just say a certain word that relates to need you know some christians might say hey didn't he write didn't we hear it right did he really say or write in his letter that he has a need hey guess what we need to gather together go to lydia's house and plan how much we would give and what we could give in support for paul he needs us you know he didn't want to give that impression to them paul does not really solicit help from them he did not post his if he paul were living in our day and age he would make sure that he would be careful on his facebook post twitter posts or instagram posts so that does not come across as soliciting help you know urgently needed no it's kind of like you see paul's kind of like us some of us may be hesitant to express to others what we need especially uh us as asians or filipino chinese out of shame you know paisekong right or you know we have that certain attitude that we don't want to impinge on people and you know interrupt people or something or be a burden to other people you know i've been uh right now in our church as a pastor i would take the time to call certain people or text certain people of of any prayer request that they might have and guess what out of probably 10 let's say i send 10 private messages or direct messages to people uh probably only one out of that 10 or 2 out of that 10 would respond with an actual prayer request no okay that's okay so what do i do uh i would go to the next resort and that is actually call them up if they're available so i'll give them a call i would ask if it's okay to call them on the phone or on the cell phone now give them a call and they would actually ask or probably if they would come to church i would actually ask them how are you doing and you know what we always have that you know quick answer everything's fine oh okay jose right jose is the favorite book of chinese hosea we say that a lot of times but but you know what only to find out only to find out from probably another christian friend that they're actually going through difficulty one time i heard from another leader of the church that one of our members actually got into an accident and was unable to work first for a few weeks or a few months and none of us are uh well a few weeks none of us were even aware of that but when i would ask certain people when i would ask um let's say i would ask the child the son who i'm disciple online discipling the son would say everything is okay you know so you have that because of because of our shame culture or pisces culture right and so paul didn't want also to be an added burden to them but but there are some things i'd like to focus on as far as paul's letter is concerned so paul's voice is soliciting for your help despite his seeming need how come the secret lies in one word contentment paul makes it very very clear that he is content in all circumstances in philippians 4 11 he says i'm not saying this because i'm in need for i've learned to be content whatever the circumstances notice paul learned to be content in all conditions you know it didn't come naturally for him it says i have learned to be content he learned it okay it is a process something that we learn from day to day as we experience god each day the key to this process is understanding that everything major or minor is in god's hands verse 12 i know what it is to be neat and i know what it is to be a plenty i have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry whether living in plenty or in one now paul talks about learning the secret now in greek time during that time greek mythology uh learning a secret meant they had worked their way up through a certain ladder where they're of lower degrees to finally reaching that mystery now paul in a way in a sense learned it that way not as a mystery matter but he learned it through a process of everyday encountering the lord and as he encountered the lord he learned through experience how the lord has been faithful you know one thing i do personally at the end of the year is i would go through my journal or what i call a planner look at the activities look at the things because what i do is i tend to write down everything that has happened throughout the day in that journal and at the end of the year i would go back to the journal from january to december and i would reflect on what god has done and guess what there were challenges last year definitely for all of us right even for my family but through it all i have seen the hand of god and how he has been faithful and looking back over all the years that i have known the lord and served the lord i have seen his faithfulness all throughout so i've learned the secret i have learned slowly but surely i'm still struggling with it but i'm learning the secret of contentment as each year comes knowing that god is in control and that god provides so he says being well fed or hungry living in plenty or in one in every situation so in hunger you know it's really tough to learn to be content in hunger we don't want to have a class 101 or or a hunger 101 right we don't want that but yet we experience times like that in a way times of need times of hunger and it's very hard but the lord leads us through that so as to for us to learn to depend upon him so again it's hard difficult to learn to be content when there's not enough food on the table when not enough money on the bank but guess what as much as we need to be content in hunger or need we also need to learn to be content in plenty why times of plenty could cause us to turn away from god and so we need to learn to be content in whatever god has given us you see uh in times when in times of hunger in times of need we're tempted to get our eyes off of the lord and go and grow worry that's when we need a trusting heart in times of abundance we're tempted to forget our need for the lord and trust in our supplies rather than sources and that's where we need a thankful heart and acknowledge daily that everything truly comes from him so contentment is one of those concepts that's easier to define than it is to experience why is that it's because for us there is a tendency for us to seek contentment in our possessions or in our position rather than in a person right when everything's going our way when zeros are added to our bank account or when we're promoted to a higher status or position then we find contentment but what if all these are gone right you see contentment should not be in our possessions nor in our position but in a person in a person of christ but as we advance in these areas we discover contempt with the solution because we're seeking it in the wrong places and in the wrong way you see contentment does not depend on what we have but on who we have let me say that again contentment does not depend on what we have but on who we have the writer hebrew says in hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for he said i will never leave you nor forsake you you see there contentment with what you have is tied to the fact that jesus will never leave us nor forsake us it's not be content with what you have because i will provide for you it says be content with what you have for i will never leave you nor forsake you jesus is the secret of contentment we can face all challenges and trials successes and failures because of christ you see we need to be reoriented from our self-sufficiency to christ's sufficiency that we can be content in christ because christ is with us in all circumstances someone puts it this way when jesus is your soul satisfaction you will have true satisfaction in your soul let me say it again when jesus is your soul and only satisfaction you will have satisfaction in your soul when i was um when i was a young believer um or a young pastor i attended i think i was already pastored i attended a uh crusade by uh anne graham lotz she is the daughter of the late billy graham and she brought with him a uh his her worship leader named fernando ortega some of you may have heard of him or may have heard him one of the songs that struck me because that was the theme of that conference was the song give me jesus you may have known the lyrics in the morning when i rise in the morning when i rise in the morning in the morning when i rise give me jesus right and says give me jesus you can have all this world but give me jesus think about it right it's a beautiful beautiful hymn could you would you be able to say that you can have all this world but give me jesus simply put we remember jesus as our only satisfaction in the morning in a midnight in our work and even earth death just give me jesus you know what makes this song or this hymn even more beautiful and poignant is because if you look at the history it is not an original by fernando ortega it's actually a song or him originating as an african-american spiritual written during the time of slavery in the u.s of course we all know that just this week joe biden is the new is the 46th president inaugurated president of the us right and if you heard his inaugural speech he talked about unity he talked about communists he talked against racism right which is now an issue in the us black lives matter and all that but if you would look back in history the african-americans during that earlier time really suffered it was like they were they had no they were going through difficulties they had they were stripped of their dignity and every human possession and yet despite that they were able to sing in as a hymn to the to the lord saying give me jesus wow paul says we had learned the secret of being filled and being going hungry and that secret is stated in verse 13. so the second point rely on the strength of christ let me say that again rely on the strength of christ verse 13 i can do everything through him who gives me strength or i can do all things through him who strengthens me in some other translations right i'm sure you're all familiar with that verse before i get to that i just want to point out certain things you see paul did not say i cannot do anything or everything right so it's it's not that is the language of pessimism that will cause people to just you know have fear of on being unable to do things that god wants him to do he did not say i can do everything period that is the language of presumption you're presuming that by your own strength you can do all things but he says i can do all things through christ who strengthens me that is the language of power that is a dynamic contentment that is a nami christian life this is a victory over temptation grace over trouble strength for every task but let's look at this first further this is the most often misquoted or misapplied verse in all scripture yes we find this verse involves on boxing trunks mma jerseys or warm-up robes athletic jerseys and basketball shoes right right now we have the assumption of the nba season and a lot if you're an nba fan like me you know you you you know that you know uh basketball fans like me you know that one of the players who would who has resumed this play know has gone back to his winning ways in a way is of course that man steph curry and you know if you associate steph curry with his shoes with the shoes where he says i can do all things through christ who strengthens me this precise verse now i'm not against him putting that on his shoes but again what i'm saying is this when you have philippians 13 4 13 it doesn't mean that a particular fighter will not out or submit his opponent it doesn't mean that you can achieve everything that you so desire in your hobby or career it doesn't mean that you can shoot the lights out and shoot from way out of the mid mid point line in basketball just like steph curry could no the phrase all things limits the meaning of this verse and establishes its boundaries you would have to look at the context that defines what all things mean and here when you look at the context what he's saying is that i have the power through christ to find contentment and enjoy life no matter what comes my way you see the whole theme up to that point it's all about contentment and so paul is saying i can find contentment despite the struggles and difficulties i can do all things i can do i find that contentment in christ through him who strengthens me the key is to recognize that contentment is a byproduct of faithfulness to christ so instead of frantically seeking contentment you and i need to pursue our walk with christ because as you pursue christ then you will find contentment it should not be the other way around seeking contentment to find christ no it is to pursue christ and as you pursue him you find contentment along the way third is to rest in god's supply in christ rest in god's supply in christ verse 19 and my god will meet all of your needs according to his glorious riches in christ jesus my god will meet all your needs according to scriptures in christ jesus this is the second and often misquoted a verse in all of scripture as much as people mistakenly assume that verse 13 is like a magical formula that transforms them into steph curry now verse 19 is also assumed that god will supply all their needs regardless of their lifestyle regardless of their walk with him but as much as we need to look at the context of verse 13 we need to look at the context of verse 19 which is found in verses 14 to 18 and as you look at those verses you find that paul goes back to that whole issue of their giving to him and there we find the key to all this god will give us or supply all of our needs you see first and foremost what you find here is paul commenced them for their giving paul commands the philippian christians for their giving because of their partnership in giving they're being partners in giving philippians 14 yet it was good of you to share my troubles you see it's not just their giving financially it is because they were supportive and in partnership with paul even in times of trouble they were there for him right so this is the kind of partnership that they have you have done well to share with me in my persecution for the cause of the gospel that was a way of putting it once again it's not the money itself is what the gift signifies that is important to paul secondly they're being pioneers and give in giving verse 15 moreover i see philippians know in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel when i set out from macedonia not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you only they were the pioneers in that way they have started to give to paul when paul ministered in philippi there was of course lydia there was the jailer there were people who came to help paul and they continued to do so right at the very onset of his ministry we can recall that lydia came to faith in christ and immediately opened her house to paul and his companions and the jailer too set paul and silas down to emile after he came to faith but example paul chose what this was they're sharing with him in his missionary endeavors it was one thing for them to give to paul while he was there it was another thing for them to continue to give to paul even when paul already left for another mission when he wanted when he set out for macedonia they were there to give right they were not like selfish and say you have to be here before we give you no you go the lord calls you there we will give thirdly they're being persistent in giving it's not a one time big time giving to paul it says in verse 16 for even when i was in thessalonica you sent me eight again and again when i was in need see that's the key again and again they continued to give to paul to imbolism they were not counting how much they have already given it's like okay elo we have already given him what he needed right for this year so doubt it enough right no they continued to give to the to paul and so paul commenced them for their giving and paul commenced them specifically for their gifts you know paul describes his gifts first he counts them as an investment for eternity not that i'm verse 17 not that i'm looking for a gift but i'm looking for what may be credited to your account how could that be an investment for eternity because every time that they give paul uses that in reaching the loss so their giving is actually used to minister and reaching the loss for christ and in discipleship so that's how it is right it's like for example when you invest in a invest in something in a company right what does a company do they invest it in other you know they invest it uh an agent told me once you know if you invest in this what we will do is invest your investment in other stocks so to speak so that it spreads out you know it's kind of like what they were doing as they invest in paul paul is using their investment in reaching more people for christ right so it's winning and discipling more and more who will disciple others see that's multiplication that's exponential growth of their investment so my brothers and sisters when you invest in a pastor what you are doing is investing in eternity or investing in a missionary you're investing for all eternity secondly they count it as an offering he counts it as an offering to god verse 18 i received full payment and even more i'm empty supplied now that i received from my frauditors the gifts you sent they are fragrant offering an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to god you see our gifts or our giving is actually a fragrant offering to the lord you're not just giving to a to your pastor or to a missionary or to to the lord's work you're giving to the lord himself it is your offering to him right so when you're giving it's not it's not uh it's not like saying okay the uh this is just for a pastor but it is for the lord an acceptable gift to god hebrews 13 verse 15 through him then let us continue continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to god that is the fruit of the lips that technology's name do not declare to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to god even our giving is a sacrifice pleasing to the lord thirdly faithful givers can count on god's supply this is where we come to verse 19 by the way and my god will meet all your needs according to searches in glory in christ jesus as i pointed out earlier this is the second most often misquoted because when we look at this verse we're thinking oh okay so god is promising us to give us all that we need right it's just like god becomes a vending machine you put in something he gives you back or probably not even a vending machine it might be just going to a place and then demanding or expecting god to give let me first point out certain things about this passage first the scope of it says my god will meet all your needs okay you see the philippine christians were see the the great promise is this the philippians had undoubtedly given from their meager resources they were not wealthy people paul saying to them my god will reimburse you in a way my god will supply all your needs since the plot you supplied my needs this verse makes it clear that god will supply the christians needs not necessarily his wants you see we have mix it all up we have mixed up needs and wants because of our materialistic society i once heard saw this quote it says people are funny they spend money they don't have to buy things they don't need to impress folks they don't like isn't it true you buy especially now with this pandemic and lockdown we post things that we have bought on facebook post it on instagram and we post it to people we don't necessarily like when tempted to purchase something ask yourself is it a need or a greed let me say it again is this a need or a greed now uh what what this whole lockdown has brought us is a phenomena called online shopping online shopping has been there prior to this pandemic but it has become all the more uh boom because of the pandemic and knockdown people would not want to go to a mall or a grocery for fear of being infected and so they do a lot of things online even shopping now we do our that we let our fingers do the walking and i'm not talking about a pldt you know fondo it's about doing our fingers doing the talking in terms of shopping and the two main sources of that is lasada and shopi right so either a lazada lover or a shoppie shopper but regardless it's the same principle you know every month they would come up with a sale but there was no one one sale i don't know if there will be a 2-2 sale but towards the end of the year you have nine eight eight sale nine nine sale 10 10 sale 11 11 big sale 12 12 christmas sale or whatever right and so there's nothing wrong with uh buying online to make sure that you have this uh you know you get free from ship free shipping and promos and stuff but what happens is if you select something online let's say on this other shopping and you select it and you plan to purchase it and right down there you find things related to it and you discover hey i would want this too and i would doubt that too and you end up you know having all these items okay that's what we call add to cart phenomena so that was that's what happens especially during sale you have an add to cart phenomena until you end up buying clicking it purchasing it and you find yourself hey there are things here that i might do not need or i might not use instead we should learn to be like a man named arsene arcenius the great you see our seniors the great was a fifth century man who determined to live a holy life so in order in his determination to live a holy life he left he decided to uh abandon the conforms of egyptian society to follow uh being a hermit in the mountains but he from time to time he would come down to egypt and you know what he would do he would go to bazaars and look around bazaars and so he was asked why was he doing that and he said this he said he explained that his heart rejoiced at the sight of all the things that he didn't need wow i don't know if he could do that right get online to a marketplace app or assad or shoppy scroll through even on a sale date and at the end of it say hey i'm happy i don't need these stuff now that takes the effort and discipline brothers and sisters want what you have i i saw this quote again want what you have even if you don't have everything you want want what you have even though you don't have everything that you want let me say it differently the key to contentment is not having everything you want but wanting everything you have let me say it again the key to contentment is not having everything that you and i want but ha but wanting everything you and i already have the promise that god will meet every need maybe put in context philippians 4 14 19. god does not meet every need of every christian indiscriminately but these are believers who are faithfully giving to god's work because the philippians have been generous and they had given liberally even sacrifice greatly paul assured him that god will meet every need they have according to his riches in glory paul said this in second corinthians 9 6 the point is this whoever sow sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully sometimes the best illustrations are those we have experienced ourselves i have now been a christian for over 35 years and i could tell you that i have seen god meet my needs and the means of my family throughout all these years you know there were times especially my early pastors when i would experience times when we don't know if there would be enough resources for us and there would be a certain need for for my daughter or what and someone would just come uh with a with an envelope and say pastor you know or or a church would have a love offering and specifically addressed to me just at the right time and that's how great god is in his time he makes all things beautiful and he provides just at the right time and think about the sufficiency of it he says my god will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in christ you see our resource our sufficiency is the fact that it comes from christ you see when it talks about according to his glory searches not just out of his glory churches what it means is it's not just a portion of god's resources it's in proportion to what he can give to us the source of god's bank account is his own riches in glory the god who owns gold in every mine and the cattle a thousand hills can meet all your needs i'm reminded of a story of an american pastor named wilbur chapman who had a family tragedy occur that made it necessary for him to travel to the west coast and a banker who attended his church took a piece of paper out of his pocket and slipped it into the pastor's hand he looked at it and saw that it was a blank check addressed to him well signed by the banker momentarily stunned he asked do you mean you're giving me a signed check to be filled out as i please and the banker said yes i don't know how much you might need pastor but i want to draw i want you to draw on any amount that will meet your need chap and gratefully took the check but he didn't need to use it on his trip later he said it gave me a comfortable happy feeling to know that i had a vast sum at my disposal wow you know what our supply is sufficient because it's the bank of heaven a blank check for all our needs right knowing that god is sufficient to meet all your needs as you go through this life even through times of hunger and need you'll find him to be the source of all your needs you see we go to the source it is my god what is crucial in any bank in in any check is who is the source of the check right who is the signatory if the signatory is a it's a crook is a criminal it's a right then you would not then that check is worth nothing but if that if that comes from god himself then it's worth everything romans 8 20 32 says he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all things in closing i'd like to share with you an illustration by d.l moody dwight moody once preached on verse 19 on one occasion his outline was this he called the sermon god's check and he said my god that is the name of the firm of the ch on the check shell supply that is the promise to pay all of your need that is the amount to be paid he switches that is the deposit in the account against which the check is drawn in glory that is the address on the bank by christ jesus that is the signature that appears on the check this check needs but one thing for it to make it practical and valuable and useful for us and that is the endorsement of your faith at the back of the check and then whatever you need god will abundantly supply so let us review the secrets of living in contentment we are to rejoice in the sufficiency of christ on the strength of christ and finally rest in god's supply in christ let us pray heavenly father thank you for your word thank you lord for the promises that we have in and through you lord i we pray that as we look look forward to this 2021 there would continue to be challenges along lives away financial family challenges health challenges but in all this help us to learn just like paul to live in contentment by rejoicing in the sufficiency that we have in you relying on the strength that comes from you and resting in the supply that only you can give in your riches in glory this is our prayer in jesus name amen and let me close this with a closing prayer and a benediction may god was able to make all grace overflow to you so that as always having all sufficiency in everything you may have the abundance for every good work and then father son and holy spirit amen god bless you all thank you once again tabernacle um the lighthouse of faith tabernacle for this invitation and shalom [Music] you