I Can Do All Things
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Jeremy Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 21 December 2025
- Philippians 4:10-13
- Romans 8:31-37
Philippians 4, And this is a young man's favorite scripture, Philippians 4.
It says in chapter 4, verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I remember in college I was considering getting tattoos and I was going to get barbed wire on one bicep and Philippians 4, 13 on the other. And we have this idea, I can do all things in this strength, by my God, I can leap a wall, by my God, I can run against a troop. This idea of this fleshly courage and ambition. I can do everything, you know.
But I'm not exactly sure that that's what this scripture is talking about. So we're going to look into it today. Go back a little bit to understand the foundation of why Paul believed that he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him. So I'm going to back up just a little bit to chapter 4, verse 10, and go through 13. It says, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in regard to need. For I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound everywhere in all things. I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, and both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
So we see that there is a progression here. There is a progression of learning. Paul has learned in whatever state he is in to be content. It is a lesson that must be learned. Previously he had been talking about anxiety, be anxious for nothing.
In a life of a Christian, there is the necessity of learning to be at rest in whatever circumstances you find yourself in. Our circumstances cannot be the controlling factor in our life if we expect to be able to do something. If you are just responding to the stimuli of what you are confronted with, you will not be able to walk in obedience to Christ. You will not be able to do all things. So there is absolutely, first of all, a learning to be content in all situations.
God is always at rest.
Then after learning, there is a knowing. He says in verse 12, I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. In all the circumstances that I have learned from now, I know know something, and I can depend upon it being true. I have learned my lesson well, and as a result, I can put that lesson into practice.
I can put it to use. Some of us are so glad we learned algebra, right? Or calculus even better. And now we can put that stuff to use every day.
Well, Christianity, basic biblical Christianity, is effective and useful for every circumstance you find yourself in. It is absolutely essential that you learn to trust Jesus in the circumstances you find yourself in. And that once you have learned that lesson and have now begun to say, I know I've been through this lesson before, I have learned this once or twice. But now I know and can depend on God's faithfulness. I don't have to be motivated by circumstances or stimuli, but I can be focused on depending upon God's goodness, even in the difficult times for that person.
He says, he repeats it in verse 12. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things. I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And then he says, because I learned, because I know I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You see that whatever circumstances we are in, if we have learned the faithfulness of God, there is nothing outside of Christ's control.
We're going to go to Romans chapter 8, and this is a scripture which really breaks down this idea for us. And so we're going to kind of just look through it. It's a little bit of a long scripture, but we're going to read it and it's going to develop this idea. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, an individual who depends wholly upon the prophet. The vision of God is unstoppable.
We know, and we can look at all sorts of. The Bible is full of examples of ordinary, unhinged, at times individuals, serious discrepancies or weakness depending upon a perfect God in accomplishing miraculous things. Here we go, Romans, chapter 8, verse 31. And he is talking about some of the things that they've gone through. It says, what then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us? When the battle lines are drawn, who do you want on your side? Do you want the, you know, the force of earthly might, of earthly finances, of resources, of maybe unlimited cash reserves? Is this what you want backing your situation? If you had to choose one or the other, if you had to make a decision of which you viewed as more valuable?
If you could take time and actually say, I need to choose one or the other, which would you depend on? The resources of the world or God Most High? If there was a battle drawn, it says that all of the armies of the world are nothing but a vapor just to be blown away by God, who could stand against God Almighty when he had set himself to accomplish something? What kind of forces could be arrayed? One of my favorite poems is that great poem.
It says something like this. If all the men were one man, and all the axes of the world were one axe, and all the trees of the world were one tree, and the man with the axe cut down the tree and it landed in the sea, how great that splash would be. Maybe not very deep poem, but still a good one. If all the forces of the world were arrayed against God Almighty, if you could take all the power and might that this world has to offer, it would not compare in even the smallest way to the support that God Almighty could give to an individual who was walking in obedience to his plan and willing to hinge his movements based on God's plan. Plan no matter what.
If a person could willingly learn to be at rest and depend on God Almighty for direction and sustenance, is there anything that could come against that individual? There is nothing. If God is for us, who, tell me a name. Could be against us. If God were on your side, what kind of force could oppose that?
He's going to delve into this idea. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If he was willing to save sacrifice his son for your behalf, if he gave up that thing which was most valuable, how could he not provide in those areas that you might be struggling with? If he would go that far, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
Even the devil himself has no opportunity to oppose God's plan in the life of an individual who is committed to facilitating God's purposes for their life.
Verse 34. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and further is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us. It says that same power which rose Christ Jesus from the dead is available to the believer. There is unrivaled resources without measure available. An individual upon whom was piled the sins of the entire world.
The greatest physical force of darkness that has ever existed in one spot was piled literally upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ could overcome that, what difficulty are you presented with that seems to be outside of God's care for your life? That you would not trust him Him? That you would not rest in Him? That you would not continue in patience and stand in the position that you are in?
Though it seems terrifying it says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril of the sword. When Christ demonstrated his love for us in this way, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And in our squeaky mouse voice, in our acting like Ahab and turning our face to the wall when things get difficult, we wonder if there is any sun left in Gray's harbor at all. When all seems to be rain around us, we begin to wonder, is there even a sun that exists above that cloud?
Right? Our misery seems to be more than we compare. We have the complaints of Job about justice and what we're going through and what we have to endure. And we wonder, is there even a God who cares for us? Does he still exist?
Or is it all rain all the time?
It says that he who gave his own Son will love us.
It says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril, or of the sword, as it is written, for your sake, we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. We belong to a long line of individuals who have experienced tremendous persecution, difficulty and destruction, loss of life, loss of property. And you and I also experience difficulties, heartaches and hurts.
It says in verse 13, beginning to change the tone. Yet in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. That in Christ there is a promise of spiritual victory for every individual who will rest in the promises of God. There is nothing that restrains him from working in any way. Is his hand shortened that he cannot save?
Is your difficulty become so great that God is unable to reach into it and turn circumstances for his glory and your benefit? Has the waves piled up so high around you that we must leave the life of faith and begin to operate out of doubt and confusion? Has his love been so distanced from us by the storms of life that we begin to doubt his existence or his care for us at all?
If you've been alive, I personally believe that you have had to be in a spot to learn God's faithfulness. You had to understand, and I pray that you have been engaged in a situation long enough that you haven't experienced. Excused yourself from the lesson.
I pray for every person at least one time in your life that when things got difficult and Christ arranged situations to put you in the classroom, he arranged a personal circumstance that whereby he was going to teach you his faithfulness through a difficult lesson where financial Difficulties made it seem as if you were going to become a pauper, that there was no way out, there was no provision, that relationship issues had piled up so high that you felt there was nothing that could be done. I pray for everybody that at least one time you said, I will stay in this position and will not leave no matter what. I will not take the world's way out. I will stay here because I believe that God can reach me here. If you have done that, you have learned God is faithful.
I don't see it any other way. Anybody. As far as in my personal life, starting out as a young man at 18 and depending upon God's provision, I can honestly say after being in ministry in different places, getting married, raising a family with 10 children, having all sorts of sorts of difficulties, I could say absolutely, with all my conviction that every single time, I'm just going to try this one more time. I have 10 children, a lot of responsibility. I have cows.
I have a lot of things, a construction business. And what I absolutely can tell you is sometimes it hurts like hell. But what I can tell you absolutely is I am here to say that every single time I have trusted in the God, he has found some way to accomplish my miniscule problems for his glory. I don't know how he does it, what resources does he draw from? I got such a big issue.
But you and I are tempted every time to abandon ship when the lesson's being taught. We think we're too dumb. We think it's too hard, it's too difficult. You might have learned it a hundred times and still there's a temptation not to stay in class. I would like to say that probably some of us have had the opportunity to learn a lesson this week and rejected it.
That God gave you the sweetest time to teach you a new lesson, to trust in him, to learn something real good, to know something so you could depend on it. You know, those first people, they went into space, they had never been there before. All they could lean upon was the calculus that they learned, right? That's all they had. They trusted that the lessons they learned would prove steadfast in the real world.
And it is because our God is a law giving God right. He is orderly by nature, so we can trust him. We can trust his ways because he is orderly. His creation is orderly. The big benefit that creationists have over evolutionists is because evolutionists only believe that it happened out of disorder.
A tremendous explosion created, created all this order.
But the God of the Bible says no one more complicated than everything you see created out of the vastness of his resources, that God promises not to neglect or leave a single individual in any circumstances if they are willing to trust Him. Paul goes further. He says in verse 37, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded, I know, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God. He is saying there is no created thing.
He gives a long list. It's not because he's trying to be windy. He's trying to leave you no way of escape. There is nothing. That list was tested in second Corinthians.
See if I can find it just real quick. Did he put it to the test.
In attempting to justify his ministry in the face of attacks from false ministers of the Gospel? He says, from the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes, minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeys, often in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleepless often in hunger and thirst, in fastings often in cold and nakedness.
Besides the other things which come upon me daily, my deep concern for the churches. Paul was put in a position where he had to learn. And having been put there, he came to know and he became persuaded that there was no circumstances that God would not exercise himself on his behalf if he waited for him. If he waited for him. I'm going to go back to Philippians to close.
In verse 13, it says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Strengthens me. In this situation, we have to understand the reality of the circumstances we're going to encounter if we want to do all things as a young man and still today, I want to depend on physical, emotional, mental things to accomplish the adversities that I have right. But if we're to do all things, we can only rely on the strength which Jesus Christ provides. We have to learn, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Number one. Christ strengthens us in periods of difficulty that arise out of walking, in obedience, Christ presents us with opportunities to accomplish Something more than we are capable of by inviting us to walk in areas that are difficult. It is not a strange thing that you encounter circumstances and trials. They are directed by God. Stacy and I seem, you know, in a business, you know, growing.
We come to these times where the government wants large sums of money regularly. And it seems like every time we're like, oh, no, I thought we had some money. And it's like it's all going there. And each time we're left, like, ah, what do we do? How are we going to make it through this time?
God places us there. When you begin to see circumstances repeat themselves, right? When you find yourself going around the wilderness more than one time, when your math instructor begins to say, micaiah, we've went through this before. This isn't the first time I've had to talk to you about this. You know, you have to do the same thing to both sides.
If you divide, you got to do the same thing to both sides. When you begin to see the lesson repeating yourself, it's because your teacher wants to show you something.
Friends, you don't want to be in the same grade your whole life.
It's not because you're a smart student. It's because you have a master teacher. He is capable of teaching you lessons if you will stay in school.
Jesus invited Peter to get out of the boat. If it's you, I'll take a step out. And the winds were heavy and the waves high, and he stepped out and he began to walk on the water. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But there was a lesson that Jesus had to teach him.
And he began to see the waves, and he began to feel the wind and the rain beating against his body and was not prepared spiritually. He valued the truth of the wind and the waves of more strength than the word of Jesus. And as a result, he began to sink. The lesson he needed to learn was Jesus was of more value, of more strength than the boisterousness of the waves around him. You and I are going to be called out into the waves.
They're always scary, they're always big, they're always windy and frightful. And Jesus is pulling you out into a circumstance to show you how much you depend upon physical things. He's wanting to wean you from the idea that those physical things are your supposed support net that your security, they're your benefit. You have always walked on dry land, but he's pulling you out into a position where you're going to sink.
Yes, but Sinking. If you're with Jesus, you're going to learn a lesson, that he has power over the waves. If you can call out to him in that circumstance, if you can hear your voice, his voice, you're going to learn that His Word, his strength is stronger than any strength this world has to offer, that he's going to take you by the hand and he's going to pull you out of those waves. He's going to provide for your needs. Yes.
Amen. That's good. That's nice.
Good work. You got, you know, you got your paycheck, you made your bills, way to go.
But that's not the important thing. Everyone hear me. I understand. I got needs, too. It's beautiful to have food for 10 kids.
But it's even more beautiful to be able to learn to trust in the One who provides your needs, to call out to his name, Lord, I've been in this place of testing, but, Lord, would you rescue me? Would you teach me a lesson? It is my understanding that Peter went on from this experience. Yes. Having walked on water may be one of the only individuals who ever did walk on water.
A beautiful thing. He did it. But more importantly than that, he learned to recognize that the hand of God was there, available to him in any circumstance he might find himself in. And I believe that he can say, with Paul, I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength. My encouragement to you and I this week, in the midst of the difficulties that we are going to encounter, would be again to stay in school.
You have a master and a teacher who cares deeply about his pupils, who went so far as to provide and to give up all of his own resources that we might enjoy what he has to offer. He will provide for your needs.
Try this. After a lot of mistakes and not being a very smart person, one thing I have learned is Christ provides for our needs. Be anxious for nothing. Do not worry about the future. Do not worry about tomorrow.
He provides for the needs of the sparrows. He will also provide for you. And in that provision, if you wait for it, if you rest for it, if you believe that he will accomplish it, I absolutely believe that you'll say, I have learned. I know. And I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
We're going to pray and sing the last song. And then, Tim, you could close us. Okay. Oh, Father, Jesus said, when I come, will I find faith on the earth? Will I find individuals who are trusting in me no matter what?
Oh, Father, I pray in light of the difficulties that we are going to encounter that you would begin to teach us those lessons of trusting you. That when we feel we are sinking that we would call quickly and energetically. Who? Jesus, who saves from sin. Lord, who saves us from every circumstances and will also save us for that life to come.
I thank you in Jesus name, Amen.