Invest In God
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Pastor Jeremy Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 28 December 2025
- Philippians 4:14-20
Philippians chapter four. And we had just finished with the scripture. In chapter four, verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He could do all things because he had learned to be content. As a result of his learning, he knew how to be abased and to abound.
And as a result of learning and knowing, he, he now could rest upon that work of Christ in his life, and can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In verse 14, we're going to pick up, it says, nevertheless, you have done well that you shared in my distress. Now you, Philippians, know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.
It says, nevertheless, you have done well that you shared in my distress. It's an interesting for the Christian, for the spiritual believer who recognizes that provision comes only from God Almighty, that there is nothing that restrains, either great or small, from him providing for the believer's need. He may choose to use ravens, he may choose to use a migration of quail in the desert, he may send manna through the dew. But one way or another, Paul recognizes, and the spiritual person recognizes that Christ's provision cannot be stopped. One way or another, he will provide for the needs of his people.
That that may seem to minimize the work of the person who it comes through. At times it may seem frustrating to a person who wants a thank you that the person who receives the gift, the spiritual person who receives the gift, is more thankful to the one behind the gift than the person through whose hands it comes. Everyone tracking, they recognize that, yeah, though you gave the gift, if you wouldn't, it would have come from some other source. Like Mordecai said to Esther, look, God's given you an opportunity in delivering the Jewish people. If you choose not to be involved, that deliverance will come from somewhere else.
God's plan, his purpose in accomplishing his will is going to happen. The question is not whether it happens, but whether you as an individual will have a part in that work.
It says, nevertheless, you have done well that you shared in my distress. Though it is true that God's provision will come, it is good for you to take part in that provision. It is a good thing for an individual to be used by God in his purposes for his plans on the earth. It is a good thing. I can say for this church and am so grateful for this church that that the amount of individuals who have taken a direct place in Christ's ministry in the north beach is astonishing.
You have done well. It is a good thing to take up Christ's work. It is a good thing to be used by him in his provision for people, whether through the mission or the food bank or whatever other type of ministry you may be involved in. I just want to let you know if you. It's a good thing.
Religion is not necessarily something that benefits God. Everyone. Tracking songs are nice. They sound beautiful to us. But God is not a bit lessened if no person chooses to worship Him.
Religion of necessity is not for God's benefit, but is for the benefit of those individuals to whom are associated or who come in contact with Christ's religion. The benefit all belongs to the person who gets to practice true religion. It says true religion before God and the Father. Is this in James to care for orphans and widows and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Real religion is the ability to minister Christ's need to other people.
And Paul is saying, look, if you have had the opportunity to invest in other people's lives, if you have had the opportunity in some way to take of your own resources, if your energy has been expended on Christ's behalf in some way, if your money was used to facilitate that gospel, if in some way you have moved forward Christ's gospel, you made a good decision.
It's always so frustrating to hear about people in the stock market, right? Oh, I made this good decision. Oh, it was great. You know, I got in early, right? And there is some benefit to using our finances wisely.
I understand. But there's real benefit in investing your resources, Christ ministry to take of the thing of which every individual is rich. I'm going to try this again. The rich person financially is at a disadvantage biblically in the kingdom of God they are not having an advantage. It says the rich person should not glory in his riches.
He is at a disadvantage because he trusts in uncertain riches. He is like a flower of the field which today he is here and is gone tomorrow. But the poor person has an advantage. He has more resources for the kingdom of God than the person who depends on his finances. You are not poor.
You only do not recognize the extent of the resources Christ has given you to impact his kingdom. It is not about how much money you have. If you think it is, you are involved in the wrong kingdom. But Christ has invested wisely resources in the lives of every individual and expects people to use them. It is absolutely time for you to recognize it is a good investment to put your resources where Christ wants them.
You have done well that you shared in my distress. Where Christ's ministers are moving, you've done well. It's not just well, good job. What he's trying to say is you couldn't have done better. That was the best place you could have placed them.
Where there are poor, where there are sick, where there are broken, you couldn't find a better place for your resources than to invest them where Christ wants them to be. Amen.
God cares about the broken. God cares about the orphan and the widow. He cares about those who are in distress. And finances don't suit that need near as well as the resources that you have available to you. Don't get distracted by the ads you see on television that says only your finances are important.
That is not true. The wisdom of the Word says that a widow with one penny can accomplish more in the kingdom of God than the full pocketbooks of religious people.
Verse 14. Nevertheless, you have done well that you shared in my distress. Verse 15. Now you, Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only. Here Paul begins to recognize, yes, that he knows that even without them, Christ's will will be accomplished.
But he also recognized the important place, the position that this one new established church in Philippi has played in spreading the gospel.
If we look at how far our resources go, how much they accomplish, if we look at the life of Paul in that ministry which had a part of on earth that you and I are still receiving the rewards from, he is saying that, look, you did well because you took a specific interest in a ministry, his ministry, and that ministry bore specific fruits on earth. That though it may seem that no one else is concerned about that ministry or that burden that Christ has given you, it's important you to fulfill. May be that he has one person supporting an area, this area or that area. And Paul is letting him know that every area for which you have a burden is important. Because if it is Christ's ministry, he wants a spiritual, he wants spiritual fruit from that ministry.
Even if no one around you recognizes the importance of the ministry that Christ given you is not important.
One person or one small group of people can influence the course of history if they are fully believing and willing to put their resources where God intends them. It may be that the rest of the world neglects a certain area. That's not what's important. It's not important what everyone else is doing or what other, even churches are doing. What's important for us as people is that we live up to the responsibility and the burden that Christ has given us.
If so, there is a reward for that investment.
I know that we are a small group of people. Not too big, just right.
There have been smaller groups of people. Everyone hear what I'm saying? There has been smaller groups of people than this that have accomplished more. The Lord is not withheld by the amount or the numbers, but the willingness of a group to put their focus on the ministry that Christ has called them to. And as a result, if they're willing to invest those resources though it may be, they're doing it by themselves.
I hear about these Jewish communities, you know, when you hear about them going into Syria or Lebanon, and they'll talk about these communities where there's three Jews left, the last ones, and they're holding on to everything they have so they would not have to see that Jewish culture extinguished from that area. In some ways, you and I are called also as a church body, to maintain a Christian witness here on the north beach. It may be that we're the last ones here. That's not what's important. What's important is that we're faithful and continue here no matter what happens.
Joshua said, as for me and my house, no matter what this culture does, no matter where people go around me, we are committed to the fact. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. It's not important what everyone else is doing. What's important is what you are doing, what we are doing as a body.
And here these individuals, their ministry was to support a missionary named Paul. We see over and over again wherever Christian giving is mentioned in the New Testament, we see this people of Macedonia, Macedonia, giving again and again. It says in verse 16. For even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities. These individuals became concerned with one nearsighted missionary against the world.
They felt it was important to support him in his missionary endeavors and so sent aid to him again and again. And as a result, they became the vessel by which Paul's missionary journeys were extended and went with God speed. Their investment was a good one. They could have used their resources other ways. You and I all like to do things.
We all like to spend our resources one way or another. But I think you can recognize that there were other people in Philippi that invested their resources differently than this church did. And yet whose was a wiser investment?
Wasn't it this group, a small group of believers who choose the ministry of Paul to support. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. In verse 17 it says, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. I'm going to go to a couple places in. In 1 and 2 Corinthians.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul's going to describe his attitude towards resources. And you know, I know we're at an interesting transition in the church. My dad has been, you know, a full time pastor in this church. And so it's an interesting thing. How do we move forward?
You know, I as an individual try to be a farmer and a not very good one as far as my family knows very well today. And last night, one of our best cow, our very best cow. I mean, it wasn't like a cow cow, this was like a friend cow. So this is the cow my kids grew up riding, all of them at the same time. She'd come up and nuzzle and pet and she was our friend cow.
And she died last night.
And she didn't just die, she died because of a certain farmer that she was associated with. And you know, and I have all my construction issues and problems and burdens and we are at a time of having to make a decision. And I can say honestly that the way we go forward as a church is important. Right. And I think about the Moravians, right?
The Moravians were a small group of people led by Count Zinndorf who accepted Christians from different state areas in Germany, bringing them, allowing them to take refuge on his property. And later on he sent them out, or the group sent them out as missionaries, but he always trained them. They became bricklayers and this and that, and went out as people with working hands to preach the gospel. And here we see in the life of Paul something that I think is important for us to at least consider. Paul says, I don't back in Philippians, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds.
To your account, he was not looking for the gift for himself. It says when speaking of the right of a Christian minister regarding the Gospel that they have that right. He who preaches the gospel should live by the gospel, but he lifts up a standard of living for his own Life. In chapter nine, verse 12, let's go to 13. Do you not know that those who minister the Holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar.
Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. He said this is a standard, that an individual who invests their lives in the gospel should have a physical recompense from the gospel. But he says in verse 15, but I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things, that it should be done so to me. For it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void. For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me.
Yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. The goal here is to raise up a generation of people who preach not for the reward of the gospel being, but rather from the responsibility that the Holy Spirit has laid upon him or her as a person. That that is the reason, not for a desire for any type of physical reward, but because of a commitment they have made to the Lord Christ. As I look at my own sons and have been encouraging them for all my life, that there is nothing better than preaching the gospel. There is nothing more important than preaching the gospel.
This idea, we have a responsibility to preach the gospel because Christ has laid that on us sometimes. That is a willing one in verse 17 of the same chapter. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship, sometimes it feels great to get up and share, other times not so much. But the need to preach comes out of an entrustment that God gives to us as people.
It says back to Philippians and then to second Corinthians. It says, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds on your account. Number one. Yes, there is a necessity for individuals to preach the gospel not because of getting paid, not because they want the resources, but because there is an actual reward that comes to people who entrust their lives supporting the ministry of the gospel. In chapter nine of 2 Corinthians.
But this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good Work, as it is written, he has dispersed abroad.
He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Before you think I'm a prosperity preacher here, before you think that, I'm telling you the more you give, the more you're going to get that we have to focus on this verse. It says, he is dispersed abroad. He has given to the poor.
His righteousness endures forever. There is a spiritual reward that outpaces that outshines, that is more glorious than the financial investment we give. It is a spiritual reward we get by participating in a spiritual work. Jesus says, if you are not faithful in unrighteous mammon, who will give to you true riches? Our physical investment of our resources opens spiritual doors to inherit something that outshines the shiniest coins you could possess.
That reward, which we inherit spiritually from investing in Christ's work, is a denominator, is a currency that is of superior nature than American dollars. Christ is giving us the opportunity. We're going to finish in Philippians, In verse 16 and 17. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.
Indeed, I have all and abound I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you. My encouragement as we take a day of rest from the ministry that Christ has given you as we have a chance to escape from maybe the tumultuous warfare of the circumstances you may be involved in in your weekly journey. My encouragement for you after having been refreshed on this day, is encouraging you as an individual to stop viewing your resources as financial, but rather to recognize what Christ has given you that he expects to be used in his kingdom that bears fruit that are fuller and riper than what could be accomplished by mere money. That God has made you rich in some way and has given you the opportunity to make someone else rich, to share of Christ's kingdom with another person. And so my encouragement for me and for us is that this week we have six days, just six, to make the best use of Christ's ministry in your life.
You have six more days before the next day of rest. We live in a culture that is so dependent and on convenience, right? We have all the food we want. I start thinking every time because I'm always thinking about farming. If the stores were not there, I would have to store up as much manure as possible in that season of my life where almost everything grew or we ate, came from our garden or cows.
We had a bucket in the garage where all the boys went to go to the bathroom. Right. Because that was the source of nitrogen to put on our plants. Right. And we need stuff to grow.
There has to be food for us to eat. It becomes something strong. In the same way, we have the opportunity for six days to invest. It's necessary to invest, and God is calling us to it. So I pray that you would be encouraged.
By the way that you are encouraging other people this week. Look at the resources God gave you. They're riches. They're full. And they will accomplish that which Christ purposes for you.
Let's pray. O Father, Lord, we do come to you, Lord, asking forgiveness for being confounded.