Thank you for joining me at Bible at the Beach today. I'm glad you could be with us today. We'll be in Philippians chapter 4, verses 10 through 23. This is Paul's final teaching for the book of Philippians. It was his most positive letter that he wrote in his most painful and despairing situation from a prison cell.
Entire letter serves as a metaphor for a perspective that we can get in life where we allow peace to flow from the inside of us out into the world, not expecting our world to be peaceful so that we get peaceful, but letting God give us a spirit of peace, literal living water flowing from the inside that we carry with us into every situation that we have, every age, every stage, every season of life. This is what Paul is trying to get at. And so we'll wrap up in verse 10 today.
He says, my heart overflows with joy when I think of how you demonstrated love to me by your financial support of my ministry. So I teach cheerful giving. We've started ocean water over 3 and 1 half years ago. God's always provided. When God is in a work, God will provide for the work. Paul understood this, and he also reached back out and said, thank you to the people that understood how God was working powerfully in and through Paul's ministry.
He says, I'm telling you this because I'm in need, for I've learned to be satisfied in any circumstance. I know what it means to lack. I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance, for I'm trained in the secret overcoming of all things, whether in fullness or in hunger. So what Paul taught was really radical contentment. That's how I feel living here in San Clemente.
It's a place of abundance, but both my wife and I have a very detached relationship with the material world that we're surrounded by. And that's wisdom that God's given us. It's also peace that we have in our hearts. We've learned to enjoy simple things, having no material things and having peace in your heart, and also occasionally living in and having abundance. And both are fine as long as you're not attached to both. The goal is always Jesus Christ.
He says, I find the strength of Christ's explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty you see. It's God's strength that sees us through every circumstance and every situation in our life. He says, if you so graciously provided for my essential needs during this season of difficulty, for I want you to know that the Philippian Church was the only church that supported me in the beginning as I went out to preach the gospel. This is exactly how I feel about the Wesleyan Church.
Prior to this, I had been working at a Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick Warren, and got zero support other than prayer support and relational peace. But the support that I got, financial support, prayer support, that came from an entity I did not expect. And often, God will provide through entities and people and places that were not on your radar. His little way of reminding us that He's in charge of this whole thing, it's our job to pray, be humble, and then God can trust. And work through that.
I would encourage you to look for provision in your life in unexpected places. God often shows up. But Paul points this out. He says, you're the only church that sewed into me financially. And when I was in Thessalonica, you supported me for well over a year. So when you're going to pioneer new works, pioneer new churches, you're going to need some support.
And it's actually better that way, because you don't want to rely on the people that you're trying to teach about the Lord to finance the work of the Lord. You want to rely on people that already know the Lord, that already view giving as worship, that already practice cheerful giving. You want to avoid begrudging givers, people that get mad when you talk about it.
God always has a group of cheerful people out there that are looking to give something genuine and something authentic and something real. And that's really most of the time the people that he works through to get his work done. I've practiced cheerful giving since I was 17 years old. God's always provided, always taken care of me. In fact, always given me way more than I deserved. And so I just thank God for it.
Verse 17, he says, I mention this not because I'm requesting a gift, but so that the fruit of your generosity may bring you an abundant reward. You see, when we give to other people that we see God working through, God actually also blesses us abundantly for it. He says, I know I have all that I need. More than enough, I'm abundantly satisfied. That's how I feel in my life. All of my needs are met. I'm blessed. I encourage you to give to the Lord.
The best works of God to give to are the ones where you actually see those works helping person after person after person that doesn't have that living water flowing up within their life. And that's the exciting things that I like to be a part of. He says, I know I have all that I need. More than enough, I'm abundantly satisfied, for I've received the gift sent to you by Epaphroditus and viewed it as a sacrifice, a perfume with the fragrance of your faith, which is so pleasing to God.
I want to encourage you to participate in secret giving. Participate in giving to the works of God that you see. It really changes your perspective on money when you begin to look at people that you want to help, places that you want to help. That's where the fun is. That's where the adventure is. That's where the excitement is. I encourage you to pray to the Holy Spirit. Say, where do you want me to give, Lord? And get involved.
That's when life gets fun, when you support things that are not just about you, but you get to be a part of something much bigger than yourself. Paul says, for I'm convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through Jesus Christ. And God our Father will receive all the glory and the honor throughout the eternity of eternities. Amen. So what we do as cheerful givers, we fund the works that are the pioneering works.
That's what the cheerful givers are great at. You want to fund new works to reach new areas, new people. That's where the fun is. That's what Paul's saying, thank you for here. He says, give my warm greetings to all the believers in Christ Jesus, all the brothers and sisters that are here with me, sending their love greetings, especially the converts from Caesar's household. May the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus be with your spirit. So man, this concludes our look at Philippians.
I love doing this every day. This is my 203rd episode. I'm glad that you can join us. God put it on my heart a few years ago to teach his word, and he's honored it. He's allowed it to go into Facebook and into YouTube and into Instagram, raise up disciples and raise up churches and fund water projects and send over 200 people on missions. Very, very exciting all through Ocean Water. I'm thankful for what God's doing, thankful for you joining us today.
God puts it on your heart to give or to support the ministry you can do it at OceanWater.com, OceanWTR.com. And until next time, may God give us the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the heart to feel in Jesus' name.