I ask you today, do you ever feel really weak? Do you ever feel really weak in your faith? Do you ever feel really weak in general? Do you ever feel where you don't have any strength? You don't have any strength and you come to a point where you're like, I got no strength, Lord. You know, that's a great place to be. That's a really good place to be. Because as Paul said about preaching, who's sufficient for these things? No one. It's God that empowered him to be able to preach the gospel and to be able to go around and proclaim Christ and enabled him to, no matter what situation he was in, to find strength. And you know why? Because that strength came from God. It didn't come from him. And man, we have for so long, it's ingrained in our natural state to be, well, I can't be weak. I have to show strength. And yeah, we men are to be leaders, and we're to be strong that way, right? But we're to weep with those who weep, too, aren't we? We're to have compassion on the lost all around us. Right? We realize as born-again, blood-washed believers that in our weakness, he is strong. It's the opposite of what the world pushes. In our weakness, God's strong. Because those are the times when we realize, don't we, Brian? We realize just how much we need him. Just how much we need Christ. So we believers are in constant need of being strengthened. Being strengthened. And you know what? Sometimes just a phone call and talking to each other can strengthen us. Talking about Christ. Talking about what we have in Christ. Saying, hey, I'm with you. And that's the Lord using us, right? Because he strengthened us, right? Now think of this. He's the God of all comfort. And he strengthens us that we may be able to come alongside someone later on who's having a hard time and say, I know what you're going through. The Lord strengthens us, gives us grace to help in time of need, doesn't he? So open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Philippians. We'll continue our study. And the whole reason I brought that up is because the verse that we're going to look at today is verse 13. This verse has been pulled out of context by many people. It's been misused to apply that Christians can have some super, super strength. Well, the only strength we have as believers comes from Christ. Have we not been taught, Brother Brian, that we are so weak? Oh my. And He's so strong. He's so mighty. My! He's so mighty. He's mighty to save, isn't He? He saved us from all our sins. Washed us in His blood. We couldn't save ourselves from one of our sins. He saves us from all our sins. He's the mighty Savior. If a situation comes up, let us before we try to do things in our own strength, seek Christ. And the reason I say that is because we all do that. Me included, right? We all do that. Try to take care of it. I'll take care of that. And usually for me, boop, I end up with my face. Right? Let us go to our King. Let us go to our... God Almighty has saved us. And when Paul says this, we have to read the context of the verse, right? The context of the verse is the fact that Paul can be content whether he's abased or whether he's abounding. That's the context. It's not just a verse we can pull out and say, I can get this superpower here. It's a verse, think of this too. It's a verse that centers on the strength comes from Christ. So who gets all the glory? Someone tell me. He gets all the glory. He gets it all. Because in our weakness, he strengthens us. And that's the name of the message, Christ strengthens believers. Christ strengthens believers. It's him who strengthens us. Remember how we said, we looked at, I think it was chapter two or three, where that one verse in the Greek talked about how God energizes us. And it's like a battery. He energizes us, right? That's him giving us strength, beloved. Energizing us to continue on. by His power, by His might. Otherwise, we'd be gone. And I love what I heard yesterday. I sent those things by DJ Ward to you. I love, I was listening to another message to him, and he said this. He said, oh, this was wonderful. He said, we may stumble and fall through this life, right? But God will keep us. And we stumble and fall, don't we, beloved? Because we're weak. And we need strength. So let's look at what Paul writes here. Look at verse 13. He says this. I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me. Now, people have tore that out of context. Said, look, I can do anything. That's not the context of this verse. Again, as you've often heard me say and heard Henry say and heard other preachers say, context, context, context. It's so important. It's so vital. This verse in its context, which in itself is amazing, this verse in its context shows us the reason for Paul's contentment. A loved one of mine cannot understand how I can be so content amidst all the things going on in this world. How Vicki and I can be so content amidst everything going on. How can you do that? Well, because I know who's in control. Well, you always say that. Yeah, I'm going to keep saying it too. Because I know who's in control. God's sovereign. Do you know we're in the Almighty's hands? And no man can pluck us out of that hand, Brother Charlie? My! That's wonderful. So what a lesson here. What a lesson here for we who are the born-again, blood-washed saints of God. What a lesson for us, given to us by the Holy Spirit of God. And we've learned this in the school of grace, haven't we? Right, since the Lord saved us. We've learned that this world's not our home. But we've learned to be content with whatever we have. That comes from Christ strengthening us. If you have this contentment, whether you're rich or poor, no matter what station you are in life, that comes from our King. That comes from our King. I remember when my mom passed and my brother had to pull me aside because there were some stipulations in the will and he wanted to talk to me and he didn't know if I was going to contest the will or not. I said, I don't care about any of this money. I've got Christ. I told him, I said, I'm far richer, Dave, than any, this is just stuff to help through the life, but I'm far richer. This means nothing to me. And I said, I give it all away. I give it all away to have one minute with mom, just to talk to her again. It doesn't matter. The things of this world doesn't matter. And God provides us, right? And whether we abound or whether we're abased, God's still providing, isn't he? And Paul says, I'm gonna be content, because this world's not my home. Look what he says in verse 13 again. I can do all things through Christ. There's the key. There's the key. What strengthens me. So he doesn't find strength in himself. He finds strength outside of himself. Just like we find salvation outside of ourselves. It's in Christ. It's in Christ. Now let's read this verse in context. And this verse is simply another way of saying that the Lord is with us always. He's always with us. Whatever the situation we're going through, that's what's being bought forth here. And that's why Paul's content too, because no matter what he goes through, God is with him, Christ is with him. And remember this, God has ordained those things that we're going through for his glory and for our good, even when we don't understand them. And then he gives us the ability, we're gonna find out with this verse, he gives us the ability to handle those circumstances that we go through. Because we couldn't handle them on our own. We couldn't. Circumstances we go, think of how many circumstances we went through that would have crushed us normally. And he carried us right through them all. carried us right through them all. Okay, so let's read the context. Let's read verses 10 to 14 of Philippians chapter 4 in the context of our verse at verse 13. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content." Look at that. Now he's going to tell us different states. I both know how to be abased. Remember in the Greek, that's humiliated. And it ties in with Christ becoming a man, the humiliation of the Word of God, becoming a man. Same word. And I know how to abound, have plenty. And both in between, right? Everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. So he's saying no matter what situation comes up in my life, whether I'm in need or whether I'm in plenty or whether I'm in the middle, I've learned to be content in those situations. Now here's the key. Again, context, context, context, right? So he's talking about being content in all situations. And here's the key of how he can be content. I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me. Notwithstanding you have done well, that she did communicate with my affliction. So there's the key. The Holy Spirit has put before we believers the key to being content in this world. Because this is not our home, beloved. We're pilgrims right now. You know, them pilgrims, they came across that water, didn't they? And they're looking for a better land. A new home. We already seek a better country, don't we? Heaven. And the reason it's heaven is because Christ is there. And that's where our King is. We're ambassadors. What do ambassadors do? Well, they tell about their country. And they tell about their leader. Brian, look at our King. Look at our leader! The Lord Jesus Christ, God, God saved us. And we tell people, meet me in heaven. Trust Christ and meet me in heaven. My, I'm heaven bound. Sister, we're heaven bound. We just haven't graduated yet, but we will one day. We will one day. Be absent from the body, be present with the Lord. And the only reason is because of Christ's blood and righteousness. That's it. Now we've learned again in the school of grace, school of God's grace, that we can do nothing spiritually on our own. And we find out that physically, we can do a few things physically. We can. But eventually, what happens when we get older? Chris, you're still younger than us, but you can do a lot more than I can do. But I used to be able to do the same things you did. Not lay tile, but work in the construction and all that. But now, my, if I get up in the morning, I know you do too, I get up in the morning, my back's sore, I got a sciatic nerve starting to kick around, my, sometimes my, sometimes my vertigo hits. You just, but you wake up, you say, thank you, Lord, for another day, and you press forward, don't you? And I always think, well, there's people a lot worse off than me. That gets me motoring. My. But he gives us the strength. And so with salvation, it's absolutely impossible for us to save ourselves. And this contentment, now think of this. How quickly can we even as believers start to grumble and murmur about situations in our lives, right? Just like that, can't we, Brother Travis? Just in a heartbeat, we can start, you know, as I said, we're all professional murmurers, aren't we? We all are. I admit it. I have to keep myself from getting upset about stuff. It's only by the grace of God. You know, I told that someone I love, I said, if I wasn't saved, I'd be pulling my hair out with what's going on in the world. But I don't have to be that way. And isn't it funny? We can be so content in some situations. In other situations, we can flare up just like that. You ever notice that? That's our weakness there. And when we're weak, he's strong. Right? My. My, oh, my. We've learned how weak we are. We've learned in the school of grace how weak we are. But Paul here is bringing the key, the key to us making it through various trials and situations in our lives right here with contentment, with contentment. Seeing that the strength that we have to face things all comes this verse is bringing forth that the strength that we have To overcome things that happen in our lives All come from christ And you know he uses he uses believers to to to encourage other believers, too Not any brother he uses us I was telling charlie um years ago Vicki and I are going through a thing and Charlie and Denise called me and they they we got it was wonderful They said we're right by your side And that encouraged us so much That encouraged us so much and we can be an encouragement to one another And that's amazing in itself that a sinner such as we can encourage another sinner But if we sat down and talked about what we're going through, we're all very similar. Ladies may struggle with things that men might not, but men struggle with things that ladies don't. And then there's some things we struggle with together. I have to go like this sometimes. When things happen, sometimes I have to go. You ever do that? I just shut my mouth. No unsolicited advice, Wayne. Right? Like we've talked about with our kids, they got to learn on their own. Hardest thing to do, let them learn on their own. You've been through that, Brian. Hardest thing to do, just let your kids learn on their own, isn't it? Yeah? Hard to see that. But the Lord does that with us sometimes, but he never leaves us. Well, here, let us go through circumstances. And what do those circumstances do? Drives us to Christ. I was talking to someone about sin yesterday, and I said, you know, the more the believer sees their sin, or as they're being drawn to Christ, the more they see their sin, the more it sends them right to Christ. because he's the only savior of sinners through his blood and righteousness. He shed his blood on Calvary's cross to redeem sinners. There's no other way. And so we've learned now, Paul's learned, it doesn't matter what the circumstance is, it's Christ who strengthens me. Think of that too. And you know what that does? As we said earlier, Chris, you said that gives God all the glory. He gets all the glory. He gets all the honor. He gets all the praise. Right? We don't want it, do we, Brother Travis? We give it to the only one who's worthy of it. Yep. The only one who's worthy. My. So Paul, no matter, he's saying, whatever situation I'm in, whether I'm abounding, whether I'm suffering need, Christ is going to be the one who strengthens me. I'm not going to take in, I'm not going to rob God of his glory. I'm going to give him all the glory. That's what he's doing too. The Holy Spirit is having Paul give all the glory. The Holy Spirit's revealing where Paul's strength comes from. How can Paul preach the gospel? Through Christ, which strengthens him. How can Paul face those folks he's been facing in Acts? Through Christ, who strengthens him. How can he stand before them, sanhedrin, and not shake? Through Christ, who strengthens him. How can preachers get up and stand up and preach the gospel? Through Christ, who strengthens them. How can we as believers get through everyday life through Christ who strengthens us? Isn't that amazing? Gets all the glory done, you brother Charlie. He gets all the honor. He's saying to the Philippian church, I think it was Gene Harmon that brought this up, I'm ready for anything through the power of Christ in me. Right? I'm ready for anything through the power of Christ that strengthens me. He can face anyone in any situation because it's Christ who strengthens him. That's comforting for us, isn't it? Do you have a mountain that you're facing? Take it to the Lord. Take it to the Lord. Ask him for strength. Do you have a situation where you feel so weak We say all the time, right? But where you feel so weak and powerless, ask God to give you strength. Do you feel uncontentment in this life? Ask God to strengthen you, and he will. Say, Lord, I need your strength. And he provides it even when we don't ask. Isn't that amazing? So that every situation, we can look back and go, we don't say, well, I was pretty strong there. Look what I went through. Look at that. Look what I did. No. That's what the religious person would say, wouldn't it? And all the religious folks say, look, you did amazing. And we look back, and we say, Look how God got me through that. He gave me strength to get through all that. That'd have crushed me and killed me if it wasn't for God's grace and mercy. That's what Paul's basically saying. And then he's saying, no matter what situation I'm in, whether I'm, remember, in prison, under house arrest, no matter where he is, out in the streets preaching the gospel, No matter what, in the synagogues, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's the crux of this verse. And he's learned contentment. That's the main portion of this verse. He has learned contentment no matter where he is. And what will that do when we get contentment like that? Well, it empowers us, doesn't it? By God. It's God who empowers us to go forth and to continue on, right? when we may have just sat back and quit in our natural state. Why do God's people never quit? True God's people, why don't they ever quit? Because Christ strengthens them. That's wonderful, isn't it? On our deathbeds, beloved, when we're weak, when we're almost near the end, Christ will strengthen us, beloved. Every day when we go through heartaches and sorrow in this world, it's Christ who strengthens us. It all goes back to Him. It has to. Content with beholding His face, my all to His pleasure resigned. No changes of season or place would make any change in my mind. Well, blessed with a sense of his love, a palace, a toy would appear. In prisons would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. My, is that not true? And he said this to us, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, Sister Dee. That's a promise to us. I'll never leave you. Whoo! Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. This strength that Paul has and all believers are given is promised. Do you know it's promised in the Old Testament? This strength through Christ is promised through the Messiah is promised to believers. Look at this in Isaiah chapter 40 and Spurgeon used to say get a hold of those promises of God and hang on to them and pray him back to the king Because their promises he's given us and we know from the scriptures in the New Testament That all the promises of God are yay and amen in Christ, right? So they're ours in Christ We're praying back to the Lord Lord, I need your strength. You said you'd renew my strength. I need strength. I And again, even when we're not crying out, he's still strengthening us, isn't he? Look at this, Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah 40 begins with, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, right? My. How do you do that? How does a preacher, how does a preacher comfort God's people? I can't even comfort myself through the preaching of the word. through the preaching of the word. It's the word of God. It's the word of God that comforts. Yeah, look at the first one. Comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Okay. Look down a little further in that chapter and look at verse 26. We're going to read verse 26 to 31. Lift up your eyes on high. That's where we're to keep our eyes. Look into Christ. And behold, who hath created these things that bringeth out their hosts by number? He called them all by names, by the greatness of his might. For he is strong in power, not one faileth. You not lose one sheep, beloved. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? So they're like, Lord's not hearing my prayers. Oh, yes, he is. If you're a believer, he hears every prayer you pray. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, that's Jehovah in the Hebrew, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no searching of his understanding, and we know in John 1 that these worlds were created by the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is talking about the Messiah, this is talking about Christ. He giveth power to the faint. Oh, we're so faint, beloved. Look at this promise. To them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. How? By Christ, who strengthens me. Ain't that wonderful? They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Oh, these are sweet words beloved of God for God's people sweet sweet words Wonderful words for we who are the people of God who are purchased by his blood What comfort this we can take this promises here and just just lay hold of them to our hearts and He's the one who strengthens me. And then we see in the New Testament where Paul says, you see, see the combination? I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. That's Christ that's being talked about in that very scripture in Isaiah. It's He who strengthens us. And that's a promise from God. Look at verse 29. He giveth power to the faint, to them that have no might. He increases strength. We're often ready to faint under afflictions, aren't we? We go through afflictions, we're often ready to faint through those situations. And if we don't have immediate deliverance, we sometimes feel like my prayers aren't being answered, but they are. They are. God has never left us, and he never will. You know, I always like to say, when we pray, sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes we have to wait to find out the answer. But we look back and go, now I know what the answer is. And you know what? There's been a lot of prayers I've prayed that I look back and go, thank you, Lord, for not answering them prayers. You might think, what are you talking about? I'm so thankful, because I prayed them in ignorance, and I prayed them based upon my own fleshy needs. But God knew better. God knew better. And what we see here is that the Lord daily gives us provision for our lives. Listen to this in Psalm 27, David wrote this. Wait on the Lord. Wait on Jehovah. Psalm 27, 14. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. And he shall strengthen thine heart. Oh, that ties right in with our verse, doesn't it? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. There's another promise, Psalm 27, 14. And he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. The hardest thing for us to do is just wait, isn't it? I was talking to someone about salvation yesterday, and I'll tell you why. The hardest thing for me was to say, well, do this. It's just, just give them scripture and let them be. And I love this person so much. And it's so hard just to say, okay, it's in your hands, Lord. It's in your hands. Donny Bell used to tell me, we preach the gospel and we leave people alone. Let the Holy Spirit get ahold of them. We don't want to get in the way, do we? Oh, my. But we're so eager for the Lord to save him, aren't we? But it's got to be in his time. It's got to be in his time, doesn't it? And he... My. My, oh, my. So we're often ready to faint under afflictions, and he gives us faith. He gives us strength. Look at verses, we're almost done, verses 30 and 31 of Isaiah chapter 40. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young man shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord, they that wait upon Jehovah, and that's what we do, we wait upon Jehovah, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with his eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint. So we see, it's the Lord who gives us strength every day. And notice that, they shall mount up as eagles. This just came to my mind, but think of this. Those eagles are above all the troubles of this world, aren't they? They're just flying around. They have no worries about what's going on down there. Let us not be worried about all the stuff going on in this world. May God make us to mount up like eagles. renew our strength to carry on in this world, and keep our eyes on our King, keep our eyes on our Savior, keep our eyes on the Almighty One, the Lord Jesus Christ, who saved us from our sins through His blood and righteousness. Amen and amen. Brother Chris, can you close us in prayer?