Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - REPLAY： Most Misused： Philippians 4

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Thursday. As promised, today we're doing a most misused.

00:00:16.760 Our verse is Philippians 4.13. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Now,

00:00:22.920 there is a lot going on in the news that I wanted to talk about. And quite honestly, I'm super

00:00:29.600 overwhelmed with everything that I want to talk about when it comes to the corruption that we are

00:00:35.500 seeing in many of our institutions when it comes to the so-called public health response to this

00:00:43.980 virus. New things seem to be unfolding every day, new developments that are extremely disturbing.

00:00:50.240 I think that I'm going to cover all of that on Monday. The reason I'm not talking about it today

00:00:56.080 is because I promised you guys a Theology Thursday. And honestly, I think that this is

00:01:01.300 what we need. I think that this is a lot of what you guys need, what you said that you would like

00:01:08.660 to hear. So we're going to take a step back. We're going to remember what's most important.

00:01:15.120 And even though I think it's important to care about everything that's going on,

00:01:18.580 we have to keep our perspective and we have to stay rooted in what is true. The realest reality,

00:01:24.700 the biggest narrative, the truest narrative that is unfolding always without a hitch is God's eternal

00:01:32.560 plan of redemption. And we get to read a lot about that and gain a lot of hope in that from reading

00:01:38.300 and most importantly, understanding his word. At the end of this episode, we're also going to

00:01:44.460 play a few voicemails that I got from you guys about your dreams. And maybe we'll also play an

00:01:52.940 interpretation of the dreams that I said that I had been having on Monday. And I'm super excited

00:01:58.880 about that. So this is the episode, even though we're not talking about anything that's going on,

00:02:02.580 I really think this is the episode that we need right now. Like we need some biblical,

00:02:06.820 eternal, unchanging truth. We also need some levity. And I listened to a little bit of one of

00:02:12.300 the voicemails that you guys sent me and it was so good. I was cracking up and I know that you guys

00:02:17.080 are going to love it. So, all right, we've done several of these most misused episodes in the

00:02:21.480 past. We've done Jeremiah 29 11, for I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. We've done Micah

00:02:26.540 6 8, seek justice, love mercy. Psalm 37 4, delight yourself in the Lord. He will give you the desires

00:02:33.020 of your heart. Matthew 7 1, judge not lest you be judged. If you search relatable, most misused,

00:02:39.900 wherever you listen to your podcasts, all of them should come up. So you can go listen to those

00:02:45.340 previous episodes if you're curious. This is basically where I take a popular verse, a verse

00:02:50.960 that's very often taken out of context and then misapplied, and dig into the actual context of

00:02:57.480 history and of scripture to see what the verse really means. And every time, what we find in

00:03:03.220 doing this is that the true meaning of the verse is always so much better than the popular misapplication

00:03:09.100 and misinterpretation of the verse. I actually can't believe that we haven't done Philippians 4 13

00:03:15.300 yet, because it's one of the most commonly misused verses ever, especially within Christianity. So

00:03:22.140 verses like Matthew 7 1, judge not lest you be judged, are not only misused by, you know,

00:03:28.740 professing Christians, but it's also used and abused by non-Christians, especially typically while

00:03:35.200 they're like judging the views of someone else on Twitter. But Philippians 4 13, I can do all things

00:03:40.880 through him, Christ who strengthens me, is one that you have probably seen thrown around a lot in

00:03:46.560 Christian schools, at church camps and youth groups, especially when it comes to some kind of

00:03:50.460 athletic competition. It usually is used to mean I have this really difficult game in front of me,

00:03:58.560 or this big obstacle in front of me, or a big goal that I want to reach, and Jesus is going to

00:04:02.860 come help me win or overcome or accomplish that goal. And it's not necessarily that this verse

00:04:10.460 can't ever be applied to those kinds of scenarios where you need immediate divine power to overcome

00:04:15.980 what's in front of you. It's that using this verse as some sort of talisman or a good luck charm or a

00:04:23.300 guarantee of success is wrong. It misses the point of the verse, which is far deeper and so much better

00:04:31.020 than any sort of promise to reach your goals or win your soccer game or pass your test. Again,

00:04:36.840 praying for those things and praying for the strength of Christ in those situations is not

00:04:41.980 necessarily bad, but Philippians 4 13, it's not a good luck charm. So first things first, let's look

00:04:49.180 at the context. When it comes to reading the Bible, context is king. We need to know a few things

00:04:56.660 when we are looking at a verse. What does the rest of the chapter say? What does the rest of the book

00:05:03.900 of this Bible say? To whom was this book of the Bible written and why? Is there any historical context

00:05:11.940 that helps me understand what this verse is saying? And then how do I read this in light of all of

00:05:18.640 scripture? We also ask, what does this teach me about the character of God? What does this tell me

00:05:24.760 about the gospel? And how do those things apply to my life? Is there a sin that I need to repent of?

00:05:29.940 Is there something I can take comfort in here? Is there a promise that I can cling to? Is there an

00:05:34.160 action that I need to take that I read here? Is there a lie that I've realized that I now need to

00:05:40.400 reject and replace with truth? And just a quick aside before we get into this verse, I just want to say

00:05:46.720 like we do not have to have seminary degrees to answer all of these questions and to understand God's

00:05:52.440 word. You don't have to know everything about the Bible to do that. If you are new to reading

00:05:57.280 scripture and maybe you're intimidated by it and you feel like maybe you just shouldn't read it because

00:06:02.340 you don't even know where to start or maybe you feel dumb for not understanding it. No, that is Satan

00:06:08.120 lying to you. God has given you the capability to understand his word through the power of his Holy

00:06:14.520 Spirit. And this takes time. It takes diligence. It takes careful study. It takes prayer. It takes

00:06:20.400 faithful teaching by people who love Jesus and his word. It takes reading the same verse and in the

00:06:26.740 same chapter and book over and over and over again for decades. And every time learning something new

00:06:33.920 about the God who made us and who saved us. It is a process. God is faithful to begin that good work

00:06:40.020 in you. He is faithful to complete it as Philippians 1 says. So you have got this with the power of the

00:06:46.040 Holy Spirit. You've got this. My advice is to get an ESV study Bible. That's an English standard version

00:06:52.920 study Bible I've talked about. I think I've done an episode on. I'll link it if I can find it. The

00:06:57.880 previous episode where I talked about why I like the English standard version. It is an amazing

00:07:04.660 investment. It's a little bit of money to get that ESV Bible, but it's a great investment. And if you can

00:07:11.040 also swing systematic theology by Wayne Grudem, that's a great supplement to your Bible reading.

00:07:16.620 And then you take that ESV study Bible. You start in the book of John. Or if you just have a Bible

00:07:20.860 lying around that maybe you haven't opened in a while, that'll work too. You don't have to get the

00:07:24.640 ESV study Bible. Open to the book of John. Read forward from there. Then go back and start at the

00:07:30.900 beginning. Read a chapter a day or even a verse a day. Really dig in. Ask God and other strong,

00:07:37.300 solid Christians around you for help. Join a Bible teaching church in your area. I will link a tool

00:07:43.240 from foundersministries.org where you can find a local church. I will link that in the description

00:07:51.100 of this episode. All right. I want to actually look now at this verse, Philippians 4.13, that I think is

00:07:58.820 so rarely understood. And I am not pretending to be the arbiter of understanding and interpretation,

00:08:05.660 but I do have the tools at my disposal, just as you do, to look at the context of what is

00:08:12.020 happening here. Again, who's writing this? Why is he writing this? Who is he talking to here? What is

00:08:18.160 the purpose? We can even look at some of the original Greek and really understand what this is

00:08:25.500 saying. Okay. So first I look at the commentary in my Bible. When I want to understand a book of the

00:08:30.780 Bible and a particular verse, the ESV study Bible, like I said, was the one that I, is the one that I

00:08:37.400 love and the one that I used for about 10 years. It's my first study Bible. A friend in college gave it

00:08:43.220 to me, I think, when I was a sophomore in college and it was literally just torn apart. And so I wanted

00:08:49.240 to change things up when I got a new Bible last year and I got the John MacArthur ESV study Bible.

00:08:53.180 And I love it. I really do. I love his wisdom. I appreciate his wisdom. Got a little bit of

00:08:57.980 different eschatology than him. And so sometimes that colors the commentary as is usual. Commentary

00:09:03.320 we know is not inerrant like the word of God is, but it is still super helpful. And I just appreciate

00:09:08.660 his wisdom so much. Honestly, though, I do sometimes miss my ESV study Bible just because that's what I'm

00:09:14.680 used to. And that's, it helped me so much grow in the faith when I was really starting to,

00:09:20.440 um, when I was really starting to take Bible reading and studying seriously. But for this

00:09:26.680 episode, I did use my commentary from the good old Johnny Mac. And so when we look at what his

00:09:33.760 commentary and his analysis has to tell us about the book of Philippians, um, and what it's all

00:09:38.940 about, what we find is that Philippians is a letter written by the apostle Paul to the church at

00:09:43.800 Philippi, which was a Greek city. The Philippian church was actually the first church Paul established

00:09:49.360 in Macedonia. Philippians is known as a prison epistle because it was a letter that Paul is

00:09:55.920 believed to have written during his first imprisonment in Rome from about 60 to 62 AD, probably toward

00:10:02.260 the end of that stint in prison, probably 61 AD. So Philippi was named after Philip II. He was the

00:10:09.780 father of Alexander the Great who conquered the region in 4th century BC. Philip did. In 42 BC,

00:10:18.180 Philippi became a Roman colony and the people who lived there received Roman citizenship was a,

00:10:24.640 which was a really big deal that came with a lot of rights and privileges. So the people of

00:10:29.080 Philippi were very proud of this. They adopted Roman customs. Latin is their official language.

00:10:34.460 They changed their city government to imitate Italian cities. Uh, Philippians are, are said to

00:10:40.400 have really adopted this, uh, identity in, um, a very proud way. Uh, and so they put on this Roman

00:10:49.640 citizenship. They put on their identity as Romans. So when Paul says in Philippians 3 20, that, Hey,

00:10:56.300 our citizenship is in heaven. He is likely speaking to that, reminding them that, you know, this is all

00:11:02.960 well and good. Paul himself was a Roman citizen and exercised some of the rights and privileges that he had

00:11:09.060 with that. But he reminds them, Hey, where are you belong, where your identity ultimately comes from,

00:11:15.420 what you place your hope in and what you boast in. Is it here? It's not your citizenship on earth. Um,

00:11:23.080 it's your citizenship that's in heaven. It is, uh, the hope that you have in eternity because of Christ.

00:11:29.420 There was a small Jewish population in Philippi to whom Paul shared or with whom Paul shared the

00:11:35.340 gospel. This is where Lydia, who was a very wealthy merchant converted to Christianity after hearing

00:11:41.620 Paul's teaching, uh, immediately the church suffered spiritual and political oppositions,

00:11:47.360 uh, opposition as we read in the book of Acts. Uh, they were seen as a threat in some ways to Roman

00:11:53.880 power and identity because of that piece of, uh, citizenship elsewhere, citizenship and in, uh,

00:12:01.580 an eternal dwelling place. And yet the Philippian church in the midst of that persecution was

00:12:07.500 faithful and was generous. They supported Paul throughout his missionary journey, attending to

00:12:12.720 his needs, however possible. So part of this letter to the Philippians, while Paul is in jail,

00:12:18.020 is thanking them for their generosity. He also speaks to them about his circumstances in Rome and

00:12:22.980 in prison. He urges them to remain unified in the gospel, to stay away from false teachings and

00:12:28.920 teachers and to remain steadfast and joyful and thankful in the Lord. Um, the tone of this letter,

00:12:35.200 even while he is in prison is one of joy and one of gratitude, a very fatherly type love that we see

00:12:43.580 from Paul, not just in this epistle, but also in other epistles, um, of pride and expectation in the

00:12:51.100 Philippians faith in their pursuit of Christ. And I mean, pride, not in the negative sense, but in the

00:12:57.800 positive sense, an exhorting kind of pride, a thankful kind of pride that a father has, um, in

00:13:04.940 their child when they are, uh, emulating the Lord. Uh, he reminds the Philippian church where they belong,

00:13:13.020 ultimately to whom they belong, why they are still there on earth, what they should be doing,

00:13:19.020 what they should be looking forward to in heaven. And then after explaining all of this, we get to the

00:13:24.120 last chapter of the book of Philippians chapter four, which starts with this word, therefore. Now

00:13:30.620 you've probably heard, if you grew up in church, when you see the word, therefore you ask, what is

00:13:34.560 it there for? And so that's what we're going to look at. Philippians four, one says this quote,

00:13:39.580 therefore my brothers whom I love and long for my joy and crown stand firm thus in the Lord,

00:13:47.180 my beloved. So that therefore is in relation to all that he's just explained in the first three

00:13:53.100 chapters about who they are and what their purpose and belonging and hope is in Christ. And now he's

00:13:58.840 saying in light of that gospel, in light of that good news, in light of who you are, remember and do

00:14:04.540 these following things. So verses two through three, these are obviously my words summarizing what he's

00:14:10.160 saying. He's saying, agree in the Lord with fellow believers for the sake of the gospel, even if you

00:14:15.560 have disagreements. Verses four through seven, rejoice in the Lord always. You guys probably know these

00:14:21.960 verses. Again, if you're familiar with the Bible and grew up in church or have spent any amount of

00:14:26.620 time in church, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. I won't sing the song that is

00:14:32.560 now coming into my mind from my childhood, uh, just to spare you, spare you that, uh, let your

00:14:38.600 reasonableness be made known to everyone. And just as an aside, so many people today lack reason. We all

00:14:46.160 unfortunately suspend our reason when we allow emotions to rule us. But surely, uh, certainly I should

00:14:53.960 say that reasonableness is, uh, is certainly not seen as a positive characteristic today or an important

00:15:02.800 characteristic or Christ-like characteristic that we need to prioritize. It seems like many people, even within

00:15:08.640 the church, have forgotten that that's an important characteristic of a Christian. James 3.17 says,

00:15:14.200 the wisdom from above, so heavenly wisdom, wisdom from God is, it lists a number of qualities, but one

00:15:20.920 of them is open to reason. It's open to logic, to biblical truth, to factual truth, to scientific truth,

00:15:27.260 to truthful persuasion. People who do not have the wisdom from above are not open to reason. Verses six

00:15:34.040 through seven of Philippians four, uh, say, don't be worried about anything. Paul says this in prison,

00:15:40.500 not knowing his imminent fate. Um, it says, don't worry, don't be anxious about anything. And we see

00:15:47.140 this repeated by Jesus over and over again in his ministry, knowing everything that was to come

00:15:52.100 both, uh, soon when he was saying that, and also, uh, for the millennia afterward. Um, this verse says,

00:16:00.980 don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, those are really big words. Don't be anxious about

00:16:06.400 anything, anything at all. Big, small, in the socio-political sphere, even in your personal

00:16:13.080 life, don't be worried about anything. Yes, this covers it. Don't be worried about anything, but in

00:16:17.020 everything, everything, every single thing that you go through, every single thing that you find

00:16:22.160 yourself concerned with, in everything, by prayer and supplication, so making requests with thanksgiving,

00:16:29.400 present your request to God, and he will give you the peace that transcends your comprehension. So even

00:16:36.740 if you don't understand how things are going to work together, even if you don't understand how

00:16:40.560 you're going to get through what's in front of you, God promises for Christians, the peace that

00:16:45.900 surpasses anything that your mental faculties can come up with to try to make sense of what's happening.

00:16:52.520 Verses eight through nine in chapter four, Philippians say,

00:16:55.420 to dwell on only that which is true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable and

00:17:01.140 excellent and praiseworthy. There are certainly days and hours and minutes when I am not dwelling

00:17:06.640 on these things. I'm fixing my mind only on the things that are worrisome. But God through Paul says,

00:17:12.980 fix your mind, your thoughts on all of these good things. And not only that, but verse nine says,

00:17:21.200 to practice these things. And then there again in this verse is the promise of the presence of God

00:17:27.780 and his peace. That's a worthy exchange, right? Like that's a pretty good deal for us. Okay. We dwell on

00:17:32.860 good things. We cease to worry. We pray to God. We give him our requests. We lay our concerns before him

00:17:38.460 and we thank him. And in exchange, we get the peace of God. Wow. That's, that's a really good deal that

00:17:46.020 we get. So in this first chunk of chapter four of Philippians, he is saying, um, therefore in light

00:17:54.680 of the gospel and the hope that we have in Jesus, unifying truth and in love, rejoice in God, dwell

00:18:00.960 on that which is good and right and true. And in doing these things, you will have peace, a peace that

00:18:07.160 transcends circumstance, a peace that isn't predicated on what's to come, but rather is dependent

00:18:12.180 on the unwavering faithfulness of God. Then in this second part of chapter four, Paul thanks the

00:18:20.420 Philippians for their love and care, uh, for their concern as he is in prison in a time of apparent

00:18:28.240 need. But, but he says, yes, you know, they met his needs. He seems to be in a dire situation in prison,

00:18:36.380 but he says in verses 11 through 13, and this gets to the verse that we're talking about today,

00:18:41.820 quote, not that I am speaking of being in need for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be

00:18:47.980 content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance against,

00:18:55.460 again, we're just seeing such encompassing language here and any, in every circumstance,

00:18:59.840 I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things,

00:19:07.020 all things through him, Christ, who strengthens me. Let's break that down just a little bit. So Paul

00:19:14.600 being persecuted for Christ in jail, knowing he will likely die for preaching the gospel in a

00:19:19.840 situation that looks pretty darn destitute is saying, no, I'm not in need. I'm not talking about

00:19:25.520 being in need. I actually don't lack anything. Again, this is my paraphrasing, even though ostensibly

00:19:30.280 he lacks most things, but he says in whatever situation, whatever situation he is to be content,

00:19:38.860 whatever situation, even here when, when maybe it seemed like his suffering and his punishment was

00:19:45.840 unjust, even when his plans didn't seem to be coming to fruition in his mission work,

00:19:52.560 even when he may have been struggling alone, maybe tempted at times towards hopelessness and despair

00:19:59.200 in a dank prison cell. Even then he's to be content with where he is. Paul is saying that he has no

00:20:06.080 needs and that he is to be okay and rejoice and dwell on good things even there. So let's do some

00:20:14.060 etymology on this word content. It has its roots in the Latin word contentus, which means to be contained

00:20:22.180 or satisfied. And I really, I really like that description of the word. The word literally means

00:20:28.620 to be held or contained within limits. So when you think of the feeling or the state of contentment,

00:20:35.060 that means your desires are contained within the limits of your current situation. They're not

00:20:39.200 reaching into what you don't have. So it's like a jar filled with, filled to the brim with water.

00:20:46.520 The water perfectly fills the jar without overflowing. So our happiness, our joy, our satisfaction,

00:20:51.980 we're reading here is to fill the parameters of our current circumstance without wondering,

00:20:58.620 why me? Or I'd be happier if, or if only God would, or if this person would just do this thing,

00:21:07.720 or this thing would finally happen. If it did, I'd be happy. Or if I wasn't going through this trial,

00:21:14.620 if I found the right person, if I got the right job, if I conceived a child finally, if I lost the

00:21:19.860 weight I want to lose, if the state of America were just better, if our leaders just got it together,

00:21:24.160 if all of these terrible things weren't happening, both politically and personally,

00:21:28.160 if I just had the life that she had, then I would be content. That's not contentment. That's not what

00:21:36.140 we're called to. We don't see Paul saying here, if I were free, if I were not in jail, if I weren't

00:21:42.440 being persecuted, if I didn't face imminent danger, if I actually knew what was going to happen to me,

00:21:48.440 if I actually knew when I was going to die. We actually see in Philippians 1 that he is torn

00:21:53.000 between wanting to die and be with Christ and wanting to stay on earth and fulfill his mission

00:21:58.280 work and continue sharing the gospel. He doesn't say, if I just knew what was going to happen, then I

00:22:03.360 would finally be content. Or if I got more gifts and more aid from the other churches and from the

00:22:11.540 Philippian church, then I would finally be satisfied. He says, nope, I'm not even talking

00:22:15.460 about being in need because I have learned how to be content in whatever circumstance. So the

00:22:21.760 mentality of the Christian, Paul is saying, is not predicated on what does or does not happen to us

00:22:30.880 at all. Not on our accomplishments, our failures, our popularity, our mood, our hormones. How many times

00:22:37.960 do we use that as an excuse to not be content in what's happening to us? The happy things that

00:22:43.280 happen to us or the sad and unfair things that happen to us? It's not dependent on who's in office

00:22:48.160 or the state of the country. Man, I have to remind myself of that every day. It is dependent on one

00:22:53.800 thing and one thing alone, we read here. And that is Christ and his strength, as our verse of the day,

00:23:01.840 Philippians 4.13 says, which does not waver. It doesn't change. It doesn't diminish. His strength

00:23:08.020 doesn't depend on our strength. It's not circumstantial or conditional. It became yours when by grace

00:23:13.820 through faith, you are made alive in Christ. Your sins were forgiven and you became a new creation and

00:23:19.120 a child of God. So right now you have the Holy Spirit inside you. A co-equal, a person in the

00:23:28.860 Godhead. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 6.19 says, or do you not

00:23:35.460 know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are bought

00:23:41.720 with a price to glorify God with your body. The chapter goes on saying, Jesus says that this Holy

00:23:47.280 Spirit is our helper. John 14.26. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,

00:23:54.600 he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. So the

00:24:01.120 Spirit is our helper, our teacher who helps us remember Jesus's words. And Jesus tells us that

00:24:11.780 he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. And Jesus tells us, he promises us that we

00:24:18.020 will have trouble, but take heart because he's overcome the world. So when we read in Philippians 4.13,

00:24:23.600 that his strength will allow us to do anything that God wants us to do, that's what he is talking

00:24:30.380 about. He is talking about the strength to be content, to be joyful, to rejoice in all kinds

00:24:37.120 of terrible situations. It's not dependent on anything that's happening to us. It's not dependent

00:24:42.320 on any mood that we have or any way we wake up one morning or anything that anyone says to us. It is

00:24:51.740 dependent on the unconditional, unchanging, undiminishing strength of Christ who promises

00:24:59.680 us in Romans 8 that we are going to be, that we are right now more than conquerors, that nothing

00:25:06.220 can separate us from the love of Christ, that all things work together for the good of those who love

00:25:11.860 him. That is what Philippians 4.13 is talking about. Philippians 4.13 is talking about a strength

00:25:18.700 that surpasses any kind of obstacle that may be in front of us. So Jesus's strength allows us to be

00:25:26.060 content in every situation. That doesn't mean that we don't care about things that are going on. That

00:25:31.320 doesn't mean that we don't have a responsibility to make the plot of earth that he has placed us on,

00:25:38.300 this speck of eternity that he's placed us on, better. Of course, it is our responsibility in loving

00:25:43.820 God and loving our neighbor and seeking the welfare of those around us. That's something that we talked

00:25:48.300 about in the most misused Jeremiah 29.11 episode. Yes, all of those things are good stewardship of

00:25:55.320 the time that we have, the resources that we have. It's part of caring for the least of these. That's

00:26:00.480 why we talk about such what I think are very important subjects on this podcast. As we have said

00:26:07.940 before, politics matter because policy matters, because people matter, because politics affect

00:26:14.260 policy and policy affects people. I think all of those things matter. So we have to balance. We have

00:26:21.240 to not ignore politics because they have an effect on people whom we are called to care for and love.

00:26:27.120 It has an effect on our country that we are called to seek the welfare of, but we also can't idolize

00:26:32.720 politics. We also can't allow that to rob us of the contentment that is ours in Christ. Being content

00:26:40.540 and praying for the strength to be content is also making sure that we are obeying the commandment

00:26:49.020 against coveting. Not being content is coveting something else that you don't have, which of course

00:26:55.860 is what coveting means. So it's wanting, maybe you're not satisfied with your schedule, so it's wanting

00:27:01.560 more time or you're wanting more money or you're wanting another job that is coveting something that

00:27:06.300 you don't have. Even if you're not specifically thinking about someone else's possessions, that is

00:27:11.740 still coveting and God calls us against that. That robs us of our peace that he desperately wants us to

00:27:17.740 have. That gives us anxiety. That gives us insecurity. It gives us this kind of self-obsession that doesn't

00:27:24.760 lend itself to a Christ-like and peaceful life. 1 Timothy 6, 3-7 says this. It says,

00:27:33.260 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ

00:27:37.840 and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

00:27:43.440 He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy,

00:27:49.780 dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind

00:27:55.500 and deprived of the truth. I love that play on words. Imagining that godliness is a means of gain,

00:28:01.640 but godliness with contentment is a great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we cannot

00:28:08.380 take anything out of the world. I probably could have just given you those last two verses, but I love

00:28:12.860 that whole paragraph in 1 Timothy 6. But these last two verses say again,

00:28:18.520 but godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take

00:28:26.360 anything out of the world. Our life here is relatively, in relation to eternity, it is very short.

00:28:37.020 We take nothing into the world. When we are born, we are dependent on other people for everything. We

00:28:45.340 will take nothing out of the world. And so, as Jesus says, we don't store up treasures on earth. We

00:28:51.080 store up treasures in heaven. We seek first his righteousness, his kingdom, knowing all of the

00:28:56.120 things that we need will be added unto us. As we talked about, I think it was last week when we were

00:29:02.700 talking about anxiety and how Jesus warns us against anxiety and exhorts us to trust in the Lord. He

00:29:09.720 reminds us that not even a sparrow falls out of the sky apart from the will of the Father, and two

00:29:16.240 sparrows are sold for a penny. So, how much more does he care about us who are made in his image,

00:29:22.180 his children who have been bought with a price by the blood of Jesus Christ? Don't we believe that

00:29:26.960 he is going to meet all of our needs in accordance to his will? That doesn't mean hard things are

00:29:32.680 going to happen. That doesn't mean that there won't be situations like Paul's situation where it

00:29:37.300 seems like we're in desperate need, when we're lacking the things that we need. However, what

00:29:44.140 Philippians 4.13 reminds us is that what we actually need in those situations is not maybe what the

00:29:50.800 world thinks that we need or what it looks like we need. We actually need Christ's strength to remain

00:29:55.320 content, to remain joyful in all situations. So, using Philippians 4.13 to say that you want God's

00:30:02.660 strength to accomplish what's right in front of you is not necessarily always wrong. Again,

00:30:07.540 as long as you're not using it as some kind of promise of personal success or promise of a

00:30:14.780 particular outcome that you want in this athletic event or this test or this job interview, whatever

00:30:20.140 it is, he is saying, look, I'm going to sustain you in any and every circumstance. And look, I'll give

00:30:26.860 you peace. Dwell on the things that I'm telling you to dwell on. Practice the things that I'm telling you

00:30:31.620 to practice. Believe in hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ and you will have peace and you will

00:30:37.920 have strength to sustain you. That's much better. That's a much better realization. That's a much

00:30:43.600 better truth than just saying, okay, Jesus is promising that I'm going to, you know, win my

00:30:49.120 baseball game. It's much bigger than that. It's much more eternal than that. It's much more satisfying

00:30:53.900 than that. Again, like reading scripture and understanding what is meant in all of these verses is so much

00:31:00.040 more satisfying and contentment producing than simply reading the scripture to say, okay, what do

00:31:06.680 I want this to mean? And what does this mean to me? We don't ask, what does this mean to me? Primarily

00:31:13.020 what we ask first is what does this mean? And then we look for proper application in light of all of

00:31:20.300 scripture. There's a lot more that we could say about this verse. I'm sure that there is a lot of

00:31:26.500 awesome commentary out there, but I hope that it gives you some encouragement and maybe some

00:31:31.420 clarity on this verse and on this book. All right. Now we're going to get into a couple or a few of

00:31:38.760 those voicemails. The first one is telling me about a repetitive dream that this person had. And

00:31:47.200 I'm really excited from the description. I'm super excited to actually hear it. So let's go ahead and

00:31:52.920 play it. Hey, Allie, uh, Rachel here from Denver, Colorado. I never miss your podcast and I just love

00:32:02.120 it so much. Thanks for all you do. I'm calling to tell you about a recurring dream that I had every

00:32:08.360 single year from when I was eight years old until I was 19 years old, but only on one night of the year.

00:32:16.660 And that was Halloween. So every Halloween I would go to sleep and this is my dream. I grew up with a

00:32:23.720 chihuahua named Toby. He was a very obese chihuahua. He was very cute. And so, uh, we would let him out

00:32:31.340 to go to the bathroom and in the dream, I let him out. And then a couple minutes later, I go to let him

00:32:37.940 back in and he's gone. And so I go outside in the yard and I call his name, Toby, Toby, can't find him.

00:32:44.220 And I'm starting to panic. I look up and the moon is full, like a classic Halloween moon.

00:32:51.500 And, um, the clouds go over it really creepy. And then all of a sudden the street that I live on

00:32:57.560 is deserted. It's on a hill. I hear a tricycle squeaking coming up the hill and I look in the

00:33:04.780 distance and there's a witch driving up with on her tricycle and she has Toby in her arm.

00:33:11.700 And she says the classic, I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too.

00:33:19.940 And so I stand there panicked and all of a sudden I realized that my arm is weighted down. And I look

00:33:27.660 to my arm and I have the classic like eighties, nineties Halloween bucket full of candy, you know,

00:33:33.500 with the jack-o'-lantern, uh, the orange bucket and it's full of candy. And then she tells me that

00:33:38.680 to get Toby back, I need to give her the candy. Well, I say no. And then I wake up and as an adult,

00:33:48.120 this dream sounds very funny, but as a child, it was very scary. So I have this dream.

00:33:52.880 Um, okay. I'm okay. There are a couple of things. Well, one thing I do not believe,

00:34:01.160 I do not believe that you are from Denver. I hear that Southern accent girl. That is South Carolina,

00:34:07.880 Georgia, maybe some parts of Texas, maybe Alabama. There is no way that you're originally from Denver,

00:34:13.740 Colorado girl. Uh, but oh my gosh, your dream was adorable and very detailed, uh, very detailed.

00:34:22.800 I think it got kind of cut off at the end there, but, uh, the fact that you kind of have this like

00:34:29.300 wizard of Oz slash, I don't, I don't know, maybe like, um, like hocus pocus type thing going on.

00:34:39.000 And I can't tell you exactly what it actually means, except for maybe that you had a fear that

00:34:45.940 your dog, your obese dog, Toby would be taken from you. And maybe that was a serious concern that you

00:34:56.280 had and that there was, you know, some kind of fear of the unknown happening there. I think it

00:35:05.360 probably is a little bit more obvious than any kind of profound, uh, interpretation that I could

00:35:12.240 give you. If it was on Halloween every year, I guess you were thinking about witches and I don't

00:35:17.740 know, did you watch the wizard of Oz? Cause like, you've got this whole like Toto thing going on

00:35:22.300 and then it's combined with trick or treating. And so I guess it's just that, I guess it's just the

00:35:31.600 time of year. You probably loved your dog. Maybe the candy had to do something with the fact that

00:35:37.000 your dog was obese and you knew deep down that your little chihuahua probably needed to be on a diet.

00:35:42.600 Maybe that was part of it. I am curious to know why it kind of just stopped. I guess when you moved

00:35:47.700 out of your house or maybe when you stopped going trick or treating, you no longer had this,

00:35:51.660 this nightmare. It's a nightmare. Let's not call it a dream. That's a nightmare. Um, Rachel,

00:35:56.620 thank you so much for sending us your dream. That gave me a good laugh. And I need you to tell,

00:36:03.200 I need you to tell the audience though, if you ever call back or you message me on Instagram,

00:36:07.000 where you're actually from, if you're from Denver, Colorado and Denver, Colorado, uh, has people with

00:36:13.960 a Southern drawl like that, then I just must not understand. I must not understand where certain

00:36:19.940 states are in the union and how people are in certain areas of the country. I need to know where

00:36:26.380 you're actually from. All right. Uh, let's play the next dream.

00:36:32.140 Hi, Allie. This is Katie. I'm from Southern Missouri. Love your podcast. This is my response

00:36:38.100 to your, uh, dream interpretation request. So I'm going to say that, uh, your dreams of being pregnant

00:36:47.600 and flying, they're actually connected. So I hate to break it to you, but I think that you are actually,

00:36:54.220 uh, living in an alternate reality. One day you are going to wake up from whatever

00:37:00.120 trance or dream that you're in right now as a human. When you wake up, you're going to find out

00:37:05.920 that you are actually a stork. Yes, a stork. And all you've been doing your whole life is delivering

00:37:14.040 babies. They're basically like living in the world of Dumbo. And you don't even know it right now

00:37:19.480 because you haven't woken up yet from these two dreams. So Allie, you're a stork. You're delivering

00:37:26.080 babies and you're not actually a real person. All right. Opening up your line to share. And I

00:37:34.140 can't wait to hear these stories. Super fun. Have a good day. Bye. You know, I think that that is

00:37:39.980 exactly, I think that's exactly what it is. I think that I am, I am actually a stork and I am actually

00:37:47.060 delivering babies. I think that that, um, it goes together perfectly. You know, I never,

00:37:52.320 I never really thought about that. Um, it's a little bit inception like that. Apparently when

00:37:56.980 I'm dreaming, it's like a dream within a dream, maybe like even within another dream. And if

00:38:02.600 storks have dreams and then I wake up and I remember when I was a human, what's that going to be like?

00:38:08.180 Um, anyway, I really appreciate that very profound and apt interpretation of my dream. I think that

00:38:14.360 you're exactly correct. I'll, so if one day I stopped doing this podcast, it's because I've

00:38:18.720 turned into, I reverted to my real self, a stork that's delivering babies. All right. Do we have

00:38:23.560 another dream?

00:38:27.620 I will listen to your podcast about your request for dreams. Um, my name is Chelsea and I live in

00:38:33.380 Cedar Park, Texas. So I have two reoccurring dreams. One is that I'm back in high school and I don't

00:38:40.620 understand why. So I actually in real life have a master's degree and I have this dream that I'm

00:38:48.200 in high school. And in the dream, I can't understand why I'm back in high school. I'm always a senior in

00:38:53.220 the dream. And in the dream, I'm trying to figure out why I didn't get my high school degree. But at

00:38:59.020 the same time, I have a master's degree. It's a very confusing dream. And the second, because also that

00:39:06.020 time, uh, back in high school, but in this dream, I'm actually, I guess, supposed to be in high school

00:39:11.140 and I am sitting in a class or I'm walking through the hallway and it's the end of the school year in

00:39:20.300 my dream. And I realized, oh my goodness, there's two or three classes I just completely didn't go to.

00:39:27.660 Um, and I'm really stressed out. So very interesting. I'm in my thirties. It's very interesting that I have

00:39:32.720 these two reoccurring dreams about high school. Um, I think maybe your dream about pregnancy is

00:39:38.760 kind of the same thing. Maybe it's just fear of, uh, not being in control or fear of the unknown.

00:39:44.620 Um, not sure what the flying dream means. So anyway, thank you so much for your podcast and everything

00:39:49.100 you do. Yes. Okay. So a ton of people, a ton of people have this dream. My husband used to have

00:39:55.300 this dream. I was just talking to my team before this and they were saying that they've had that dream

00:39:59.060 too. I have never had that dream where I'm supposed to be graduating or I'm supposed to finish school.

00:40:04.140 And I don't have, uh, I didn't finish a class. Now I actually remember literally having that fear

00:40:11.480 when I was in college that maybe I didn't complete all of my credits somehow, but that didn't happen.

00:40:16.020 Maybe I didn't care enough about school to care whether or not I really graduated, but I hear that

00:40:20.660 a lot. And I, I wonder if it, if you have that dream when you're stressed about something else,

00:40:24.520 if you're stressed about work or if there's some other kind of pressure on you, um, I wonder if

00:40:30.480 it's a little bit also people have like imposter syndrome that I'm not really qualified for the

00:40:35.780 thing that I'm doing. People are going to find out that I'm not really qualified for the thing that

00:40:40.080 I'm doing, that I don't have the proper credentials. Maybe it's something like that, or you feel like

00:40:45.420 there are other things in life that you don't know if they're going to come together, if you're going

00:40:50.080 to be able to complete them. I absolutely think that you are correct that it is similar to my

00:40:56.580 pregnancy dream that I dreamed, as I said, I think it was on Monday that I dreamed that I am, um,

00:41:03.060 like 36 weeks pregnant and I, or I'm in labor and I never realized that I was pregnant and I don't

00:41:08.040 even have an OB and I'm like giving birth at home or I'm like trying to text some, someone to ask if

00:41:13.520 they'll be my doctor. I've had that recurring dream. Uh, and so I do think it's similar. It's like

00:41:20.600 you get to the end of something and you are not prepared for it or you don't know what's to come.

00:41:28.360 I think that's probably just like an adult fear. So I don't think it's surprising that you're still

00:41:32.680 having that in your thirties. I think it's probably though, maybe something else that's going on in your

00:41:38.720 life that you're worried that you're not going to be able to fulfill or complete or do well or

00:41:44.560 something or something like that. I, a lot of people, a lot of people, um, have that dream.

00:41:50.740 Like I said, my husband used to have it all the time and I guess it, I guess it stopped. So

00:41:54.200 hopefully it's just seasonal. Maybe you won't have that dream anymore. Uh, all right. That's all I have

00:41:59.960 time for, for today. Thank you guys so much for sending in your voicemails. I would love, we got so many

00:42:05.760 of them. I would love to play all of them. Unfortunately, we don't have time, but if we

00:42:09.180 do another dream specific segment, I will try to play some of the voicemails that you guys sent.

00:42:14.840 Um, maybe I'll do this every week. If you guys like, like it, like I'll ask for a particular type

00:42:19.300 of voicemail on Monday. And then on Thursday, you guys, um, I'll, I'll play some of them. Uh,

00:42:25.440 thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you have a great weekend. We will be back here on Monday.

00:42:35.760 Bye.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 24, 2022

REPLAY： Most Misused： Philippians 4_13

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