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Found another sermon to typo in my manuscript tonight. Worship must lead to transformed livers. I mean, that’ll preach.

Philippians 4:13: I can deal with all things
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” -Phil. 4:13

The Football Verse
Many people are familiar with this verse because it has served as inspiration to millions of athletes and entrepreneurs who are trying hard things. Whatever you want to do, you can do it because Christ will give you strength. But what if what you want to do is stupid, physically impossible, unethical, or just not what God wants? Will you still have Christ’s superpower? This verse never seemed to help me play “the floor is lava” in college. Sometimes you just can’t make it from the couch to the kitchen counter.

This is not to knock Tim Tebow and others who have promoted this verse. In fact, when he wore it on his eye black during one of his many championships (championships, as a UGA fan, that hurt me to recall), Philippians 4:13 briefly became the most searched term on Google. Whatever makes people read the Bible.

While I think this use is at best a little too narrow and at worst a complete misunderstanding, I still think it needs to be one of the most memorized verses in the Bible—for a completely different reason.

Paul’s Imprisonment
When Paul writes these words, he writes them to the church at Philippi while he’s in prison. In the letter, he shares how the life of Christ leads us to self-sacrifice, to pressing on to perfection, to focusing on the good in life and letting God deal with our anxieties. Then, he comes to this verse.

Recession Proof
He’s thanking the Philippians for their generosity, but also making sure they don’t feel guilted by his comment. In fact, he doesn’t need anything. He’s learned to be content with having a lot. He’s learned to be content with being poor. He’s learned to be content with hardship. Implicit in this paragraph is that he’s even learned to be content with being in prison.

What’s his secret? He can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. A more direct translation from the Greek might be this: I have strength in all things through him who strengthens me. This sounds even more like a football verse, so let me show you the CEB version that I think really gets at the heart of it.

“I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.” -Phil. 4:13, CEB

Dealing with Anxiety, Hardship, and Grief
In other words, whatever he faces in this life, Christ will see him through. Whether it’s fear of the future (c.f., 4:6), pain of loss, or trouble in the present, Christ will give a peace that transcends understanding. There’s no promise that you’ll win the football game. There’s no promise that your business venture will work out. There’s no promise that you’ll be saved from the trials and heartache of this life. But there is a promise that God will carry you and strengthen you in the midst of it.

Christ Came For Everyone

Romans 5:6-11
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

It's for Everyone
I recently read a secular history of Christianity (Dominion by Tom Holland, not that Tom Holland, if you’re interested) that pinned the growth of Christianity in the Roman world on its universal appeal. You didn’t have to be rich. You didn’t have to be Roman. You didn’t have to be male. You didn’t have to be educated or claim some secret knowledge. Everyone could be part of the group. This, of course, made those that wielded religion as a political weapon really nervous. How could they keep the populace in line with Paul saying things like, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female. You are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 5:28)? In other words, Christians were claiming there was no natural hierarchy.

Moral Hierarchy?
This passage tells us that there’s no distinction on moral grounds either. Christianity isn’t just for the upstanding citizens. In fact, Jesus preferred the most broken people. Earlier in Romans, Paul tells us that nobody is righteous. Now, he tells us that we don’t even have to clean ourselves up before coming to Jesus. He didn’t die for the few sins you haven’t yet gotten rid of. The gift of salvation is available while you still have blood on your hands, before anyone notices a difference, or even before anyone believes you can change.

It's God’s Problem
Jesus died for you whether you think you’re capable of following him or not. When Paul says we are saved through his life, the word “save” doesn’t just mean not going to hell. It also means a rescue from a life of sin. It’s God’s power that will change you. You just have to seek it. If you’re too weak to seek, you just have to ask for the strength to ask for the strength.

God wants to transform you into a person that shares his love with the world, and he’s willing to do all the heavy lifting. In fact, Jesus has already done the heavy lifting, paid the bill, and empowered you. Now we can just walk in it. We’ll keep stumbling along, but he returns again and again to pick us up.

Live in the Spirit
Now Paul is clear in Romans 6 and 8 that those in Christ don’t stay in their sin, but God doesn’t just sit around watching to see if we’ll be different. He leads us every step of the way—through prayer, through his word, through community, and through the Spirit changing us in ways we didn’t even know to ask for.

It’s for Everyone
If you’re wondering if this is a life you can have, it is. The fact that it’s for literally everyone is what has been drawing people for the last 2000 years. You are no exception. Jesus died for you at your worst, and he can turn you into his best- even if you think you should have figured it out by now.

Sometimes faith is hard