By 
This sermon was preached for Capital Pres Fairfax on Sunday, April 19, 2026, as a part of our Winter series through Philippians titled “Resilient Joy” This is our third sermon in our series “Philippians: Resilient Joy.” The book of Philippians, a letter written in prison by the Apostle Paul, encourages us to locate our deepest joy in Jesus — not in our circumstances. This week we considered our freedom to choose joy as we meditated on Philippians 4:14-23. You can listen to a recording of the sermon on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
This year we’ve been in a sermon series titled “Resilient Joy” walking through the book of Philippians and seeing the ways the gospel empowers us to have joy in the midst of every circumstance. That’s been the apostle Paul’s consistent message through this whole letter. Even though he’s in prison facing the death penalty, even though there’s rivals preaching the gospel out of envy, no matter what is going on , Paul still finds joy. And Paul tells this young church in Philippi—and this young church in Fairfax—that we too can find joy in whatever we face.
In the face of persecution, and conflict within the church, and tragedy, and worry, no matter how much or how little we have, Paul tells us that joy is never out of reach. Why? Because the Lord Jesus has reached down to us. Christ humbled himself to the point of death—as another part of the Bible tells us, “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2). Paul tells us that knowing Jesus is of such immeasurable worth that nothing else in life can compare, and since Jesus can never be taken away from us, not even at death, we can have joy always.
That’s what Philippians is all about: resilient joy. So where do we see that in our passage today? Our awkward passage. It’s a bit awkward for a few reasons. First, it’s awkward to start a passage with the word “Yet.” We’re joining the conversation mid-sentence, we have to back up a bit (you can think of this this as a part-2 to last week). The way Paul writes is also awkward. Paul seems to be dancing around something. This has been described as a poorly written “thank you” note. Most of all, it’s an awkward topic: giving, financial support.
Here’s why I’m glad we’re talking about this today. If I were to ask you what word you would use to describe your feelings around giving, I’d suspect “joyful” wouldn’t be at the top of your list. It might be for some of us! But most of us might pick one of these words: afraid, guilty, ashamed, embarrassed, fatigued, resistant. Friends, what if instead of that, you felt joy? If given the chance, wouldn’t you want to be free from anxiety and guilt and fatigue? If we believe the message of Philippians—that we can find joy in any and every circumstance—that means that joy is hiding even in giving our money away.
In fact, it’s more than that: Christian giving is a way to invest in our joy. That’s our sermon in a sentence today. We can experience more joy by practicing Christian giving. Here’s how we’re going to tackle Christian giving.
-
- Describing it: What is it like? Two key traits
- Defining it: What is it actually? Two analogies
- Doing it: How can we practice it? Two ways
Describing it: What is Christian giving like?
There are two key traits we can find in our passage.
First: Christian giving is voluntary. This past week we were reminded that not all giving is voluntary. You have to pay your taxes. That’s not how Christian giving works, because that’s not how anything in Christianity works! You only do it if you want to.
In a real sense, there is no such thing as a “cultural Christian” or a “nominal Christian.” The definition of a Christian is someone who loves God with all their heart and chooses to follow Jesus. Christian practice, including giving, grows out of that love and freedom.
That’s what we see in Philippians. Look back with me at verse 10. For a while, the Philippians didn’t give Paul any money; now, they’re resuming their support. Why? Simply because they want to. They were concerned. They loved him. Paul never rebukes churches for not supporting him. In fact, his normal practice is to refuse financial support and earn his own money so that the people he’s preaching to can’t accuse him of doing ministry for financial gain. There was no obligation on the Philippians.
What does that mean for us? We don’t have a toll booth at the entrance to the auditorium. Our church is not a private members-only club. Your relationship with God is not a monthly subscription. Our hope is that you love God and love his church here in Fairfax, and we want you to give—but only if you want to.
Second: Christian giving is costly. This is a key trait we see modeled everywhere in the Bible. Most importantly, we see this in the gospel: Jesus freely sacrificed everything, at the cost of even his own life, to freely give us life. As followers of Jesus, we follow his example of self-sacrificial, costly giving.
The Philippians do exactly that. In another one of Paul’s letters, 2 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul uses the Philippians as an example. He says that even in “extreme poverty” they literally begged Paul for the “favor” of taking part in a donation drive for poor Christians and gave “beyond their means” (2 Cor 8:3-4). And how does he describe this? Their “abundance of joy…overflowed in a wealth of generosity” (2 Cor 8:2). That’s beautiful! That’s costly.
What does that look like for us? God doesn’t give us a target number or percentage, he just gives us examples of people in the Bible who give to the point of personal cost. A helpful way of gauging your heart: “Is your giving costly enough to feel its impact? Are there nice things you’re missing out on because you consider the gospel worth it?”
It’s worth noting, we have a wide range of financial positions in our church—lots of different tax brackets represented. You might be in a tax bracket where that nice thing is a G-Wagon, and instead you go with a RAV4 because you feel more compelled to give to the gospel. Or maybe, for you that nice thing is a Netflix Premium subscription, and instead you pick the one with ads so you can give $10 a month to a missionary friend. In either position, the Lord sees you and celebrates you. The point being, no matter our means, If we believe that following Jesus is worth it, our giving will be costly.
There’s an important caveat I need to add to that: we’re never told to give to the point of impoverishing ourselves. We see that in the text; Paul is carefully walking the line between genuine gratitude and an implicit plea “Please stop giving me your money!” Notice how Paul never actually says “Thank you”? He says “I rejoiced in the Lord when I got your gift—but I didn’t really need it, I’m content in all circumstances!…Yet it was kind of you to share my troubles—not that I seek the gift! I’ve received payment in full, and more; I am well supplied!” It’s as if to say “Guys, of all the churches, yall should be the ones receiving support, not giving it!”
I don’t know if anyone here this morning needs to hear this, but I’m still gonna say it: The cost of Christian giving should never be the food on our table or the roof over our family’s heads. If you have to pick between your monthly giving to the church and going into debt, stop giving money for now and let us help you. We’ve got something like $70,000 in our deacon’s fund to help meet material needs. Please reach out to me someone else and we’ll connect you with our deacons.
Now Paul doesn’t rebuke the Philippians probably because they’re not there yet—maybe just on the brink, they’ve found the limit. He does celebrate them by recognizing the immense benefits of their radical generosity, which is what we’ll look it now.
Defining it: What is Christian giving?
The text gives us two analogies.
First: Christian giving is an investment. This passage is full of financial language. Verse 15 “partnership” in this context and “giving and receiving” are technical business terms; another translation reads “a partnership…in accounting of expenditures and receipts.”1 Verse 18 says “I have received full payment,” which is what would have been written on ancient receipts, like an Amazon shipping confirmation. Most importantly, look at verse 17. Again another translation reads like this “I do not say this meaning that I have my heart set on your giving. But I certainly do have my heart set on interest increasing that may accrue to your account.”2
When you give money to the gospel, you are investing in joy: both your own, and the joy of others. Let me give you a picture of what this can look like. Right after college I worked as an intern with a college ministry, and I had to fundraise about $60,000 to cover two years. A good chunk of money came from family and from my home church, our mother church McLean Pres. But I also reached out to my friends who had just graduated from college with me—so, dead broke and unemployed.
Most said “no” for obvious reasons. One friend committed to $10 a month. If you’re doing the math, that’s less than half a percent of my goal—pretty much enough to cover a single coffee meeting every month. But that friend was one of my most faithful supporters. He’d regularly text me encouragements, he responded to every newsletter, he’d make a point to share articles or books he found that might be helpful to my ministry. That was such a joy for me.
Whenever I had a really good coffee meeting with a student, where the gospel started clicking for them, they began to see the insane love of God for them in Christ Jesus, I’d think to myself “That $10 made that possible.” And guess what? One day in heaven, I hope I get the chance to connect those students I had coffee with and my friend who gave $10 a month, because that’s going to be such a great payoff of joy.
That’s the kind of investment we’re talking about here. The conversion is earthly resources—not just money, but your time, your talent, your prayers, whatever you can give—converting that to joy. The investment benefits you and its recipients, and the yield compounds into eternity. Don’t you want that? That’s a good investment. That is so much better than a G Wagon! That’s worth watching ads on Netflix!
Second: Christian giving is worship. Here’s maybe the craziest part of Christian giving: You’re actually investing in the joy of God. The Lord delights in your gift as a pleasing aroma and sacrifice. That’s the language Paul uses in verse 18; he’s drawing from the Old Testament sacrificial system. He compares our sacrificial giving to the animal sacrifices of God’s people on the altar. It’s a way for us to understand how much the Lord loves our generosity. It’s like walking into the house and smelling a delicious meal being prepared. That’s how much your heavenly Father derives great pleasure in seeing His children being radically and sacrificially generous.
Not because it earns His favor. But because it demonstrates that we grasp that Jesus has earned His favor for us—and our giving is simply our response to God’s grace toward us. Paul wants to make sure we don’t miss that. We don’t give to God so He will do things for us. We give to God because of what he has already done for us and how he continues to give generously to us.
In other words, God loves us and sent his Son Jesus, the lamb of God, to die for us—Christ was the true pleasing aroma and sacrifice who took away our sins. God loves us and gave us Christ. We give to God in support of the gospel because we love him and want others to love him. And God loves the fact that we love him. And when God is happy, that makes us happy! See the feedback loop? That’s how this investment works! That’s how Christian giving is a core part of worship.
Doing it: How can we practice Christian giving?
What does any of this look like in practice for us today? Let’s consider two things: giving and receiving. That’s how Paul describes his relationship with the Philippians—it’s a two-way street. What does that look like for you?
First, think about what you need to receive. Christianity always starts with receiving. Maybe you need to receive the gospel this morning. Do you believe that in Christ God offers you everything you need and long for? Are you ready to receive the righteousness and life and joy of God in exchange for your sin and your brokenness? If you are, please come find me or one of our leaders after the service, we’d love to talk with you.
Maybe you need to receive the promise of verse 19 “my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” If the word that comes to mind with giving is “afraid,” this is for you. What are you afraid of? What is your fear telling you? Probably something along the lines of “If I give too much, there won’t be enough left over for me.” Friends, he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32). You will lack for nothing. Receive the assurance of your Father’s love and provision. You’ll find way more freedom and joy when you loosen your grip on your own possessions and trust God to supply every need.
And again, maybe you need to receive some tangible help. We have more money than we know what to do with in the deacon’s fund. If you are struggling to make ends meet, the only thing that can stop us from helping you is pride. Please ask for help if you need it.
Finally, thing about how you can invest in joy through giving. Here’s a few questions for you to chew on over lunch:
- Christian giving is voluntary, so do you want to give? Where’s your heart? Do you think Jesus is worth it?
- Christian giving is costly, so are you feeling the cost? What nice things will you miss out on because you consider the gospel worth it?
- Christian giving is an investment, so how are you entering into a partnership with the church? Where do you see giving in your budget, or on your calendar?
- Christian giving is worship, so what difference does it make knowing that God delights in your sacrifice?
As we go, receive the benediction Paul leaves the Philippians with. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” Amen.
_____________
1 Gerald F. Hawthorne, and Ralph P. Martin. Philippians, Volume 43 : Revised Edition. Word Biblical Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2018), 257.
2 Hawthorne and Martin, Philippians, 258.
