“God’s Supply Chain”

“God’s Supply Chain”

Message summary: Today let us thank God for His supply chain and consider what part we may have in that chain.

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“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Yesterday morning, since Brooksyne was sick with a cold, I alone visited the employees at “Your Heart’s Delight”, a large wholesale distributor of gift and home decor items. This company provides products to the gift shops that women especially like to shop at with items similar to what you find at the Cracker Barrel store gift section.

They had two full 45 foot container trailers to unload and I encouraged the men unloading them by informing them they were part of the “supply chain”. The supply chain is a phrase you hear a lot about. According to Wikipedia, “A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, activities, information, and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities involve the transformation of natural resources, raw materials, and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer.”

Supply chains are a part of how life works but we usually consider just the link in the chain immediately before us. When we thank God for our meal we may ask God to “bless the hands that prepared it”, which Brooksyne has always gotten a kick out of as she mentally pictures detached hands peeling vegetables and stirring foods on the stove, then laying out the food.

We may say we got our food at the supermarket. But there are many, many links in the supply chain prior to that. When I pray over our meals I often remember these chain links such as the farmer, the truck drivers, the distribution workers and so forth. But actually we consider how the chain really goes back even further to the people who make the agricultural equipment that the farmer uses and on and on.

Today let us consider “God’s Supply Chain”.  Perhaps many of you have memorized our text which is one of the great promises of the Bible: “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

The apostle Paul was initially writing this to the Philippian believers in the context of being content with God’s provisions. “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (Philippians 4:11,12). Many of you will know by memory the powerful verse that follows. Think about it first and then click here to confirm or inform!

Just as there is a tendency to overlook the links in a supply chain apart from the preceding link, the same is true in God’s supply chain. This chain has both supernatural and natural elements. God may supernaturally supply a need such as the manna in the wilderness or feeding 5,000 with a little boy’s lunch.

But God usually works through natural means in His supply chain with people acting diligently, resourcefully, and generously in doing their part. We should not only be an end link in this chain as recipients but we should function as other links as well. Today we consider a quiet man that probably has been a part of the supply chain for many of our readers. Ray works at a company (Val-Co) that manufactures watering equipment for the poultry industry. He assembles a regulator that is a critical component in this system used in both layer houses (eggs) and broiler houses (meat). He has been assembling these regulators since we started in this company in 2007 and many years before that. He has surely assembled hundreds of thousands of these regulators. So, if you’ve eaten eggs or chicken in the last 25 years Ray very likely had a part in that!

Today let us thank God for His supply chain and consider what part we may have in that chain.