Sermon Nuggets Week of Nov 8 - Contentment
Theme Content with Christ
Verses- Phil 4:10-14 I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. 14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.
Content with Christ
I am not fan of the rock group, The Rolling Stones, but they came out with a song when I was in college, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction. Even though they have tried and tried peace and contentment eludes them.
But these lyrics do reveal the lie of TV ads which propose buying their product will finally bring happiness and contentment. In face I laughed again seeing a toilet paper ad which depicted happiness once you bought their product. If that is what does it for you, you need to find the exhalation in something greater, like toothpaste!
But most will discover through trial and error nothing we purchase brings ultimate and sustaining contentment.
If we’re young, we want to be older. If we’re old, we wish we were younger. If it’s old, we want something new. If it’s new, we want something newer. If it’s small, we want something bigger. If it’s big, we want something really big. If we have a hundred dollars, we want two hundred. If we have two hundred, we want five hundred. If we have an apartment, we want a condo. If we have a condo, we want a house. If we have a house, we want a bigger house, or a new house, or a nicer house. Or maybe we want to scale down and live in an apartment again.
If we have a job, we dream of a better job, a bigger job, a closer job, with a bigger office, a better boss, better benefits, more challenge, bigger opportunity, nicer people to work for, and more vacation time.
Last week we looked at the passage that talked about thinking on the positive things. Put good things into you minds and good things into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. This is a promise from the Bible if you know the Lord. He continues to discuss where contentment and satisfaction lie. Learn some lessons.
I’m reminded of the airline pilot who was flying over a Tennessee lake and pointed out to his copilot: “See that little lake? When I was a kid I used to sit in a rowboat down there, fishing, Every time a plane would fly overhead, I’d look up and wish I was flying it. Now I look down and wish I was in a rowboat, fishing.”
We often go after those things that we think will bring us satisfaction only to be left feeling empty and disappointed. It’s like the story of two teardrops floating down the river of life. One teardrop said to the other, “Who are you?”
The other one answered, “I’m a teardrop from a girl who loved a man and lost him. Who are you?”
To which the first one responded, “I’m a teardrop from the girl who got him.”
I was encouraged by a reminder from Ray Pritchard, “You are where you are right now because God wants you there. You may be happy about your current circumstances or you may be miserable. Most likely you are somewhere in between. It doesn’t matter. You are where you are at this moment because God wants you there. How do I know that? Because if God wanted you somewhere else, you’d be somewhere, and when he does want you somewhere else, that’s where you will be. If God is God, that must be true.”
Phil 4:10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.
Grant Richardson writes "there are 4 different circumstances of life with which we need to cope. 1. Prosperity where we earned it. 2. Prosperity where we fell into it. 3. Adversity where it was our fault. 4. Adversity where it was not our fault. There is no experience in life that does not fall into one of these four categories.
There is no experience in life that can keep us from inner composure. Contentment is not found in something. People think if I get this job, this house, this diamond, this car then I will be content. If I could get an A, or scholarship, or bigger church then I will be content. Not it is not in anything you look for, it has to be learned. We can have stability and orientation to any situation in life. Our lives do not have to depend on the circumstances of life. Detachment from things is a great strength. Paul would not chain his spirit to circumstances. He refused to allow his contentment to rest upon material possessions or physical comfort.
Paul avoids the two dangers of discontentment or self-satisfied pride. Some people can take a great deal of adversity but do not know how to handle prosperity. They do not know how to handle life without restraint. Others are happy with plenty and become bitter when adversity hits. We need to learn how to endure both the lean years and the fat. The pendulum swings back and forth.
The Rolling Stones were right to reflect, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” It is not in the latest soap, or cigarette. Nor can satisfaction be found in a job promotion, or new house, or clothes. The way the Apostle Paul write is that there are some things we learn. "I have learned in whatever state I am in to be content." In other words it doesn't rely on outside circumstances. Contentment is not based on what you have or do not have.
But one of the things he learned about contentment is that God has provided people with whom one can share this journey. God is most important, but to love and be loved involves others who share in a special relationship in the Lord.
This passage begins with a joy that is in the Lord and Paul is in prison. He has practical needs. Provisions in prison are meager to none. It is allowed for friends, relatives, and kind people to met needs of the prisoners with food or money for others to buy food. Paul is recognizing that the Philippians had given him money to help him. It is like a benevolent gift. It was like a food basket or box for the Holidays. It was something that probably came with their pastor Epaphrodites. His coming to them was also a rich encouragement.
But Paul wants them to know his appreciation but they really didn't have to do it. He is grateful for what they gave, but he wanted them to know while he was in prison and throughout his ministry, there were lessons about life that he learned and one of the lessons was the lesson of contentment.
One of the greatest sources of encouragement is good friends. Friends are those who stick by your through all the ups and downs of life. A blessed person is one who has friends most of his or her life. But add to that a Christian friend with whom one shares the most important relationship of being brothers and sisters in the Lord and share in the inheritance of glory. Compassion and encouragement in tough times adds to one’s contentment in the Lord.
Enlightened
Phil 4:11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
Contentment is something that doesn't come naturally, it needs to be learned. When I learned to ride a bike it didn't come naturally. It required some bumps and bruises and trying over and over again. I remember the delight the first time I road all the way down our block without falling. I felt I achieved a great accomplishment as a kid.
Paul learned how to have many things and not be possessed by them. He also learned how to have nothing and not be depressed by that. The first lesson is coming to the understanding that the things we desire do not bring fulfilling contentment.
This composure came through knowledge -- "know." He knew God's mind on how to handle adversity. He knew how to cope with set back.
The word "abased" means to be brought low. Paul knew what it was like to be without food or clothing. He knew what it was like to go bankrupt. He knew plenty of adversity. This is abasement caused by want. He understood what it was like to be financially disgraced. Many may feel that life can get no lower for you.
But the problem of satisfaction isn't just with not having anything. People who have a lot can still feel very unsatisfied. Very few of us know how to "abound." When we have a success, do we parade it? Do we know how it doesn't go to our heads? Many have dramatic personality changes if they were to come into money or material wealth that isn't good. Paul knew how to handle life when he experienced plenty.
"All things" means in all circumstances, in all cases. If we have all the money in the world, all the prestige we could possibly achieve, it still will not make us content. No amount of power will give us what contentment in Christ gives. No association in life will satisfy us. Our possessions will not satisfy. Status symbols will not satisfy. Economical status symbols are not the basis of happiness. People who live for status symbols are miserable.
The reason Paul was content while in prison was due to the strength from God. God delivered Paul from dependence on things. Can you depend on the Lord to meet your needs? Paul does not say, "I can do all things." That would be false boasting. His strength beyond himself. " When we depend upon our own strength, we roll up our sleeves and say, "I will conquer this thing." And self determination takes over. Pride takes over. Self sufficiency takes over. But we do not have what it takes.
When you learn to keep daily looking up instead of within and without so much Christ presence sustains us, even in the most difficult of circumstances. I would be misleading if my desire to know why to perplexiting questions leads to contentment. I often am discontent in ignorance of trying to figure out God’s will in particular circumstances. That is fruitless. It is found not in the knowledge of why, but in the knowledge of WHO.
You may lose your health. You can make it. You might lose your home, your job, your money. God often uses those experiences that we sooner or later may gain a greater faith trust in Him. Contentment isn't in something outside of myself, it is within by the presence of the Lord, and Him alone.
One lady was at a Bible conference and heard the speaker say, "When you must face difficult times make this statement, "For this I have Jesus." The woman reported that the first news she heard leaving the conference was a loved one had passed away. It was a shock. There was sadness. She didn't know how she should make the long ride home.
Then the statement came back to her, "For this I have Jesus." She wasn't sure she could make it through the funeral, but thought, "For this, I have Jesus." She witnessed the strength of the Lord carrying her through all the difficult days that followed a d taught her the lesson that He was sufficient and the one on whom she could depend.
The truths are learned in the sunshine so they might be applied in the night.
She learned that in the hard times, not in the times of fullness.
Phil 4:12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
Now there are a contradiction. Having lots or having little doesn’t affect Paul’s contentment. Being full or being hungry doesn’t affect Paul’s contentment. Needing things or not having them doesn’t affect Paul’s contentment.
I ask my self this morning what would make me content? The temptation is to have life the way I want it without problems to face. Most commonly these are only my problems if I make them so. When people in the church are discontented, I feel the lack of contentment. When we have financial challenges in the church I worry about cuts. When my body has to move for awhile before it stops hurting in spots I get frustrated. But those things come and go.
Learning contentment for Paul is realizing all things belong to God and if he gives his days and situations over to Christ then it is no longer his problem. When it comes to Christ that is where you will only find satisfaction when you are aware that you are completely and totally dependent upon Him for everything. Then you will find your inner contentment even when you have no money or food or friends.
Does this mean that Paul was self-sufficient? His sufficiency was not self-sufficiency but Christ-sufficiency.
There is no question about it. We learn from our experiences. At least most of us do. Some people are slow learners. I was comforted by one of our older saints at Stanchfield when a couple moved away from the church. That couple that moved was quite involved in work and giving and witness. I grieved their loss. I wondered who would take there place. My friend told me of his “experience” years ago when another well loved and involved family moved. He simply said, “God provides for our needs, You’ll see.”
Sure there was adjustment, but the fact that this was not something new meant he was more trusting in God than in the loss of the people to carry out what God had in mind. He had experienced that before.
I remember my first hospital visit, my first wedding, my first funeral, my first baptism, my first sermon, my first confrontation with a church leader and those were upsetting times. Worry and anxiety does nothing to change the situation, but prayer and faith do.
Now I have learned what it means to fail and discover God still loves me and forgives me. I learned how to be comfortable visiting and doing pastoral duties as I gained experience. I still make mistakes and don’t do it right. But having gone through various experiences helped me learn more and more. I am not sure how I could have learned others than people telling me of their experiences.
Most things we have no control over. Some things we do have responsibilities to carry out to the best of our ability. But in all things wisdom and strength is from the Lord.
The longer we walk with the Lord the more we trust Him because experience teaches us what is really important and what isn’t. The more we face in life the more we know how He works at His time.
The more the disciples saw Jesus handle miracles, truth, opposition, and finally death the less they were concerned over the things of this world. They found he met the most important needs for life….beyond this life. Even arrest and death no longer bothered them for they had experienced the confidence within of God working in and through them.
Verse- Phil 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
"I can do all things (everything) through him gives me strength.”
It is amazing what you can do when you don’t know you can’t. David didn’t know Goliath was too big to stop. Caleb didn’t know the Promised Land couldn’t be conquered. Joshua didn’t know Jericho’s walls were too strong. Elijah didn’t know his enemies were too many.
The Stoic was self-sufficient but Paul was Christ-sufficient. Contentment is found only in Jesus Christ. Many Christians have still not learned this lesson. They become dependent upon other people, or their job, or comforts of this world. Many are not content with Christ, but want something more in their spiritual experience.
Many find that Christ frees them from sins and guilt and people rejoice in this. Then they go back to seeking to make lots of money and obtain possessions. They fail to ask what it means to live for Christ. Paul is able to endure all things when he finds contentment is dependency on the love of Christ, the power of Christ, the wisdom of Christ, the faith in Christ.
There is a group of religious people who seek to find contentment by achieving a state of mind absolutely independent of all things and all people. They seek to eliminate all desire. They teach contentment isn't in possessing much, but in wanting little. The way to achieve it is not to get more, but desire less. They believes the less we desire the more we are content with what we have. This is part of the Buddhist philosophy. They have achieved the first lesson, of seeking inner independence from things, but not the second lesson which is complete dependency on Jesus. God wants us to be independent of things and circumstances in order that we might be dependent upon Him.
The KJV translates the verse, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” In the older manuscripts that are discovered the word, Him is used. It is assumed that he has Christ in mind. The context certainly implies that, but he might mean the Lord, as we know him in his triune nature.
The Bible teaches that our strength really comes from the triune God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father gives strength: "And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power" Eph 1:19
The Holy Spirit gives us strength, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" Acts 1:8
The Word of God gives us strength, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).
The Son also gives strength, "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12. 9).
All of this is from the Lord, but when you see the summary statement in vs. 19 reads, “My God will meet all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.” The context shows that all riches are in Christ Jesus. He is the ticket to the Father. Jesus is the one who gives to us the advocate, the Holy Spirit. That word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Paul wants the Philippians to know that they can look in vain for contentment, but it just isn't going to happen outside of trusting the Lord.
Phillip Brooks, a great American preacher of another day, explained it like this, “Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger people; do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work may be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, the richness of the life that has come to you by the grace of God.”
Pastor Dale
