Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Philippians

Philippians 4:10-13 09/14/03

Introduction: Contentment. It’s rather ironic that although we live in the most prosperous nation in all the world, perhaps in the history of the world, most Americans still battle with finding contentment.

Illustration: John Cheever, in Leadership Journal said ‘The main emotion of the adult American who has all the advantages of wealth, education and culture is disappointment.’ I find that amazing…and sad.

True contentment is rare, even among Christians. So let me ask you. What will it take for you to be content? For me, it wasn’t something I had to get, but something I had to get rid of in my life. Do you want to know what that was?

Action: Take bag of newspaper circulars and dump them on the floor.

Week after week I would take the newspaper and go strait to the advertising circulars. What is new? What is on  sale? What is it that I really don’t need that I just gotta have?  And you know what? I would often find what I wasn’t looking for. BUT, I would justify it by thinking it was on sale.

Week after week, the advertising companies were telling me what I  needed to find contentment in life. And I bought it…sometimes literally. But you know what? After the purchase is made, the item is home on some shelf or in some closet and the next weeks newspaper circulars come, the itch is there calling to be scratched once again. So I cancelled my newspaper.

Illustration: A fortune teller looked at the hand of a young man and said ‘You will be poor and very unhappy until you are 37.’ The young man responded ‘Well. After that, will I be rich and happy?’ the fortune teller said ‘No, you’ll still be poor, but you will be used to it after that.’

Explanation: Unfortunately there seems only two choices in life. We can either keep reading the circulars and then going out buying whatever it is we don’t need in order to find contentment, but always missing it by just one item. OR, we can just give up trying. Either way, contentment is never a part of our lives.
Action: Before we get to what Paul want us to learn about contentment, take out your Sermon Notes. If you don’t have a pen raise your hand and an usher will give you one.

I want you to list on the bottom of the back side of the Sermon Notes insert, the 5 most important things in your life. Take a minute or so. No one will see what you write and I won’t be collecting them.

Don’t write what you think should be the most important things in your life, but what actually are, based on your priorities and how much you would grieve should you lose it.  These things can be your husband, or wife, your home, career, children , anything. Take a minute. This takes courage and honesty…and as we learned last week, it takes thought.

Transition: OK. Let’s take a look at what Paul says about recognizing the path to contentment.

Philippians 4:10                                               Recognizing Others

The first stop on the path to contentment, according to the Apostle Paul, is recognizing others. What? I thought I wasn’t supposed to compare myself to others. You aren’t. That is not what I am saying. Paul took his eyes off his own situation (remember he was in prison) and concentrated on his friends at the church in Philippi. Let me explain.

Paul tells the Philippians that he rejoiced, was thankful for their recent monetary gift. (that is what is meant by their renewed concern for him) But if you think Paul was only thinking about the money you would be missing the sign on the path to contentment. Paul was rejoicing, that the Philippians had come to the place where they could once again show concern and care for someone else.

We are not told why they didn’t have opportunity before this.

    Perhaps because of the fighting that was going on between Euodia and Syntyche.
    Perhaps they worried that if this (imprisonment)  could happen to Paul, it might happen to them too.
    Perhaps they had begun to listen to the false teachers in their midst and began to be too inward focused.

We don’t know why they lacked opportunity. But Paul is thanking God that they got it together and were back on tract, spiritually. Paul is telling us that contentment comes when we take our eyes off ourselves and, as he says in his letter to the Romans we ‘rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.’ When we look to the interests and concerns of other we will be on the path to contentment.

Transition: The first stop on the path to contentment is recognizing others.

Philippians 4:11-12                                                      Recognizing Self

Paul quickly sets the record straight. He is not rejoicing because he had a need and they met it. Regardless of his outward circumstances, regardless of what people may think, Paul was content.
 
Lets define the word content. To be content means that we are satisfied or pleased, sufficient. It also means enough or more accurately ‘more than enough’. And is used this way in 2 Cor. 12:9 ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’ That means God’s grace, in any and all circumstances is adequate, will satisfy or make you content…it is more than enough for you, when your enough is a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Here is a working definition of what it means to be content.

‘Christian contentment is the God given ability to be satisfied with the loving provisions of God in any and all circumstances.’

I realize no one will like what I have to say next, but it needs to be said. Paul had to learn how to be content. Contentment is not a natural ability for anyone. We have to be intentional about our thoughts regarding our circumstances. And Paul’s learning was not just theological or intellectual, it was very practical. He learned contentment by having plenty and having nothing. He experienced wealth and poverty. He learned contentment the same way we must learn it…by living through it.

The learning process for Paul also meant realizing and accepting the fact that whatever his situation, whatever his circumstances, he had to be content, satisfied and pleased with what God would provide. Paul knew that everything is in God’s hands. That’s what it means that God is sovereign. God is ordering everything in accordance to His good purpose…everything. Until you learn that, accept it, recognize it as true for your life..you won’t find contentment.

Bottom line…Discontentment in the life of a Christian indicates a distrust of God.

Transition: The path to contentment includes recognizing our own situation and seeing it from God’s perspective. This sounds too hard. I know. Believe me, I know. But it is possible and Paul in vs 13 will tell us how…we can have contentment when we recognize Christ.

Philippians 4:13                                                                Recognizing Christ

What a familiar verse, perhaps one of the most familiar in all Scripture. But because of that, it is also perhaps the verse most often taken out of context.

While Paul certainly is saying that as Christians whatever God calls us to do, he will give us the ability to do it, this verse does not create a new band of Christian super heroes. This text is not saying that we can do anything in the name of Christ and we will be successful. We must remember the context. And that is contentment, especially in changing circumstances.

JB Phillips translates vs 13 this way ‘I am ready for anything through the strength of the One who lives in me.’

Paul is saying that I will not let problems, pressure, people, need, poverty, even abundance get in the way, I won’t let them get me down. Christ’s strength in me is stronger than that which is all about me. I will trust God….

    Contentment comes not from giving up everything, nor accumulating everything.
    Contentment comes not from outside us, nor from inside us.
    Contentment comes from God himself, through faith in Jesus Christ.
    Contentment comes when we trust in God, even when the world and our current circumstances tell us otherwise.
    Contentment is trusting God to be everything that he says he is.
    Contentment is recognizing Jesus Christ and trusting him.

Conclusion

It is tempting to allow circumstances to dictate our level of contentment we find in life. It is easy to buy into the American ideal that I can’t be content unless everything is going my way:

    I’ll  be content when my marriage is as good as so and so’s,
    I’ll be content when I can pay all my bills on time,
    I’ll be content when I live in a house Martha Stewart would be jealous of.
        But until that happens, contentment is always just around the next corner. It’s all a Lie!

Let’s finish what we started before the message. Take out your Sermon Notes insert. Look at what you listed as the 5 most important things in your life. If there was a disaster in your life, earthquake, severe noreaster or whatever else could take away or destroy 4 of the 5 things on your list, and you could choose which 4 you would lose, which 4 would it be?
Go ahead and cross 4 of the 5 most important things in your life off the list.

What is left? If it is not your relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, you will never know true contentment. You will never be satisfied. You will never have enough. Eventually everything will be taken away from you..even if it takes your death to do it. But the only thing that remains, is your relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Let your contentment be found in Jesus Christ alone. As good as everything else may be on your list, it is nothing compared to knowing Him.

If you do not know contentment because you don’t have a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, there is no time like the present to do something about it. Trust in Jesus. Believe that he died to forgive your sin and to restore your broken relationship with God. Ask him to forgive you and to be your God. He will, he promised ‘Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Then trust him in the hard and good times of your life, place your life in his hands and you will know contentment, as God intended.

Are you on the path that leads to contentment? If not, here are the directions. (lift up Bible)