Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Philippians 4:10-14

Japanese sword makers make their famous Samarai Swords.

(too brittle too soft, so they press together 3000 layers of steel alternating soft and hard, hammering and pressing together.)

2 ideas that are stealing our joy.

I.

I can only be happy if my circumstances are right.

Have you ever said, “I wouldn't have lost my temper if so and so didn't do such and such?”

Or “I would be a happy adult if my parents hadn't done such and such to me?”

If this lie were true, then we would all be VICTIMS of our circumstances.

• If we are victims, then we are not responsible, someone else is.

• If we are victims, then we can't help being the way we are.

• If we are victims, then we cannot be held accountable for our actions.

This is a lie that Satan uses to convince you to take the blame game.

• If only we didn't have to move

• If only we had more money

We all have regrets, we all say, “if only.”

Satan wants to deceive you into thinking that your happiness is dependent upon your circumstances.

But the truth is that if we are not content with our CURRENT circumstances, we would not be happy in any other circumstance.

Martha Washington, wife of our first president wrote, “I am still determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.

We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds, wherever we go.”

LEARN TO BE CONTENT.

It didn't just happen overnight.

• It was the result of a struggle.

• It was the result of passing through the tough circumstances and learning one of the hardest lessons of life in order to learn who was the Source of true contentment.

Circumstances don't make us what we are, they REVEAL what we are.

A young mother loses her patience with her children…are the children to blame for her anger?

• 1.

They are if she believes this lie.

• 2. But if she understands the truth, all that her children did was reveal what was already inside of her, hidden from herself and the rest of the world until something came to shake it out.

You slam your thumb with a hammer and a cussword comes out of your mouth.

• 1. Did the hammer cause you to pronounce the expletive?

• 2. No, it only revealed that you still had that in your heart.

It is through circumstances that reveal our character that we realize who we are and all that we depend upon God for.

II.

God saves us from all problems.

We live in a culture in the west that does everything it can to alleviate any form of pain and suffering.

i.

We hate suffering so much that we almost view it as the worst evil that exists!

If Jesus suffered, not only on the cross, but in this life; if he was not exempt from the pains of the body in daily life, then why should we?

We are called to suffer for others, to give ourselves to others, because that is what Jesus did for us.

We follow the same road, not a different one!

Folks, the only place that is EXEMPT from suffering is Heaven, when you shed this body and get your new, spiritual body promised at the resurrection of the dead.

God PERMITS us to suffer, so that we will learn dependence upon Him and not ourselves.

True joy is not the absence of pain but the presence of God in the midst of the pain.

Every problem is a character building opportunity for God's hands in your life.

The contented person is the person who knows that God is ordering everything for His own holy purpose.

You're content.

Illustration:

Vs 12 contentment

We seem to think happiness comes with more stuff.

So we do what Paul could not do to get it.

You can spend more than you make.

With credit cards so available to almost anyone with a job you can get yourself into a financial jam in nothing flat.

There are emergencies when we may need to do that.

The Lord has been dealing with me personally about this verse.

The Apostle said I have learned the secret of being satisfied with a lot or a little.

We applaud the happy with a lot, but we ignore the second part.

Being satisfied with little, or learning to do without.

All of the advertising is trying to get you to buy on impulse.

It doesn't matter how great a bargain it is if you don't need it.

Doing without when you didn't have the money was a common practice for our parents and grandparents.

But with credit cards so readily available we don't do without very often until they are maxed out.

The only way to get out of that mess, or to not get into it.

Is to learn the secret Paul learned.

In Timothy he said having food and raiment I will be content.

- The Secret of Financial Freedom is being content with many things or few things.

Even content doing without.

It is not in getting more, but needing less.

I. Contentment Must be Learned

“Stuff does not bring Happpiness”

In a cemetery in England stands a grave marker with this inscription: SHE DIED FOR WANT OF THINGS.

Alongside that sign is another which reads: HE DIED TRYING TO GIVE THEM TO HER.

Coming downstairs one morning, Lord Congelton heard the cook exclaim, “Oh, if I only had five pounds, wouldn't I be content!”

Thinking the matter over, and anxious to see the woman satisfied, he shortly after handed her a five-pound note, then worth about twenty-five dollars.

She thanked him profusely.

He paused outside the door to hear if she would express her satisfaction and thank God.

As soon as his shadow was invisible, she cried out, “Why didn't I say ten?”

It isn't natural -not born with it, some people don't just have it

There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good?

This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

Ecclesiastes 4:8

II.

Learning Contentment is a Process.

When something is processed it goes through a series of small changes all happening at different points.

Even if those changes happen a split second before the others it is its own process.

This is the way it is in the Christian life.

It is a Metamorphosis.

In other words it is a process you will not hurry it you will not change the potters process.

Your spirit must control your appetites of the flesh - What rules your decisions?

You must Focus on what you have, and be truly thankful.

Count your many blessings name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Discover what you really need, and what you can do without.

.

Abased - I didn't need position

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Hungry - I didn't need filling (man shall not live by bread alone)

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Need - I didn't need posessions.

Don't believe the alluring lies advertisers are telling you.

Don't listen.

Advertising executives spend a billion dollars a year doing marketing research.

A vast network of people, from Madison Avenue to Hollywood, spend their full work week designing novel ways to trigger our desires.

Music, slogans, Technicolor sights, digitally produced sounds, and dramatic movement, all collaborate to create a passion to possess.

They use fear, nostalgia, pride, sexual arousal, jealousy, and envy to produce the desired effect.