The Gratitude of the Satisfied Soul

Key Elements

In Philippians 4:19-23, the Apostle Paul concluded his letter to the believers in Philippi by giving glory to God for His faithful provision and pointing them to God’s grace which is the anchor for complete contentment and satisfaction in Christ.

Main Idea: The satisfied soul rests in God’s provision and is sustained through His grace—because when God’s grace is our anchor, gratitude becomes our posture leading to contentment as a way of life.

I want my audience to rest in God’s faithful provision, anchored in His grace and postured in gratitude.

Intro

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where it was difficult to be grateful? It’s the week of Thanksgiving. It’s the time of year where we place a huge emphasis on gratitude. And even though we all have so many reasons in our lives to be grateful, I think there are times where we struggle with gratitude. A few weeks ago, I found myself in one of the most awkward situations I have ever been in in my life and it was definitely difficult to be grateful in that moment. It was a Friday night and Kristi and I decided to go down to Opelika on a date night-have a nice meal at a restaurant and then go shopping and looking at all the Christmas displays that had been put out. We had an incredible meal and we had been to a few places and decided to hit Target before we headed home. So we go into Target and I had to use the restroom. (now, I am going to try and tell this in a way that isn’t too embarrassing but still gives the full picture) I went into the bathroom and I noticed that the toilet paper roll wasn’t actually in the holder but had been left sitting on top it. And while I was in there, a gentleman entered the stall next to me and when he shut the door to the stall, he did it rather abruptly. Well it shook the entire stall and in the process caused the only roll of toilet paper I had access to to fall off the holder and hit the ground and roll into his stall out of reach. And immediately, I’m horrified. And I now I have to figure out what to do. Do I ask the guy to hand me the toilet paper? Do I try and figure out how to reach it after he leaves? It’s a pretty difficult situation to be in. Needless to say, in that moment, gratitude was not what I was feeling. And then, gratitude came rushing back. Because I noticed that the toilet paper from that stall was hanging down just enough for me to reach that. So, I grabbed as much as I could and the rest is history.

I mean just being transparent this morning, sometimes gratitude is hard, right. Sometimes in life, we look around and we know we should be grateful but for whatever reason, it’s difficult. And when we struggle to muster up those feelings, we begin to feel guilty. We are even tempted to wonder what’s wrong with us. We think, “I have every reason in the world to be grateful, so why am I struggling to find gratitude?”

And I think it all comes down to this question, “What if the problem is that we’ve misunderstood what gratitude actually is?”

Message

That’s why the passage of Scripture we are looking at today in Philippians 4:19-23 is so important for us as we are entering into this week of Thanksgiving and as we are celebrating Gratitude Sunday today. As Paul concludes his letter to the Philippian believers, he does so from a place where gratitude should have been impossible. He’s in prison. He at a place in his life where he has no control over his situation. He doesn’t know what the outcome is going to be. I mean, if anyone had the right to say “It’s just too hard to be grateful right now” it was the Apostle Paul. Yet we hear words of gratitude. We hear promises of God’s provision, proclamations of worship, and an emphasis on God’s grace. It’s not forced, it’s not shallow, it’s something deeper. It is genuine, soul stirring, circumstance-defying gratitude.

You see, the reason gratitude can be hard for us at times is because we misunderstand it at times. We think gratitude is a feeling we conjure up when things are going well. We think gratitude is a response to favorable circumstances in our lives. Or that it’s the result of having good things outweigh the bad. But the Apostle Paul shows us, today, something different about gratitude. That it’s not a feeling that we manufacture, but it is a posture that we assume. It’s not based on what we have, but it is anchored in Who holds us. And it’s not a reaction to our circumstances but it is a response to God’s grace.

And here’s a life-changing truth that we all need to hold onto and never forget: when God’s grace becomes our anchor, gratitude becomes our posture and it’s not because everything is easy in our lives, but it’s because we’re held by something unshakeable.

So, here’s our main idea that we are going to center around today: The satisfied soul rests in God’s provision and is sustained through His grace-when God’s grace is our anchor, gratitude becomes our posture.

A gratitude that exists even when being thankful and grateful can feel impossible.

So, today as we wind up our series on Philippians 4 and focus in on vs. 19-23, we see three rhythms that point us to a satisfied soul that is postured in gratitude:

1. A satisfied soul postured in gratitude finds rest in God’s provision. (vs. 19)

So, last week we jumped to the first three verses of chapter 4, covering the beginning of this last section of Paul’s letter to the believers at Philippi. And today, we are going all the way to the end. And it’s interesting that how we see Paul closing out his letter has many similarities to how he opened it in chapter one. Look at Philippians 1:2-3...

Now, read with me Philippians 4:19-23...

Paul opens the letter and he closes the letter with this spirit of gratitude, gratitude for the believers in Philippi and all that they are doing for the Lord and the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus; and gratitude for all that God is doing in and through them. And this gratitude all hinges on what he proclaims in vs. 19, again, he says...

You see, gratitude becomes possible for you and me when we shift from anxiously managing our needs to resting in God’s promise to provide. And that’s not easy, especially for those of us who are control freaks. Because we are naturally, as human beings, conditioned to worry about provision. From the time we are old enough to comprehend or understand, we are taught that our security in this life depends on what we accumulate. Culture tells us to save more, earn more, and ensure protection of those things. And all of that doesn’t lead to rest. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t work and do our best to take care of our families. What Paul wants us to understand here, in the context of contentment, is that ultimately our dependence on provision comes from trusting that God will provide for our needs. And when we begin to fully understand that and fully believe that, it changes things for us. It brings a satisfaction of soul and a contentment that comes from the confidence of God’s promise to provide. And that contentment leads to gratitude and that gratitude leads to resting in that provision. It’s a rest that can’t be explained. It’s a rest that transcends circumstances. It’s a rest that begins to flood our souls in the midst of anxious moments when we are tempted to go down the rabbit hole of fear and anxiety. Because, it’s...

a. A rest that replaces striving.

So, let’s go back to vs. 19 and let’s revisit three promises Paul gives us that produce this kind of rest:

“And MY God...”-this is personal. This implies covenant relationship between us and God. This is not a God who is distant, this is your Heavenly Father. He created you for a relationship with Him and if you have surrendered your heart and life to Him as Savior and Lord this is your God.

“WILL supply ALL your needs...”-we’ve talked about this before, it’s not “maybe or if you’re lucky” it’s “He WILL supply.” Guaranteed now and always. Everyone of our needs. The God who understands what we need better than we do, promises to supply every need.

“according to HIS riches in glory...”-It’s not “out of” like a billionaire giving you change out of his pocket; but “according to” proportionate to the full measure of his wealth. God supplies what we need according to His infinite resources.

This is the God who has promised provision for our needs. And when we trust in His promises, which we can, and we believe that He will provide, which He will, this provides an incredible and an unexplainable rest that replaces our effort and our striving in this life. Again, it’s not us ceasing to work, it’s us not worrying while we work.

In Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.” Another translation puts it this way, “Cease striving,...” “Stop worrying” Work diligently, plan wisely, be a good steward of what God has blessed you with and then trust God with the outcome. Trust God to provide. Because the truth is we can’t control it anyway.

When we depend on God to provide, it brings a rest that replaces striving. And it brings...

b. A rest that produces contentment.

When we give in to anxiety and fear, what we find is it blinds us to the things in our lives that we have to be grateful for now. And the reason it does that is because it shifts our focus to future fears. We become so focused on the future and worrying about that that we miss the current blessings of God in our lives. And how many times have we been guilty of that? We get so obsessed and worried about what might happen in the future that we miss out on being grateful for what God is doing right now. You see, we can’t be grateful for provision while at the same time being anxious about provision.

This rest in God’s provision opens our eyes to what God has already provided for us and produces a contentment that knows that provision will continue. And this is the reason that Paul could proclaim with absolute certainty that God will provide. This is the reason that he could be content in any and all circumstances. Because God had always provided for him, he knew that there would be nothing in the future that God would not provide as well.

So, here’s the connection that Paul is making for us: a posture of gratitude begins with us resting in God’s provision. And resting in God’s provision produces unshakeable contentment in our lives. Just like the Apostle Paul, we have to choose to rest in God’s provision, we have to base our contentment not on circumstances but on God’s promises; and when we make that intentional choice in our lives, gratitude becomes the posture that characterizes our lives. So, are we resting in God’s promise to provide, finding gratitude in who He is and what He’s done or are we anxiously trying to manage the future missing out on being grateful and content and satisfied in Jesus?

For our lives to be satisfied in Jesus and us to live with Godly contentment, gratitude must be our posture. And gratitude being our posture always leads to rest in the promise that God will supply all our needs.

And as we rest in God’s provision, we notice a second rhythm...

2. A satisfied soul postured in gratitude finds its response in grateful worship. (vs. 20)

Have you ever bought what you thought was the perfect gift for someone and couldn’t wait to give it to that person? Maybe it was your spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend or one of your kids. You came across it online or in a store and you thought this is the perfect gift for that person, they’re going to be so excited and so you bought it. And you’re super excited about giving it to them. And you’ve even built it up in your mind how they are going to respond. And then the day comes and you give them the gift and they’re not as excited as you thought they would be. In fact, their reaction was way less than you had built up in your mind. And you’re a little disappointed and a little surprised by their response.

The Apostle Paul gives a surprising response here in vs. 20. It’s not a disappointing response but it’s actually a response that goes beyond what we might expect. In the three and a half chapters leading up to these final verses, Paul has said so many things. It’s promise after promise from God, it’s instruction after instruction for these believers in Philippi that he loves so very much. In vs. 19, he proclaims that God will provide for the Philippian church because they have given in obedience and sacrifice. All leading to this eruption of worship and praise in vs. 20. Look at what he says...

What an incredible example of gratitude. You see, Paul doesn’t just think grateful thoughts, he doesn’t just express thanks to the believers in Philippi for there generosity, he points all gratitude and thanks back to the One who deserves all glory and praise, God his Heavenly Father. Because he recognizes that God is the source of all of this. He says “My God will supply all your needs,… just as He has mine,...” and then he does the only fitting thing at that moment, he responds in the only way that is appropriate to respond, he responds in grateful worship to God who in His grace and goodness is the giver of all things. Paul pivots from the proclaiming of this promise to praise. And notice the sequence: God’s promise of provision leads to Paul resting in contentment which leads to Paul’s worship of God his Heavenly Father.

And this is the same way we, as followers of Jesus, should respond as well. Because when we rest in God’s provision, gratitude naturally overflows into worship and this worship transforms our perspective. Rest in God produces the worship of God. You see, Biblical gratitude in our lives always moves us towards an expression of worship. Gratitude isn’t therapy, it’s doxology, it’s giving God glory. Because worship of God is the natural response of the soul that has been satisfied by God. People who are not content, complain. People who are never satisfied, gripe. People who are satisfied in Jesus and content in Him, respond in worship.

It’s...

a. A response based on God’s character.

Paul says “Now to our God and Father,...” It’s not shallow worship. It’s not worship based on what God does. It’s worship based on who God is. It’s giving glory to God who is good and faithful and promise keeping. It is giving glory to God regardless of the circumstances. It is giving glory to Him because He is worthy of our praise. He is Heavenly Father, our personal, covenant making and covenant keeping God, who sent His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for us so that we could be forgiven and so that we could live in relationship with Him. And He is worthy of all glory and honor and praise regardless of what we face in this life. And His worthiness and His glory doesn’t change, it doesn’t fluctuate with our circumstances. He has always been, is now, and forever and ever and ever will be worthy of our worship and praise.

Worship is a response based on God’s character and it’s...

b. A response beyond how we feel.

I know we keep talking about this, but I don’t think it’s something we need to forget-Paul is in prison. He’s confined to prison and yet he is filled with gratitude and he is filled with praise to God. And it’s because he’s gotten to a place in his life where he recognizes that his worship of God is not based on how he feels. Think about all of that and let’s read vs. 20 again...

So, many times we choose not to give God the worship He so deserves because we don’t feel like it. Or because of the circumstances we are facing. And I’m not trying to minimize that, because life is hard at times, but it’s in those times that we must choose to worship. Because God’s worthiness to be worshipped doesn’t change based on our feelings. As those who are satisfied and content in Jesus, we gratefully worship in spit of how we feel.

And when that happens, our gratitude deepens. Worship shifts our perspective and we see God more clearly, we see ourselves more accurately, and we see our circumstances more truthfully. Which ultimately brings us back to gratitude, because being truly grateful to God doesn’t wait til we feel better, it’s gratitude in the midst of whatever we are facing.

Yesterday, our youngest son got married. And here’s something I realized this past week. I’ve been so stressed about the wedding and getting things done and getting things paid for that I hadn’t really stopped to be grateful in the moment for what was happening. And I had to make a choice, to stop worrying about things I couldn’t control and be grateful to God for His goodness in my families’ life. I think about our church and how good God has been to us this past year. The lives that have been transformed by the Gospel, the people who have been baptized, financially how God has blessed us. And the only response I have is worship. Worship to God for how faithful He is to us.

And when we stop and think about that, how good God is and how He never fails us, gratitude and worship is the only response. We serve and we give back to Him because we are so grateful.

A satisfied soul postured in gratitude finds its response in grateful worship.

And here’s what makes it all possible...

3. A satisfied soul postured in gratitude finds its anchor in God’s grace. (vs. 23)

Again, Paul ends where he began, talking about grace. He concludes his letter by saying...(vs. 23)

This is a pretty common way the Apostle Paul opened and closed his letters to the believers in the churches he had planted. When we look at the other books of the Bible he wrote, his letters to other churches, we find grace mentioned as well. So, why is this the case? Why is Paul so big on grace? I believe it’s because Paul knew God’s grace in a tremendous way. He remembered his life before he met Jesus. He thought about all the followers of Jesus that he himself had arrested and persecuted and those he indirectly had a hand in persecuting. And he remembered that in spite of all of that, God had shown him grace. Jesus had changed his life and had used him to advance the Gospel further than it had ever gone before. The Apostle Paul’s life was anchored in God’s grace and he was forever grateful.

You see, Grace is the anchor that makes both rest and gratitude possible, because when we understand that everything is a gift from God, gratitude is our natural response. We go from thinking we are entitled and we deserve what we get to realizing that we have what we have only by God’s grace. If we think God provides for us because we’ve earned it, we’ll alway be anxious. If we thing we deserve what we’ve been given by God, we always live entitled. But when we see everything as a gift from God, gratitude is our only response. Grace is the soil where gratitude grows.

And if grace is our anchor, our soul will always be satisfied and we will live with a posture of gratitude. Here’s what the anchor of grace does. It’s...

a. An anchor that empowers.

What is grace? It’s God’s undeserved favor and blessing in our lives. It’s not something we earned but it is something God shows us and it comes through the death of His Son Jesus for us on the cross. The grace that is offered to you and to me and everyone isn’t something we’ve earned, it flows through the cross of Jesus where He died in our place and sacrificed Himself for us.

And when we realize the grace God has shown us has nothing to do with us, and because of God’s grace on us, we have been forgiven and set free; that changes us or it should. That empowers us to live as forgiven people changed by the grace of God, in gratitude, giving glory to Him. And it empowers us to see others as people who need the grace of God as well. So we give and we serve because we have been empowered by a grace we didn’t do anything to earn.

It’s also...

b. An anchor that sustains.

Look what Paul says at the end of vs. 23...

With God’s grace permeating our lives and God’s Holy Spirit living inside of us, our lives are lived in a posture of gratitude and a posture of gratitude leads to contentment and satisfaction in every circumstance. We are sustained in every circumstance of life because of the grace of God that anchors our lives. You see, when grace permeates our lives, gratitude is the overflow of our lives. And in gratitude, we live every moment sustained by God’s grace.

A satisfied soul postured in gratitude finds its anchor in God’s grace.

Closing

So, what are you resting in? Your own effort or God’s provision? What is the posture of your life? Are you characterized by complaint or gratitude? And what anchors your life? Entitlement or God’s grace?

Today, may we live with satisfied souls postured in gratitude finding rest in God’s provision, finding our response in grateful worship, and finding our anchor only in God’s grace.

As we move into a time of worship and commitment, we all have an incredible opportunity to show gratitude to God today for who He is and what He’s done in our lives.

First and most important, if you’re here today or watching on the live stream and you realize you’ve never truly experienced God’s grace in your life. You’ve been trying to earn God’s favor and achieve satisfaction and contentment your way and you’re still searching. God’s grace is available to you today through Jesus Christ. Not because you’ve done anything to earn it but because Christ is enough and He freely offers you grace today. So, today, if you’re tired of trying to live life on your own, surrender your heart and life to Jesus as Savior and Lord. Make the greatest decision you’ll ever make and follow Jesus.

Second, if you are a follower of Jesus and you’ve taken that step in your life, today maybe there’s another decision God is calling you to make today, to live a life postured in gratitude showing others the grace that you have been shown in your life?

Third, in just a moment as we worship together, we all have an opportunity to show gratitude to God by giving to our Gratitude offering today. We’ve been asking our church to pray about what God would have you give in this special offering today and in just a moment during our time of worship, we will have an opportunity to be obedient to what He has asked us to do.

So, today, let’s be grateful and respond to God in obedience and gratitude today.