Enduring Contentment
Philippians 4:10-13

1.     INTRO: Good News – Bad News.  Content!  Surrender!

2.     Scripture, Philippians 4:10-13

Ø    The encouragement, the sense of having partners, was more important than the $$ itself.

Ø    Paul did not want them to feel manipulated into giving more.  He felt no need to do so.  He trusted God’s providence.

3.     Pursuing Wants

Ø    No contentment amidst confusion about what we need to fill the contentment hole.

Ø    You may want to drive fast, but if that leads to wrecks and engine problems, you may reconsider driving so fast.

Ø    We may love certain foods, but decide being free from obesity and the accompanying health & social issues outweigh that pleasure.

Ø    We conform to his design plan to reduce the wear & tear of life.  Our need for peace, joy & contentment lead us to accept a reshaping of our other desires that impede the attaining of the former.

Ø    Ravi said that emptiness grows with the pursuit of pleasures, meeting our own felt needs.

Ø    Getting my wants met may actually empty me!

4.     Needs vs Wants

Ø    To live we need only food and enough clothing OR shelter to not die from exposure.  And do we need to live?

Ø     But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 1 Ti 6:6-7

5.     Our Only Need

Ø    God is our only real need.  Can you accept that?  So, only He can meet that need.

Ø    The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Ø    Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Ø    Our culture tends to minimize the need for God.  We come back to him only we see our insufficiency for the tasks of life.  However, coming back on these terms may obscure the fact that God is not a divine “sugar-daddy.”

Ø    He wants us to have abundant life, peace & joy, but only He knows how to provide that.

Ø    I Am, by Daniel Doss

6.     Providence

Ø    If God is what I need, then I trust him to use all else to give me himself, whether Need or Plenty

Ø    Providence is God’s miraculous working through history & long strings of events so that the miracle is hidden, and choice is preserved.  “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Pr 16:9

A.   In Plenty

Ø    Having what we want makes contentment easy, until we want more.

Ø    It is not so easy as we think to have plenty.  Remembering that life’s goal is intimacy w/God riches can insulate us.  “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:17)

B.   In Need

Ø    Having less than what we want makes contentment a real challenge.

7.     In His Will

Ø    Can I murder prolifically and lie abusively through “him who gives me strength?”  Of course not.  It is anything in his will.

Ø    Contentment is found in Christ, but they cannot be enjoyed outside of following him.  I mean bowing to beginning, and bowing to follow.

8.     The Secret of Contentment: Divine Empowering

Ø    What does divine empowering have to do with contentment?  How can “can do” be the secret to “be content.”

Ø    So here contentment’s secret is to accept his strength to do his will, having had our desires reshaped to match his will.

Ø    I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being… Eph 3:16

Ø    Isaiah 40:29,31, He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power… those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

9.     Invite:

Ø    Why do I struggle so to lean on him and not idols?  Why do I wrestle against his plans rather than striving to draw into his provision?