One True Contentment (4:10-13)

One True Contentment: Philippians 4:10-13 Pray & Intro: Our imprisoned apostle gets around to the “thank you note” part of his letter, one of the main reasons he writes to the Philippians. – Paul never ceases to amaze me with his confidence in Christ and his concern for the Church. (His confidence in Christ knows no bounds. His love for the church boils with effervescence.) Read Passage & Discuss: The secret of contentment is to love, learn from, and lean on the sovereign, saving, sufficient Christ. 1. Is contentment the proverbial slippery eel? (elusive, devious, impossible to get a firm grip on) A. What is contentment? (PP slides) [OFF] 1. It is an inner sense of rest or peace that comes from being right with God and knowing that He is in control of all that happens to us. (Steve Cole) 2. Contentment is not complacency. – Work hard with self-control and without greed; seek companionship without obsessing, but instead with sound judgment and patience; aim to better your situation so long as you do it in submission to God’s will and maintain His glory as your highest end and joy. B. Why does it elude us? – Because to seek it apart from God is to chase after the wind. 1. Ecclesiastes 1… (and it only gets worse from there) 2. Life’s emptiness and meaninglessness, restlessness, constant warring and toiling. – If you do not admit the hard truths about life, sooner or later it will run you down, and life will sucker punch you in the gut.  Solomon’s conclusion, Ecc. 12:11-14 3. Self-centeredness is contentment’s worst enemy. (It causes us to concern ourselves with the wrong things.)  The secret of contentment is not found in self, but in the sovereign, saving, and sufficient Christ. C. To find contentment is to embrace God on his terms. Love God on his terms. [3 things] 2. How do we learn contentment? What’s the secret? A. We seek rest in the right place. We learn from God. (His truth) 1. Trust in the providential provision of God. – Pain, fear, uncertainty. They’re real. Pain is a real result of being mortal. Fear is a real result of being vulnerable. Uncertainty is a real result of imperfect knowledge. But none of those requires that we worry. Worry is a choice we make in distrust. – In order to not just melt in the furnace of fear, worry, uncertainty, and pain, we must cling desperately to this: God is sovereign. God is good. We trust in his providential care for His own. He will finish what he’s begun. He will bring us home. 2. Be Grateful (listen to Paul in v. 10 again) – “Thanksgiving and worry can’t occupy the same space. Thanksgiving is worry’s kryptonite. You can’t worry if you’re giving thanks.” (Matt Chandler)  Be thankful for salvation. Thank Him for his work in you, and through you. B. We get real about “need.” (want, lack, poverty) – see stuff as stuff (material as material, food as food, clothes as clothes, companionship as companionship, etc.)  “I don’t mean to imply that I am truly needy.” C. We aim to be CONTENT whatever the circumstances. 1. In pagan stoic philosophy they used this term as a virtue that meant “self-sufficient and independent.” But Paul uses the term to mean content in God. – satisfied, showing satisfaction with things as they are 2. Whatever?!!! Any and every circumstance. (well-fed or hungry, plenty or in want)  When Paul says he “knows how,” it’s b/c he has literally experienced some unbelievable extremes. (brought low/humbled/abased; how to abound – prosperous and fortunate condition) [read MC ***] D. You really learn (realize, understand, gain knowledge or skills) contentment when the rubber meets the road. 3. How do we live contentedly? We lean on God. A. Trust in the sovereign God for salvation in Christ alone; seek sufficiency in Christ’s strength alone. (There you find rest, peace, joy, and strength!)  Paul trusted and relied upon the words of His Savior (from 2 Cor. 12:9), “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” B. Be strengthened in the One who is the spring of life and contentment. (Some days you will feel like you walk on solid stone ground. Some days you will feel like you are hanging over the precipice and clinging only to Christ as your lifeline. If you are in Christ, they’re actually both true.) 1. CONTENTMENT the context of Php. 4:13! “In all things I can be strong enough through the one who strengthens me.”  “Do you see now how Philippians 4:13 is not about chasing your dreams, following your passion, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, accomplishing anything you want with God’s help? It is instead the testimony of those who have Christ and have found Him supremely valuable, joyous, and satisfying. In a life constantly marked by these extreme highs and lows, Paul has found the great constant security, the great centering hope: Jesus Christ Himself.” (Matt Chandler) 2. He is enough. (sufficient) – see v. 19 a. 2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence… b. Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, C. To find contentment is to love God on his terms and to learn from God on his terms. To live contentedly is to lean on God for strength on his terms. 1. Do you? Embrace God on his terms? 2. Does your life give evidence that you want to learn from God on his terms? – If anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 3. The year, this month, this week, this day – Will you lean on God for the strength to be content in Him? Let HIM be the answer to your need. Let him be your peace, your joy, your rest, your contentment. Next week: (contentment, part 2) Gratitude and contentment in Christ breed a generous heart like Christ. *** Hold in your mind not just Paul relaxing at Lydia’s house, eating steak, not just Paul confounding his opponents or casting out demons or enjoying the glory of God’s miraculous wonders. Hold in your mind his being scourged, having the flesh torn from his back. Hold in your mind his struggling to keep his head above water as the ship he’s on sinks violently into the watery abyss. Hold in your mind his restless sleep at night while thugs scour the streets to find him and kill him. Hold in your mind the vision of his body crumpled on the ground, face in the bloody dirt, covering his head and body in a desperate bid not to die from the seemingly unending onslaught of stones. (Matt Chandler) Now read this again: Php. 4:11-13