The Secret to Happiness

Sermon Title: The Secret to Contentment.

Main Idea: The Christian can be content in every situation through the strength of Christ

(NKJV)

10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I. Introduction

A. Happiness is more about a who then a what

The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Volumes 1–5 Content, Contentment

To be free from care because of satisfaction with what is already one’s own

The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Volumes 1–5 Content, Contentment

To be free from care because of satisfaction with what is already one’s own

B. We tend to have a caffeine happiness when we put our satisfaction in a what rather then a who.

C. In the end we are going to have relational regrets, not posessional regrets. We aren’t going to ask ourselves on our deathbed “Why didn’t I ever get those pair of shows”. We are going to ask something like this “Why didn’t I forgive that person or why didn’t I spend more time with them”. We arent going to ask the doctor before surgery if you can have a few minutes to talk to your car, right? You are going to want to talk to your loved ones.

Now the Apostle Paul is writing this letter in prison. You hear of his joy as he rejoiced greatly to hear from them. He rejoiced in hearing from the Philippians and their interest in supporting him as a missionary.

Now thanking someone for a gift can be a lot more tricky then we think. Take for instance, someone gives you some food from a family holiday dinner. Lets say it was cheesecake and it was really delicious! We would really talk up that cheesecake in hopes of having more or taking some with us. But, on the other hand if we don’t thank them for the cheesecake or mention how good it taste, they can take it the wrong way because sometimes our silence speaks louder then our words.

III. We can also be content when we have plenty by the strength of Christ v.12b;13

A. Though there are many who have money, fame, and power who seem to be the most discontent. We look at movie stars who make millions of dollars, strangers who adore them, the nicest clothes, the biggest houses, and the fastest cars yet they seem the most miserable.

B. Eric Clapton said he had money, fame, fortune, houses, cars and yet every day he woke up thinking about suicide.

In this section Paul is working his way through his thank you. He doesn’t want to but a guilt trip on them and make it sound like it wasn’t enough or he was ungrateful but, he also doesn’t want to praise them too much and make it seem like he wants more.

C. Perhaps you have never even considered that God would test your faith by giving you abundance. But it is one thing to abound. It is quite another to know how to abound.

So Paul basically says..”I am not speaking as if I am in need for I have learned to be content with whatever situation I find myself in”.

D. Let’s be honest. Most of us would much rather learn how to abound than to learn how to be abased. But it is not as easy as you might think.

A.Contentment can be defined as “To be free from care because of satisfaction with what is already one’s own”.

"Contentment is a sweet, inward heart thing. It is a work of the Spirit indoors. It is a box of precious ointment, very comforting and useful for troubled hearts in times of troubled conditions." "It is the inward submission of the heart." Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646)

The word content in the greek means “self sufficient and independant of others”. But, that’s not how we would think. If we remember and understand the language Paul uses. He says I am a new creation. The Old has gone and the new has come. When he talks here about being self sufficient he is referring to the new man. The Christ that is within him from who he draws his strength and power from.

“To be free from care because of satisfaction with what is already one’s own”. The word content in the greek means “self sufficient and independant of others”. Paul wanted them to know that he gets his suffiency from Christ and Him alone who provides him strength to handle every situation. True contentment says that we own nothing. That everything is a gift from God. When we have that mindset then we wont be disappointed about what is taken away or what we don’t have because we understand it was never ours to begin with.

Paul wanted them to know that he gets his suffiency from Christ and Him alone who provides him strength to handle every situation. True contentment says that we own nothing. That everything is a gift from God. When we have that mindset then we wont be disappointed about what is taken away or what we don’t have because we understand it was never ours to begin with.

B.Can you imagine how it would be if we were raised by our parents like that? That none of the toys we were given are actually ours? We probably wouldn’t be as disappointed when they were taken away then, would we?

II. What contentment is not

A. Contentment is not being complacent

Let’s look at an example of someone in the Bible who was satisfied with what he had when he shouldn’t have been. In the Parable of the Talents, found in , Jesus tells us:

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” Jesus rebuked and corrected the servant who had one talent and did nothing with it.

The late basketball coach and committed Christian John Wooden once said that peace of mind “is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

This is the kind of self-satisfaction Paul describes when he says that he is content whatever the circumstances. Paul is constantly striving to do what God has called him to, in whatever circumstances he finds himself

III. We can be content when we have plenty by the strength of Christ v.12b;13

A. Though there are many who have money, fame, and power who seem to be the most discontent. We look at movie stars who make millions of dollars, strangers who adore them, the nicest clothes, the biggest houses, and the fastest cars yet they seem the most miserable.

B. Eric Clapton said he had money, fame, fortune, houses, cars and yet every day he woke up thinking about suicide.

C. Perhaps you have never even considered that God would test your faith by giving you abundance. But it is one thing to abound. It is quite another to know how to abound.

D. Let’s be honest. Most of us would much rather learn how to abound than to learn how to be abased. But it is not as easy as you might think.

II. We can be content when we are in need by the strength of Christ v.12a;13

Some of us think i’d be happy or content if I just had a little more money

Some of us think i’d be happy or content if I just had a better job

Some of us think i’d be happy or content If I had a bigger house or a nicer car

Sometimes we confuse our needs with our wants.

You here the phrase “Im hungry” tossed around by people who have a cupboard full of food that they dont want. In America we live to eat not eat to live. We see commercials of Children with their indents of their ribs sticking out of their body and who have literally nothing to eat. We have homeless people who wonder if they are going to live through the winter and who live in cardboard boxes. They don’t ask “what am I going to eat for dinner. They wake up everyday asking am I going to have anything to eat for dinner?

Contentment isn’t something that just happens but it’s something that is learned through experience.

The Apostle Paul knew all about suffering and learning to be content.

We can trust God when we are in need

He is the one who said “though our outer self is wasting away our inner self is being renewed day by day.”

He is the same one who suffered with a thorn in his flesh and pleaded with God three times to take it away

He is the same one that said “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed”

There is a man by the name of Nick Vujicic. He was born without arms or legs. He was the only one that the doctor seen without limbs.He felt worthless and just a burden to his parents. So one day he was bullied so bad at school that he came home and tried to commit suicide by drowning himself. In spite of all that he learned how to be content with the Lot of life that he was given and he made the most of it. He is now an evangelist who goes around the world and preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ because he heard the word. He heard about the man who was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him.

Some of us think i’d be happy or content if I just had a better job

Some of us think i’d be happy or content If I had a bigger house or a nicer car

III. We can be content when we have plenty by the strength of Christ v.12b;13

A. Though there are many who have money, fame, and power who seem to be the most discontent. We look at movie stars who make millions of dollars, strangers who adore them, the nicest clothes, the biggest houses, and the fastest cars yet they seem the most miserable.

B. Eric Clapton said he had money, fame, fortune, houses, cars and yet every day he woke up thinking about suicide.

C. Perhaps you have never even considered that God would test your faith by giving you abundance. But it is one thing to abound. It is quite another to know how to abound.

D. Let’s be honest. Most of us would much rather learn how to abound than to learn how to be abased. But it is not as easy as you might think.

IIII. We can be content in all circumstances by the the Strength of Christ v.11;13

Choose an Attitude of Praise

If we were to see an early imprisonment of Paul we would see that he choose praise over pity

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But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

Some of us think i’d be happy or content if I just had a better job

In this passage, Paul was imprisoned (at an earlier time), along with Silas, for spreading the Gospel. They had been stripped and beaten severely. Instead of complaining or lamenting, the two men began to sing praises to their God. It didnt matter to Paul if he had something or nothing for Christ was everything.

Some of us think i’d be happy or content If I had a bigger house or a nicer car

So what do we do when everything is going right. We have nothing seriously going wrong in our life? We praise Him! We thank him for His blessings. This is the most dangerous time for us spiritually though. When everything is good we can become complacent. We can go through the motions. We can start to read the bible less. We can pray less. We can not go to church as much. We begin to have the pride of life rather then the humility of Christ. We tend to not thank God when things go well and then complain when things don’t go well. Can we really blame him for disciplining us, his children then?

Paul believed that He can do all things through Christ who gives him strength. He was beaten, shipwrecked, left for dead. He learned to be content with much in his stomach and being hungry. He suffered heartache and he rejoiced. He knew his help would come from the Lord. There is one thing paul wasn’t content with though. That is His relationship with Christ. He always desperately wanted more of Him.

A. Contentment is not being complacent

Let’s look at an example of someone in the Bible who was satisfied with what he had when he shouldn’t have been. In the Parable of the Talents, found in , Jesus tells us:

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” Jesus rebuked and corrected the servant who had one talent and did nothing with it.

The late basketball coach and committed Christian John Wooden once said that peace of mind “is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

This is the kind of self-satisfaction Paul describes when he says that he is content whatever the circumstances. Paul is constantly striving to do what God has called him to, in whatever circumstances he finds himself.

B. Contentment

V. Conclusion

Conclusion:

We learn by experience time and time again that we can be content in all situations. Whether we have needs or we have plenty. We can trust Christ in all times that He will give us His strength to get through whatever we face in life. We cant wait for God to change our circumstances to be content but if we arent content in what Jesus has already done for you, then you don’t really know what he’s done for you.

Legend has it that a wealthy merchant during Paul’s day had heard about the apostle and had become so fascinated that he determined to visit him. So when passing through Rome, he got in touch with Timothy and arranged an interview with Paul the prisoner. Stepping inside his cell, the merchant was surprised to find the apostle looking rather old and physically frail, but he felt at once the strength, the serenity, and the magnetism of this man who relied on Christ as his all in all. They talked for some time, and finally the merchant left. Outside the cell, he asked Timothy, “What’s the secret of this man’s power? I’ve never seen anything like it before.” “Did you not guess?” replied Timothy. “Paul is in love.” The merchant looked puzzled. “In love?” he asked. “Yes,” said Timothy, “Paul is in love with Jesus Christ.” The merchant looked even more bewildered. “Is that all?” he asked. Timothy smiled and replied, “That is everything.” (Adapted from Leonard Griffith, This is Living [Abingdon], p. 149.)

Sticky Statement “To be content in all circumstances is to have Christ through all and in all”

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