The Mystery of Contentment

Introduction

Life isn’t a straight road, is it? When Megan and I were in college, I had this souped up Honda Civic rice-burner like I was off the set of the Fast and the Furious. You know, it was a five speed with a racing clutch and a tight suspension, and you could just fly in that thing. And, this is how the male brain works: If she sees me drive this car fast, she’s gonna want to marry me. I mean, I wish I could say that there was more to it than that, but there really isn’t. Like who cares about my life goals, financial stability, or dependability. Wait until she sees me drive this car! But, I can remember one night wanting to impress her on the dark streets of Rabbittown and so I take her flying way too fast down Brown Bridge Road. And, I’m confident because this is my area, and I know Brown Bridge Road. But, I forgot that when you’re driving fast you come up on thing a lot faster than you’re used to, and before I know it, I’m at the elbow curve on Brown Bridge Road, and I saw Jesus on his throne high and lifted up.

And, that’s how life happens, isn’t it? One minute, you’re laughing, driving with the windows down, and having the time of you’re life, and then the very next minute there’s a sudden curve, and it’s conceivable in your mind that it may all be over. One minute, your business is doing fine and the cashflow is good, and then suddenly a big contract falls through and you can’t pay your bills. One minute, you’re newly married and excited about your fairy tale, and the next minute your wife is disabled and your life is nothing like you pictured. And, the thrust of this entire sermon series through Philippians has been to discover how we might have a joy that doesn’t fluctuate with our lives, but rather is durable and steady, even when life isn’t. This morning, we’re going to hear from Paul about the secret to durable joy, the secret as to how we can have contentment in our lives whether we’re flying down the straightaways or wrecked in a curve.

God’s Word

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The Context

v. 10 “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.” Paul is exploding with joy. He is celebrating and rejoicing over the incredible generosity that the quite impoverished Philippians had shown to him through the material gift they had sent to him through Epaphroditus. Now, when we read verse 10, we might be tempted to read this with the sarcasm of a hungry teenager when you finally pull into Whataburger, “FINALLY, you remembered that I was starving to death here.” That’s why he clarifies himself in the next sentence. He wants to be sure that they understand what he’s saying. Paul is not saying, “FINALLY, you remembered me after what seemed like forever.” Rather, he is saying, “I can’t believe that you are so quick to give me so much after such a long time. I can’t believe that your love for me has held so steady for so long. As soon as you saw a need, you were there.” And so, on one hand, Paul is so thankful for their partnership because God has used them to provide for his needs. And yet, he quickly follows up this thankfulness by making sure that his love for them, his joy in them is not based on what they can do for him. It’s not based on them meeting his needs, for he doesn’t consider himself in need at all. This is what brings about the richest words we can find in entirety of the universe on the subject of contentment, and this morning I want us to learn these same observations about Christ-centered contentment (headline).

Contentment is “Learned”

v. 11 “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” The first observation is that Christ-centered contentment is “learned”. The Stoic philosophers believed that a person must not be controlled by their experiences in life, whether good or bad. Rather, through the rationality of their minds and the resolve of their will they were to have an iron jaw so that neither devastating hardship would take them low nor thrilling success would take them high. They believed that contentment was the greatest virtue that a person could attain. By contentment, they meant a self-sufficiency, which is what the word means most literally, independent of their circumstances. It’s this Greek philosophy that formed the backdrop of the Philippian worldview, and so, when Paul takes the very same word, “contentment” and says that it’s the reason that he is without any need, the reason that his joy is beyond the reaches of the lowest lows and independent from the highest highs, it was like dropping a grenade into the middle of his Philippian friends. They heard Paul connecting himself to the self-sufficiency of the Stoics, but Paul’s contentment was something quite different. The stoics separated themselves from their circumstances by going deeper within themselves. Paul rose above whatever was in front of him by going deeper into God. Whatever independence and sufficiency Paul had was the result of total dependency upon God’s sufficiency, not his own.

He had went to the school of contentment. It’s a school to which everyone is accepted but very few actually graduate. He had been wealthy, and he had been poor. He had been considered brilliant, and he had been judged a fool. He had been imprisoned, stoned, whipped, and beaten. He’d been hungry and cold. In other words, he’d had a lot of opportunity to practice contentment in his life.

Contentment is Maturity

Contentment doesn’t come “naturally”. This is what Paul meant by “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” He had learned by experience to trust and rest in the plan of God.. It has to be learned, and it can’t be learned in books. Contentment is discovered on the other side of the life’s steep curves in the school of God’s providence. You see, contentment is a spirit “stilled” by “confidence” in God. It’s “an independence (from) the world through dependence upon God.” (Findlay) It’s the ability to be at peace with your life, regardless of what is happening in your life, because you are certain that God’s hand is in it. And, the only way to learn is to mature in the school of God’s providence. It’s to encounter the ebbs and flows, highs and lows of your life and to see that in every case God is proven sufficient and faithful. It’s maturing in the providence of God so that you can praise God when you bring your baby home from the hospital, and you can rest in God when your baby rebels in college. Contentment is one of the truest “markers” of spiritual “maturity”. It is to develop in you the character of Christ that prays on the eve of his own crucifixion, “Not my will, but yours be done.” It’s to develop a confidence so great in God that you can rejoice, not only looking back over the hardships that He’s delivered you from, but you can rejoice looking forward to how you know He will work even while you’re in the eye of the storm. It is to be utterly surrendered to the will of God, no matter how difficult or how terrifying, because of your confidence in him.

What Does Your Contentment Say?

APPLICATION: What does your contentment say about your confidence in God? Does it reveal a mature faith that is stilled by God’s sovereign hand, or does it reveal a shaky, infantile insecurity that needs everything and everybody to be just right in order to rest?

Contentment is “Comprehensive”

v. 12 “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.” The second observation is that Christ-centered contentment is “comprehensive.” In verse 12, he expands upon what it means that he is able to content, confident, stilled in every situation. He says, “I’m satisfied when I have food and when I don’t. I’m rested when I have place to sleep, and I’m rested when I have to sleep outside. I’m at peace when everyone receives me with love, and I’m at peace when I’m rejected entirely.” So, what’s striking is just how comprehensive his contentment is. He acknowledges both extremes of our rollercoaster lives and says that he’s found contentment in both and everything that’s in between.

Unnatural Joy

First, let’s look at what contentment looks like when you’re low, when you don’t have enough. Contentment is “joy” in the midst of a “deficit”. Joy is unnatural when you don’t have enough, isn’t it? Joy is unnatural when you’re scraping through valley, barely hanging on by a thread. And, when he says that he ‘knows how to be brought low’ what he’s saying is that he knows how to rejoice in the valley, rejoice when he has a heart attack, rejoice when he never marries, rejoice when others bully him. We see how he’s able to have this joy, even when he doesn’t have enough, even when he’s hungry and poor and discarded, and I think we see by the way that he phrases ‘when I’ve been BROUGHT low.’ In other words, it was a purposeful, intentional design that took him into neediness, into poverty, into prison. He was low because of providence, not misfortune, because of God’s plan, not his missteps or the misdeeds of others. Man, in the prosperity culture world that we live in we’ve grown accustomed to associating wealth with the favor of God, but could it be that it’s by his kindness that He shepherds us through storms and struggle and hardship so we might know something far greater, far richer, far more wonderful than life as we’ve imagined it? Paul was so utterly surrendered to the plan of God and so utterly satisfied by his enjoyment of Christ that he could be content an joyful in whatever he faced because he knew the hand of God was there.

APPLICATION: Where do you find a deficit in your life? Maybe it’s your singleness or it’s your barrenness, maybe it’s your dead-end job or your body type, maybe it’s an education that you never received or it’s a disability that you can’t overcome. Your joy or lack thereof in that deficit will prove what you believe about Christ. It will prove that you are totally surrendered to his will or not. It will prove that you are fully satisfied in him or not. So, what is your deficit saying about you?

Unnatural Faithfulness

On the other end of the spectrum, he says that he knows how to be content when he has an abundance, a surplus. And, this one might surprise us a bit because you’re thinking, “God, if I have a surplus, you can be assured I’ll be content.” If a surplus tests my contentment, test me all you want, Lord. But, we may learn more about contentment in surplus than in deficit. Contentment is “faithfulness” in the midst of a “surplus.” Faithfulness is just as unnatural during a surplus as joy is during a deficit. A surplus demonstrates whether your satisfaction is in God or in what He can provide. Ever had a friend that really became your best friend about the same time they were going to need help moving. Like, they’re taking you out to lunch, and shooting you encouraging text messages. Then, you help them move and never see them again. Did they want you, or what you could do for them? This is what surplus teaches you. If you had everything that you could want, if all of your family was doing well, if your job was ahead of schedule, how much time would you spend with God? That is, are you seeking pleasure from God by trying to get God to change all of your circumstances, or are you find pleasure in God so that whether it’s good or bad, deficit or surplus you have your pleasure. Are you seeking pleasure from God, or are you seeking pleasure in God? That’s what surplus will show you,

Surplus Shows Which Kingdom

It’s more difficult to lead a faithful Christian life from surplus than it is from deficit. That is, it’s more difficult to be content with an abundance than with a deficit. A surplus teaches you what kingdom you’re living for. Here’s the question that professing Christian after professing Christian has said no to: Do you believe so firmly in heaven, so passionately about the will of God that you can live beneath your means now? It is a heart that is discontent in God that has to max out its buying power right now. But, the heart that is totally satisfied in God, totally content in the will of God, totally sold out to the Kingdom of Go that can say, “I may make $50k per year, but I don’t have to have a $50k lifestyle.” Oh, A house poor Christian should be an oxymoron. We don’t need the house. It’s not the secret. You see, if you have a lot but don’t need a lot, then you can help a lot. Your contentment in Christ positions you, not to do without, oh that’s the wrong way to see it, but to fully indulge yourself on the goodness of God and to receive the types of joys that you can’t find at the Oxford Exchange. What does your lifestyle say about your satisfaction in Christ?

Contentment is “Supernatural”

v. 13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” That brings us to the final observation which is that Christ-centered contentment is “supernatural.” I’ve talked a lot this morning about how unnatural contentment. How unnatural joy is in a deficit and faithfulness is in a surplus, and that’s because there’s nothing natural at all about contentment; it’s supernatural. In verse 12, Paul says that he’s found the secret to contentment, he’s solved the mystery of contentment, and in verse 13 he tells us what that secret is. It’s that it’s strength that doesn’t come from him. It’s a confidence that isn’t found in him. It’s a power that’s at work in him that is beyond him. The secret to contentment with a little or with a lot, the key to joy on the mountaintop and in the valley is not the mettle of your will and it’s not your capacity for discipline and it’s not your pain threshold, the secret to contentment is to look beyond yourself and in spite of yourself to One who has promised that He will never leave you or forsake you. The secret to contentment is to abide in Christ so closely that his strength, his courage, his joy, his life is pouring through you regardless of what your life is throwing at you.

The “secret” to contentment is total “satisfaction” in Jesus. You see, what’s ironic is that means the exact opposite of what it seems many think it means. This is not the power that you need to make the game-winning shot. This is the power that you need to have joy whether you make it or miss it. This is not the power to help you nail the job interview. It’s the power to be fully secure whether you get the job or not. This is not the power to help you speak in front of a crowd. This is the power to find your approval in Christ whether or not you’re booed from the stage. This is the power of Christ in you to have contentment regardless of what you have, joy regardless of what you experience, hope regardless of what you face. Because with Christ, you can face all things, endure all things, and still rejoice in all things because He is where you satisfaction is found.

A Full-throttle Life

And, this is how contentment is the key that unlocks the “full-throttle” Christian life. We don’t adopt or move to the mission field or obey the assignment that God has given us or give as generously and radically as God has commanded us because we’re afraid that we might lose what we have or miss what we could have. But, when all we need to be satisfied and content is Christ, then we can obey courageously and give radically and go irrationally, because we go and we give and we obey through the supernatural presence of contentment at work in us through Christ. Church, you have Christ. You have his power and his presence and his promises. So, accelerate in the curves of life with the confidence that Christ will be enough for whatever is on the other side. Go full-throttle into the will of God certain there is no life more satisfying.

Questions:

What does contentment look like? Have you ever known a Christian that you would describe as content? How do you think that person learned contentment?

Have you ever experienced a loss or a ‘deficit’ that ultimately increased your confidence and contentment in God? How can we have that contentment in the midst of the storm rather than after it’s over? How does contentment in Christ make our joy secure?

Why is it so difficult to be content when you have more than enough? How does a surplus reveal your satisfaction in God? Why do so many Christians max out or exceed their spending power and lifestyle? How might God increase your joy by spending less and giving more? Do you really believe that?

How is contentment the secret to happiness? What are the ‘all things’ that Paul is talking about in ? How does contentment unlock the full-throttle Christian life?