Sermon Tone Analysis

Finding Contentment In Life

!!! Phil.

4:10-13

 

Brother Pastor I’ve never been so amazed and aware of the people who sit in our pews Sunday after Sunday who live never satisfied.

They are not satisfied with their life, they are not satisfied with their lives, and they are not satisfied with their livelihood.

So discontented with their lot in life.

Constantly searching for bigger and better and brighter.

And I guess all of us who are here today have that inward urge to do better and to do more than what we are doing.

But the dangerous disease of discontentment is destroying our people not only individually but also collectively.

Never satisfied.

Not satisfied with the house.

Not satisfied with the car.

Not satisfied with the job.

Not satisfied with the church.

The choir either sings too long, too loud, or both.

The preacher, if don’t whoop “he’s dry” and if he does whoop “it don’t take all that!”  We’re not satisfied with our weight.

We are not satisfied with our complexion.

We are not satisfied with our hair; we are coloring, cutting, and cropping.

(I wish I had some help in here.)

We are not satisfied with our bodies.

We are not satisfied with the furniture we have in our homes.

We are not even satisfied with the food that we have in our iceboxes.

We are not satisfied with the climate, either it’s too hot Rev. or it’s too cold.

Have you ever noticed that discontented people are often disgruntled people?

They are often discouraging people.

They feel that somehow or another if they could just change their environment that they are living in.

If they could just win the big one at the lottery…  Maybe get rich overnight with some get rich quick scheme, maybe become a part of the rich and the famous that somehow they can move from a state of discontentment to a state contentment.

We are restless beings.

As a matter of fact, our children are restless but may I suggest that they did not just come upon it…  We have restless adults.

Trying often maybe (my brothas and sistahs) to keep up with the Jones’ before we know where the Jones’ are going.

Discontented!

Living with that damnable disease of our children “I want” and “everybody got” that causes people to be stressed out and straining.

I have a nephew who listens to the Canton spiritual, “I’ve Been Strugglin’ and Straining.”

He said to me one day after getting in trouble, Uncle, I have been struggling and straining.

I said yeah nephew, me too.

Trying to make ends meet, I have been struggling and straining.

Trying make my income keep up with my “outgo”, yes, I have been struggling and straining too.

We are just not content.

And I do sense in each one of us the desire to live a peaceful and productive life but how can we capture contentment when we are living around so many folks who are discontented.

And you have to watch hanging around them, they’ll stop you from counting your blessings and get you to bemoaning your burdens.

You ever run into folks that seem to get mad because you are cheerful.

They ask you, “why are you so happy?”

Well, I’m alive.

And isn’t that something to be happy about just being alive?

Oh, I may not live where I want to but I’m alive.

I might not have all that I want to have but yes I’m alive.

Pains might be racking my body but I’m alive.

Children might be acting up but yes thank God, I’m alive.

I might not be able to pay all my bills but thank God next week I can tell them, “I can’t pay you!”  I’m yet alive.

And every time I start complaining about my lot in life I remind myself of one of God’s promises – “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

And maybe we need to remind ourselves of that when we are going through our problems and predicament so that we can come out victors instead of victims.

So in Phil.

4:11 he says, “I can accept all things.

It is in 4:13 he says, I can do all things.

And then in 4:18 he says, “I have all things.”

Paul says, I don’t have to be pampered because I have learned that it is not where I am that makes the difference.

And there are a lot of people this morning who feel it’s where you are that makes the difference.

It’s really not where you are but it’s who you are that makes the difference.

When one reads a book written by Charles Swindoll, he talks about discontentment.

He says:

!

It was spring but it was summer I wanted.

The warm days and the great outdoors it was summer but it was fall I wanted.

The colorful leaves and the cool dry air, it was fall but it was winter I wanted.

The beautiful snow and the joy of the holiday season, it was winter but it was spring I wanted.

The warmth and the blossoming of nature; I was a child but it was adulthood that I wanted.

The freedom and the respect, I was twenty but it was thirty I wanted.

To be mature and sophisticated, I was middle age but it was twenty I wanted.

The youth and the free spirit, I was retired but it was middle age that I wanted.

The presence of mind without limitations, my life was over and I never got what I wanted.

!! And I have met a lot of folks like that.

Paul say in verse eight, “finally.”

It is the “I am closing now” of the baptist preacher.

He’s already said finally in chapter three, but that’s like most baptist preachers.

You know you ain’t earned your stripes until you’ve said finally at least three times.

But really this is the finally of the finally, he says “finally” or “as I come to a conclusion bretheren there are some things that I want you to understand about what it is to be content and how you can be content.”

He says first of all “your mind has to be on the right stuff.”

Six thing that he says that if you are going to be content you have got to think about the right stuff.

First of all he says that if you are going to be content you have got to think about things that are true; think about things that are honest; think about things that are just; think about things that are pure; think about things that are lovely; and then think about things that are of a good report for as a man thinketh so is he.

It does make a difference what we think.

Many of is this morning think that we are worse off than we really are.

When you are living in any kind of a situation, satan will make you think that it is worse.

He’ll paint a skewed picture of what is really happening.

And you’ll find yourself thinking about many times it is worse than it really is.

And that it why the writer said that you have got to get your mind together let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, it really ain’t that bad.

You see anything can be worked out as long as you are alive.

That why many people who jump off of buildings don’t give God a chance to work it out for them.

Many people who contemplate suicide (taking their life) if they will just wait until the next day maybe there’s a letter in the mail saying it’s gonna be alright and it just got stopped at the post office (help me somebody).

When people are out looking for jobs and you have heard all the “no’s” that you can take for one day and the devil tells you to go home knock on at least one more door.

He’ll tell you to quit before you get what you want.

He said to think about your state, but not only think about your state move from thinking to doing.

It is verse nine he says after you have thought about all these things (things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of a good report) then you have got to realize that those things that you have both learned and received then you have got to learn to do.

Our problem is a performance problem not a principle problem.

For most of us know the principles but the performance is another thing.

James said that not only should we be hearers of the Word but doers likewise.

Paul said that the things that you have learned, received, heard, and seen in me; I have set an example for you of how to live under pressure, how to make it in your pains, how to move through your perils.

I have set an example for you.

I am a witness that you can make it regardless of what you are going through.

How do you know it Paul?

Because I’ve already experienced it.

I’ve been hungry.

I’ve been shipwrecked.