Faith, Contentment, and Joy

There once was a fisherman who was sitting idly by his boat one afternoon after a long morning of fishing.

A rich man happened to be walking along the shoreline that day and came across the fisherman and his boat, which had been pulled onto the beach, with all its lines coiled up and its nets folded and stowed.

“Why aren’t you out there fishing?” the rich man asked.

“Because I’ve caught enough fish for the day,” the fisherman replied. “I’ve caught all the fish that I need.”

“Well, why don’t you catch more fish than you need?” the rich man asked.

“What on earth would I do with them?” the fisherman responded.

“Well, you could sell the extras and earn more money to buy a bigger boat so that you could go farther from shore and catch more and bigger fish in the deeper water. Then you could earn even more money and buy sturdier nets, catch even more fish, and earn even more money. Soon, you’d be able to buy more boats and hire some help, and then you’d have a fleet of fishing boats, and you’d be rich like me.”

“Then what would I do?” asked the fisherman.

“You could sit down and enjoy life.”

“What do you think I’m doing now?” the fisherman replied. [Morgan, Robert J. Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes. Electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000. p 146]

People have a hard time recognizing and respecting contentment.

In our modern world — and, perhaps, especially in a society founded upon the ideals of capitalism — contentment can be confused for laziness (as in the story about the fisherman) or a lack of initiative or ambition.

So many of our great stories of success are about people who have built great empires out of nothing, about people who amassed great wealth after humble beginnings.

There’s a popular internet meme that shows photos of the garages where the Apple, Google, Amazon, Disney, and Harley-Davidson companies were started. “This is where it all started for these companies. What’s your excuse?” it says under the photos. And someone came back with a legendary reply: “I don’t have a garage.”

Well, today, as we begin a three-week series on stewardship and thankfulness, I think it’s important that we take some time, first of all, to talk about contentment.

The Apostle Paul talked about contentment in chapter 4 of his letter of joy to the church in Philippi, and it’s interesting to note that his words about contentment come in the midst of a passage in which he was encouraging the church to continue its financial support of his ministry.

You see, contentment and generosity go hand in hand. People who are not content with their financial situations are hardly ever generous. And people who are generous are almost always content.

Turn with me, if you will, to Philippians 4:10, and let’s read what Paul has to say about contentment, and then, later, we’ll take a look at one of the great Old Testament examples of a people who were not content and see what it said about their relationship with God.

Philippians 4:10–14 NASB95

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.

After what might have been years of not needing financial support from the church in Philippi, Paul’s situation had evidently changed, and that church had, as we’ll see in verse 18, sent Epaphroditus to deliver money to Paul for his ministry.

And as he says in verse 10, the gift they sent caused him to rejoice, but not because of the reasons we might expect.

Paul says in verses 11 and 12 that he had learned to be content in whatever circumstances he found himself in.

Whether he had had little or he had much, whether he could be filled with food or had to go hungry, there was a secret he had learned, and that secret is found in verse 13, one of the Bible’s verses that is most often taken out of context.

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

Perhaps you remembered this verse when you were taking exams as a student. Maybe your baseball or basketball team liked to recall this verse when it was about to face a tough opponent.

We love to drill down into Scripture and take a verse or promise of God, ripping it out of its context, and then apply it to our lives to help us get through whatever trial we happen to be facing at any given time or even to help us justify doing things that are outside of God’s will.

And, while it is true that God CAN give you the strength to endure and the strength to overcome the obstacles in your path, that’s not what this verse is about when we look at it in its context.

What Paul is saying here is that he has learned that God would strengthen and empower him to have contentment and joy in Christ, regardless of his financial circumstances.

Paul had come to learn that neither poverty nor wealth mattered when it came to his walk with Jesus Christ, the all-sufficient one in whom Christians truly “live and move and have our being.”

He had learned to depend on the Lord both in bad times AND in good times.

And so, we can see that Paul’s joy is not because he finally was receiving financial help from the church in Philippi in the midst of his affliction.

So, then, what WAS the source of his joy?

Skip down to verse 17.

Philippians 4:17–18 NASB95

Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

Paul was rejoicing because the gift the Philippians had sent with Epaphroditus was a “fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.”

heir gift to Paul was a sacrifice that brought honor to God, and God would count it as fruit — that’s the literal meaning of the word that’s translated as “profit” here — God would count it as fruit borne by the Philippian church.

Their gift was an investment into the kingdom of heaven. They had given to Paul in abundance, and their gift had fulfilled his needs. He was “amply supplied,” literally “made full.”

Their gift had surely benefitted Paul, but look what he says here — it would also benefit them. They would be blessed because God had been pleased with their sacrifice.

In the passage in 2 Corinthians in which Paul refers to this gift from Philippi, he describes it as coming out of their poverty. One commentator describes it as “rock-bottom poverty” [P. Hughes, Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), 228].

In this way they were like the poor widow who gave two small copper coins to the treasury at the temple, while Jesus looked on. We see this story in the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 12:41–44 NASB95

And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

Who brought greater glory to God in the temple that day, the rich people who were giving out of their surplus or abundance, or the widow who have her whole livelihood?

Of course, it was the poor widow. She demonstrated both contentment with her circumstances and faith that God would provide for her needs.

And that’s the second blessing that Paul talks about in this passage from Philippians. They would receive God’s provision.

“My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

This is another verse that is too often taken out of context. In the context here, the promise is to those who are actively supporting God’s work. “God meets the needs of those who give to him. In the context of ministering, [God ministers to us].” [Richard R. Melick, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, vol. 32, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 158.]

And God meets the needs of those who give to Him “according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” In other words, He provides bountifully from His glorious riches for those who are in Christ Jesus and contributing to His work here on earth.

Many Christians — and many Christian churches — struggle financially because they fail to do the thing that God requires for this promise to take effect: They fail to give, so they do not receive. Or they give simply out of their surplus, so they never experience the bountiful blessings of God’s glorious riches.

They can’t have joy, because they don’t have contentment, and they don’t have contentment, because they don’t have faith that God will provide.

That was the situation for the people of Israel after God had miraculously delivered them out of their slavery in Egypt.

Turn to Exodus, chapter 16, and let’s take a look at their situation less than 45 days after God had rescued them from bondage.

Exodus 16:1–3 NASB95

Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Somehow, these people whom God had spared from the plagues He had brought against Egypt, these people whom He had delivered from the Egyptian armies by parting the Red Sea so the Israelites could cross, these people for whom God had led Moses to miraculously turn bitter waters sweet — somehow these people were now complaining that they were not back in Egypt with pots of meat and eating bread to the full.

Do they sound like contented people to you? Do they sound like people who have faith that God will provide for them?

No, but God is gracious and merciful, and even though they had dishonored Him with their grumbling, He would still provide for His chosen people, and He would do so in a way that would teach them to have faith in His provision and contentment with what He had provided.

Let’s pick back up in verse 4.

Exodus 16:4–5 NASB95

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. “On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

There were two tests connected to the manna from heaven that God would provide for the people of Israel during their 40 years wandering in the wilderness.

The first test was a test of faith. Would they have faith that the God who had provided this bread from heaven today would do so again tomorrow?

They had been commanded to gather only a day’s portion of manna and to eat what they had gathered, leaving none of it for the next day. Following this commandment would require faith that more bread from heaven would arrive just as miraculously the following day.

Verse 20:

Exodus 16:20 NASB95

But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them.

So, some of them failed the faith test. Could they pass the contentment test?

Verse 22:

Exodus 16:22–26 NASB95

Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. “Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.”

So, God had commanded them to gather up twice as much bread on the sixth day as on the other days so that they would be able to observe His commandment for a Sabbath-day rest.

After seeing what had previously happened to those who left bread for the next day, I can imagine that many of the people must have awakened that first Sabbath and wondered if they would find their leftover bread full of worms.

But what they found was that the bread had neither “become foul nor was there any worm in it.” God had provided for them according to His glorious riches just what they needed to survive.

So, we might imagine that they would be content, that they would have passed God’s contentment test.

Verse 27:

Exodus 16:27–30 NASB95

It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? “See, the Lord has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.

What’s amazing to me about this passage is that the Israelites had experienced God’s daily provision for them for six days, and then they had seen with their own eyes that the bread left over on the Sabbath was still fresh and good to eat. And yet, they were not content with what they had. They still went out to see if they could get more.

I suppose they wanted to stock up, just in case God stopped blessing them.

All too often, that’s just what we do. We receive some blessing from God, and we sock it away, just in case things start to go bad and we can’t trust God to provide for us anymore.

And when we do that, we demonstrate not only that we don’t have faith in Him, but also that we are not content with what He has given us, that we don’t find the joy of being in Christ regardless of our circumstances.

God blesses us so that we can bless others. And when we bless others from the blessings He has given us, we find that, just like the church in Philippi, His blessings are greater and more glorious than we can imagine.

The world tells us to take what we can get. Acquire. Hold onto what you have and then go out and look for more.

Have you ever seen any of those television shows about hoarders? Their houses are filled with stuff they just can’t bring themselves to let go of. There are mountains of material possessions — and, often, trash and debris — threatening to collapse upon them and smother them under their weight. And they’re miserable.

We might look at such people with pity or alarm or even disgust. But the truth is that the sickness they suffer is just a more acute version of the sickness we all suffer if we are in the flesh instead of being in Christ — a lack of faith that results in a lack of contentment and an inability to have true joy.

Now, if you have never put your faith in Jesus, who called Himself the Bread of Life, then real contentment and true joy are still out of your grasp.

You might have happy experiences, and you might even be satisfied with your life, but life in Christ is about so much more than happiness and satisfaction.

Real contentment comes from understanding that you can’t be good enough to go to heaven, no matter how hard you try, so the sinless Jesus was good enough FOR you.

Real contentment comes from understanding that you could never pay the debt that your sins — your rebellion against God — has created, so Jesus paid that debt FOR you at the cross of Calvary.

True joy comes from knowing that, because God raised His Son from the dead, He will keep His promise to do give those who put their faith in Jesus eternal life — everlasting life in perfect fellowship with the Father and the Son, the way God always meant for you to have it.

True joy comes from knowing that if you follow Jesus Christ in faith, you will be adopted as a son or daughter of the God who gives His children good gifts out of His glorious riches.

Whether you are a Christian or not, both joy and contentment come down to one thing: In whom are you putting your faith?

Are you putting your faith in yourself and your ability to catch more fish and buy more boats? Or are you putting your faith in the one whose riches are glorious and whose promise is to supply all your needs?

Are you putting your faith in yourself and your ability to be good enough to stand before a perfect and holy and righteous God on the day of judgment? Or are you putting your faith in the perfectly righteous God-Man who promises to clothe you in His own righteousness and give you eternal life?

One path leads to joy and great gain. The other leads to suffering and loss.

Which path will you choose?