Contentment

Sermon  •  Submitted
0 ratings
· 9 views
Notes
Transcript

Holistically Thankful

One of the many things I appreciate about Pastor Nohan is his approach to many things in life. If you Know him, you’ll know that he very detail oriented in just about everything, another thing that he is known for is thinking more holistically about projects, relationships and topics. He’s mentioned before about our Thursday team meetings, and in these meetings he challenges to widen our vision and think more holistically as we prepare. As we’re coming up to Thanksgiving, we wanted to look at what it means to be thankful, holistically.
I’ve said that word a bunch and at its root it means to think about a subject or thing as whole. Like zooming in to zoom out. To get to know the separate parts in order to be able to explain the whole. We often see that word attached to medicine, Holistic medicine, Holistic healing and so on. Often when an injured athlete is rehabing, they are treated for their physical issue like a torn ACL, and at the same time they are being treated by a sports counselor or sports psychologist. This treatment not only rehabs their knee, but their mind so that when they return to training and full contact they are not afraid and have regained confidence.
All this to say, that as reflect on why we are thankful this year, we will do so in a more holistic way. Last week Nohan started us off with gratefulness. He brought up that in a study they found that people who are grateful are generally happier.
Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
He then lead us into communion, which is our ultimate Thanksgiving table where we are physically reminded of Jesus broken body and spilled blood.
This week we will look at the second part of this picture, contentment.
Philippians 4:11–13 ESV
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Killing Contentment

In 1913, Arthur r. “Pop” Momand, created a comic strip that ran in several news papers that ran until 1940. This comic strip was about the McGinis family working to climb the ladder of social status all the while competing with their neighbors. Keeping up with the Joneses.
That’s something we struggle with and have been struggling with it since Adam and Eve were in the Garden, wanting what the other has. Adam and Eve wanted the knowledge of good and evil, Cain wanted God’s acceptance, David wanted someone else’s wife, Simon the Magician wanted to buy the power of Holy Spirit. These people saw something that someone else had and had to have it.
And it is definitely easier today than it’s ever been to see into the tangible parts of our neighbors lives. While social media can definitely be a powerful tool used for good, we already know that it can be definitely used for not so good, even evil things. We often post up the best parts of our lives for approval and recognition. That’s not to say that our lives aren’t good, but like an iceberg, what’s seen on SM is only about 10% of life. The deep intricacies of life aren’t often exposed on SM, which if you ask me is totally okay. There are so many parts of life that are private and belong to you and your inner circle of friends and family only.
Density also explains why most of an iceberg is found beneath the ocean’s surface. Because the densities of ice and sea water are so close in value, the ice floats “low” in the water. Remember that the density of ice is 0.92 g/mL, and the density of water is 1.0 g/mL (1.03 for salt water). This means that ice has nine-tenths, or 90 percent of water’s density – and so 90 percent of the iceberg is below the water’s surface. In contrast, a piece of wood with a density of 0.5 g/mL (half that of water) would float with half of its volume below the surface of the water. A cork with a density of 0.2 g/mL (20 percent that of water) would float with 20 percent of its volume below the surface, and so on.
Ultimately, I don’t believe there’s inherently an issue with SM. I don’t believe there’s an issue with only posting the good parts of your life. Our posts are information about who we are at our best, about our interests and so on. Just like with every other bit of information we learn or acquire, it’s about what we do with it.
When the Pharisees question why Jesus’ disciples didn’t perform the ceremonial hand washing before eating, Jesus goes in, but we’re going to look at only one portion of it. One of Jesus’ typical mic drop moments:
Mark 7:14–15 ESV
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
Though what we intake informs how we make our decisions, our hearts decide how to use that information and the intention behind why we seek that information. So, if we are to apply this to our current topic, it’s not what we see on SM that defiles us, but our reaction to it. We see other’s 10% and instead of celebrating, generally speaking, we have the tendency to envy. We see posts and wish we had what they have and become discontent with our lives. It becomes a distraction from our own experience and we forget about God’s goodness in our lives.
But this sense of “keeping up” isn’t limited to SM. We can experience this in SM, at work, in our families, with our friends and even at church. The latter is honestly the most indicting, or in our case, convicting of our fallenness and need of Jesus.
In church, we have the opportunity to live life with so many different kinds of people with different giftings. It’s almost like living in a real life social network. But, sometimes instead of celebrating others we envy their gifts, their lives, forgetting again that God has created us distinctly to be as we are for His glory. We can become envious of how another brother or sister prays, sings, teaches, listens, reads, gives and the list goes on. Paul says in Galatians
Galatians 3:2–3 NASB95
This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
We envy these things instead of celebrating our brothers and sisters in Christ, and ultimately we neglect to celebrate the work done in our own lives. We can forget our gifting and our blessing in salvation. In keeping up with the Joneses we can create a toxic type of competition that becomes distracting. We begin to compete with our neighbor instead of loving our neighbor.

Be Content

“Remembering is a key verb of the Christian life. We recall our past, we correct our nearsightedness, we take heart, we regain mental strength, awe find peace in the eternal Word. Remembering is one of the key spiritual disciplines we must guard with vigilance amid the mind-fragmenting and past-forgetting temptations of the digital age.” ― Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You
Paul, in our text today, teaches us this in his letter. Verse 13 is often a mantra that is often used to overcome adversity in sport or any other challenge, and rightfully so, cause it’s true. But this is simply a secondary application since Paul was not talking about overcoming challenges in how we often think of it. As Americans we often think of it as pulling ourselves up by the boot straps, in other words, work hard enough and you’ll overcome. But Paul isn’t talking about that.
At this point in His ministry, Paul is in prison writing to church of Philippi, encouraging them to stay true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and remember Jesus’ sacrifice for them.
Paul was ship wrecked and he was content, Paul was tortured and he was content, paul was put to death and he was content. What Paul is saying in these verses is that in any adversity, in any triumph he is content.
In context, he is saying, “I’ve learned to be content when I received everything I want; I learned to be content when I got nothing I wanted. I can do either one by the power of Christ.”
-Matt Chandler
Paul is teaching them to remain content through any stage of their lives. We try to find contentment in the things of this world, its approval on SM, comparison and what feels like acceptance. Yet paul is telling us that contentment, like our joy, is not to be found in our situation.
Here is one more facet of the gospel that meets our culture at its point of need: Jesus Christ gives what the world cannot—contentment.
-Sinclair Ferguson
Paul spends the first 3 chapters of this letter reminding them of what Jesus has done and who they are in him, citizens of the kingdom (phil 3:20). By extension, he reminds us of our hope in Christ and who we are. He establishes our identity in Christ, then what it looks like to live it out by the power of the Spirit. Like Paul, we are carried through difficulties, abundance, lacking and triumph by the Holy Spirit.
We are to be content not because life is perfect, but because Jesus Christ has paid our debt and given us His grace. We are to be content because we know that as citizens of heaven, the final wrod belongs o Christ. be content because you belong to God. This contentment will lead you to gratefulness, and gratefulness to rejoicing as we’ll learn next week. Holistic
Unbeliever, don’t live in the misery of a Christless life. Hear the call of Jesus to believe in Him, respond and receive mercy today.
“When I am afraid of evils to come, comfort me by showing me
that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch,
but in Christ I am reconciled and live;
that in my self I find insufficiency and no rest,
but in Christ there is satisfaction and peace;
that in myself I am feeble and unable to do good, but in Christ I have ability to do all things.”
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more