November Passage: Philippians 4:10-20
I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.
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. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.
And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs again and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. (ESV)
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Throughout each month, we will post short articles to give some depth of understanding regarding our text. Today we will discuss...
Faith Leads to Contentment and Peace
Contentment is not a trait with which we are born. Corrupted by the Fall, every person since Adam and Eve has a default setting in our hearts that screams, MORE! and NOW! and WHY CAN’T I HAVE WHAT THEY HAVE?!
In the Old Testament, we are warned not to covet (or wish to desire) our neighbor’s home, spouse, wealth, or stuff. And we are instructed not to be impatient or to seek after fast money, instead we are to work hard and wait on the Lord. These are all instructions designed to chisel discontentment out of our hearts. Yet we see people in the Scriptures weep as they wait for children, we see kings rush into sin because of impatience, we see people hastily and sinfully decide to take action instead of waiting to ask what God would have them do.
And in this culture, our generation has NOT tried to repent of discontentment, but has answered it by striving to always deliver more product (food, information, electronic gadgets, etc…), and to deliver it quicker, and by providing enough credit to enable most of us to “Keep up with the Jones’” (at least until the bill comes due).
But, just as with any sin, discontentment only grows when you feed it. After a short period of satisfaction, the MORE, QUICKER monster shows up stronger, louder and hungrier than before. For example, we have an unlimited amount of information on nearly every topic, but we complain and fuss because want it faster than the 5 seconds that it takes to search for it and open up a webpage on our cell phone or tablet.
We are happy to get the newest gadget, sometimes waiting in line for hours to buy it, only to be told several months later by advertisers that our device is not as good as version _________, that’s coming out next month.
We drive some of the most advanced and reliable cars ever made and can’t stop longing for the sleek sedan or big truck or efficient hybrid that our neighbor just bought.
This is not only a problem for the not-yet-believer. Christian’s struggle with it too. We fall for the traps listed above, and then some. Your Bible is great, but this one has better study notes, our friend says.
Pastor, why don’t we have a building like that church uptown, a regular visitor asks.
I wish my kids acted as well behaved during worship as theirs, a couple thinks.
We’d really be doing well if we could get more people in the pews, one pastor says to another. the other pastor answers, I used to say the same thing, now I wish our church was small and intimate like yours.
Discontentment is a beast. And like any other sin, it needs to be slain.
Paul is very helpful here. It was easy for me (Pastor Ken) to really beat myself up over my discontentment when I was a new believer. I really thought it would just go away after I embraced the faith. But, with Paul, I see it is a process.
Paul says in our passage today, “I have LEARNED in whatever situation I am to be content.”
The word LEARNED tells us that even for a “super-Apostle” like Paul, contentment wasn’t instantaneous. God trained it into Paul. And Paul was likely still being trained out of a discontent heart until the end of his earthly life. Notice the words, “I AM TO BE content.” Paul doesn’t say, I’ve learned and so now I am content, he says I’ve learned that I am TO BE content, or I should be content.
God is at work throughout our lives in a process called sanctification. It is the process of conforming us to be more and more like our King, Jesus. Jesus was the most perfectly content man ever. He never complained about suffering. He dealt with not having a nice place to call home. He didn’t speak up for better treatment when He was beaten. He carried on through it all, knowing that every step of His journey played a part in God’s plan for His life.
God wants us to learn contentment as well. And as a loving Father, He will use what ever means it takes to get us there. For Paul, God used trials and triumphs to heal his heart. Paul writes, “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.”
The old saying is that you never learn patience by getting what you want when you want it. The same is true for contentment. God allowed Paul to be “brought low” to “face hunger” and “need” in order to allow Paul to deal with those things in a faith-filled way.
Being content doesn’t mean you have to be happy that things are not going well. It means that you aren’t defeated our hopeless about it. Being content doesn’t mean that you don’t ask God to deliver you out of the circumstance, but it does mean that you don’t curse God or complain to others about the problem.
Interestingly, Paul also had to learn contentment by having to deal with “abounding” and having “plenty” and “abundance.”
You may say, that’s no test at all. But look again at our state of frustration, impatience, covetousness, lust and other signs of discontentment in our culture today. The more we get, the more “Abundance” and "Plenty" of food, money, materials, time, etc, the more unhappy we seem to be. It could be argued that the real test of our contentment comes about five minutes after we get what we have always wanted.
Sports stars have been quoted as saying they didn’t know what to do after winning the Super Bowl or other championships, because, that was all they’d hoped for, and once they reached their goal, they had nothing left to look to. Many actors and singers crash and burn and make a shipwreck of their lives AFTER finally making it big for the same reason.
Here in the regular world, it is no different. How many of you were sure you would be happy once you had a car, then you got a car and thought, I’ll be happy once I finish high school, then you graduated and thought, once I get married, then you got married and thought, I’ll really be happy if I can just have some kids, then you had kids and you thought, once they are out of diapers, then doing good in school, then done with school, then off to college, then out on their own… and now you think, I’ll really be happy if they would just call more.
It’s a seemingly endless cycle. But, if you and I can learn what Paul learned, we can escape the cycle. We can be content. Paul finally found his contentment, NOT in more financial support from a church. NOT by finally getting everyone to agree with him and for the church to function at 100% health. No, He found his contentment in Jesus Christ. (If you’ve been reading these articles, I am sure you knew we were going to get to Jesus, right)
Paul writes, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” I can face trials without complaining or losing hope. I can accept triumphs without going crazy. I can face any storm, because I am building my life on the foundation of Jesus’ grace-filled life and death on the cross for me and in the hope of Jesus’ return.
You see, when you focus your heart and mind DAILY on the fact that Jesus loved you in spite of your sin. — And when you remind yourself DAILY that you DESERVED Death and Hell, but you instead get eternal life with God himself — then no earthly struggle is too much to destroy your hope. You can say, with C.J. Mahaney, “I’m doing better than I deserve.”
And, when we focus our hearts and our minds DAILY on the fact that Jesus Christ will one day return and make a final end to sin, suffering and death — And that He will give us resurrection bodies to eternally dwell with Him in Heaven, than in the midst of our best day or our worst day here, we can say with John Piper, “The best is ALWAYS yet to come for the Christian.”
Have you learned that you are to be content in every situation? Where do you still struggle with contentment the most? Who are you going to tell and what are you going to do to overcome it? You can overcome it.
