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Learning To Be Content - Philippians 4:10-13

By Mike Osborne | May 25, 2007

(Read story about Hofus the Stonecutter)

Introduction:
• Are you like Hofus the Stonecutter?
• Or like Paul, who says in vs. 11 – “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”

I want to say 3 things about contentment:
• It’s unusual.
• It’s unnatural.
• But it’s available.

I. Contentment is unusual – Paul says in vs. 12, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
• Wow! How many people do you know that can say that and really mean it?
• Joke: We’re more like the monk I heard about one time… There was this monastery where the monks were only allowed to talk once a year to the priest. They could only say two words.
 This new monk arrived, and the priest told him about the policy and the monk agreed.
 After the first year, the monk said in a sad voice, “Bed hard.”
 The priest frowned at him and ushered him away.
 The next year the poor monk said in a sad voice, “Food cold.”
 The priest scowled at him and told him to go away back to work.
 The next year the monk said in a sad voice, “I quit.” The priest suddenly shouted, “Good! You’ve been here three years and all you’ve done is complain!”

A. Maybe we should stop right here and ask, “What is contentment?”

• For now let’s call it a quietness of spirit…a satisfied outlook on the life you’ve been given…a deep sense of peace whatever your condition and whatever your circumstances.
• The word in the original means “to have enough, to have a sufficiency.”

B. But I want to say: contentment is not the same thing as complacency.

• Paul is not teaching us to be like the Stoics, who just don’t care about their circumstances. Contentment does not mean that you should accept absolutely everything and not care about anything.
• Last week I said there’s a good kind of worry…today I’m saying that there’s a good kind of discontent…a “holy discontent,” you might say.
• And some of you need it!
• There are some things you can and ought to try to change.
• It’s good to dream, it’s good to be ambitious, it’s commendable to better your circumstances if you can.
• Take Paul, for example. In vs. 10 he says in a very tactful way that he’s glad the Philippians finally sent him some money!
• He’s stuck in a Roman prison, but he’s not just resigned to a life behind bars. Over in chapter 2 he said, “I am confident that I’ll come see you soon.” I’m sure that if there had been a legal way for Paul to get out of prison, he would have taken it.
• So it’s OK to try to get a better job, it’s OK to move to a newer house if you have the means, it’s OK to date and pray for a husband or a wife if you’re not married, etc.

C. But once legitimate effort has been made to improve your lot in life, then you are called to be satisfied, to be thankful, to be content with what God provides.
• Illus.: The Forrest Gump attitude – “Life is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re gonna get” – but you take it with gratitude.

D. And that’s what I’m saying is very unusual. We know this from our own experience.

• Don’t you find it hard to be satisfied?
• It seems to be a universal malady.
• Either it’s too hot or it’s too cold (well, maybe not in Florida!)… either it’s too dry or too rainy…either we’re too old or too young…single people wish they were married and married people wish they were single…tall people wish they were shorter and short people wish they were taller…
• Products have to be new & improved…TV screens have to be bigger and sharper…computers have to be faster and cheaper…
• It’s the American way, and it’s not bad – but it’s dangerous – it’s addictive. Capitalism (a good thing) has given birth to commercialism (a bad thing), which has given birth to greed and covetousness (idolatry).
• We’re never satisfied.
• We’re a lot like Donald Trump. In his book Surviving at the Top, he writes, “For me, the important thing is the getting, not the having.”
• Contentment is unusual.

II. Contentment is unnatural – Paul says in vs. 11, “I have learned to be content.” And he says it again in vs. 12, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.”

A. Paul had to go through the school of suffering and learn contentment. It didn’t come naturally to him…just as it doesn’t come naturally to any one of us. Why is that?

B. Because we lost it in the Garden of Eden.
• See, before the fall (Genesis 1-2), Adam & Eve had that quietness of spirit we’re talking about. They were full of God, they were content with each other and content with their world.
• But when they sinned (Genesis 3), something at the core of Adam & Eve changed forever. They became restless, frustrated, discontent. In fact it could be said that discontent WAS the first sin. They weren’t satisfied with the billion trees they’d been given in the Garden; they wanted the one tree that was forbidden. They weren’t content being children of God; they wanted to BE God.
• And as a result of their disobedience, they “died” spiritually. The direct link they had to God was broken. Their sacred romance with God was over. Their hearts were now divided. They knew they needed God, but they gave their hearts to other lovers. God became one of many competing values and objects. Like the prophet Jeremiah would say centuries later, they forsook God, the fountain of living water, and made for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that could hold no water.
• And they handed this restlessness, this bent toward spiritual adultery, down to you and me.
• As that great theologian Bruce Springsteen once said, “Everybody’s got a hungry heart.”
• Corbin Carnell in his book on C. S. Lewis - “we are haunted by unquenchable longings.”

C. Now listen, this is very important: What you do with those longings is what distinguishes a Christian from a non-Christian.
• See, everyone has longings. Everyone has desires.
• The difference is, the non-Christian keeps looking to people & things to satisfy those longings; and the Christian looks to Jesus to satisfy those longings, because he or she knows that no one and no thing on this planet is capable of filling up the human heart.
• Discontent says, “If I can just keep changing my circumstances, I’ll eventually be happy. Maybe if I move to another neighborhood or another city…maybe if I get a divorce I’ll be able to start over again…maybe if I go shopping I’ll feel better about myself…maybe if we have a child I’ll feel more purposeful…maybe when our kids go off to college we can have a marriage like we’ve always wanted…if only I had a better job…if only I were smarter, or more handsome, or more beautiful, or richer, or … you fill in the blank.”
• That’s what Discontent says. It’s the myth of the “greener grass.”
• Contentment says, “None of those improved circumstances will take the place of what is really missing in my heart. What I need is Christ. He’s the One I’m crying out for. He’s the One I need. And if I have Him, then I can be content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
• St. Augustine – “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”
Maybe you’ve come here today and your heart feels empty. You’ve tried this and that, to no avail. You think, “I’ll never be happy. I’m just like Hofus the Stonecutter… My past is a mess, my family’s a mess, I don’t know what I’m doing, where I’m going, I’m just a hopeless case.”

I want you to know, contentment is not just unusual and unnatural…

III. Contentment is available

A. It’s available to you because Jesus Christ is available to you – vs. 13 – “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”
• Literally, “All things I can do IN HIM who strengthens me.”
• “I can make the best of any situation — in Christ.”
• “I can be happy wherever I am — in Christ.”
• “I can love my wife in Christ, w/o trying to change her.”
• “I can love my husband in Christ, w/o trying to control him.”
• “I can honor my parents — in Christ.”
• “I can give away my money — in Christ.”
• “I can enjoy my little apartment — in Christ.”
• “I can use my job for the glory of God — in Christ.”

B. Jesus died on the cross not just to forgive us, but to live in us and take us back to Eden, where we can once again have a sacred romance with God.

C. You don’t have to live restless, and frustrated, and self-centered, and bitter. In Christ, you can learn the secret of contentment like Paul did.

D. How? (5 things that start with “s”)

1. Stop grumbling.

2. Surrender your will to God’s.
• Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done.”

3. Subtract, rather than add. (Jeremiah Burroughs)
• Instead of adding things, adding activities, adding noise, adding busyness hoping to find contentment….find it by subtracting desires, and bring your desire level down to what you already have.

4. Soak yourself in vs. 13: “I can do all things…”
• SAY IT WITH ME…
• Memorize it.
• Think about it during the day.
• Preach it to yourself.

5. Seek after God…what do I mean by that? I simply mean go to Him, all through the day. When you’re empty, go to Him. When you’re worried, go to Him. When you’re uptight, go to Him.
• Psa 63:1-5 – “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.”

Topics: Philippians |

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