Be Content 04.26.20

Philippians 4: 11-13 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. English Standard Version

• Everyone faces troubles…problems…difficult days, weeks, months and even years.
• We may think some have it made…sweet lives: don’t fool yourselves.
• As children of God…born again…Christians
  • We are not promised easy or simple…lives devoid of heartache and pain.
  • But we are promised peace…and the ability to live our lives in hope.
• Hope does not disappoint…and in Christ we can learn the ‘secret’ of being content.

Let’s remind ourselves today that no matter what we face or what circumstances we find ourselves in, we can face them with hope and an absolute sense of contentment.

• We got to learn to be content
  • Paul did not focus on what he did not have…’not that I was ever in need’
    • Here is a man in prison
    • A man that has endured more hardship than the Chicago Cubs
      • Imprisoned, beaten until almost dead, lashed 5 times, 3 times beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked, adrift at sea, in danger from rivers, robbers; endangered from the Jews and Gentiles; danger in the city, in the wilderness, at sea; sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, without food often; in cold and exposure.
    • Yet he can say…
      • Not that I was ever in need
      • Or in 2 Corinthians he calls all of this light and momentary afflictions

• • What do we focus on? What ‘cares’ take up our attention?
    • But we are also told not to let these ‘cares’ take us away from our God
      • Matthew 6: 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
      • ‘Care’…to cut the heart in pieces
      • Worry…and worry takes our eyes off of Jesus and plants them firmly on both the problem/circumstance and our own abilities to take care of them.
  • We learn..the Holy Spirit is out teacher
    • By experience…by discovery…all the time listening to that still small voice…the Word
    • James 1: 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
    • Not just head knowledge…but the battle knowledge learned by the fight
    • Paul listed the battles and fights that the Holy Spirit used to teach him…he learned
  • So in the midst…we become content…literally ‘sufficient to self’. Live independently of all external circumstances and independent of all people and things
    • • Contentment is not a natural attainment but a supernatural gift from our Father God for His children.
        • It is an:
          • Attitude
          • State of mind
          • State of the heart
          • A knowing that it will be okay
      • Romans 8: 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

• And live content live because of the power of Christ in us (greater is he that is in me than He that is in the world.
  • I can do all things:
    • Paul knew that God was able to change his circumstances, but that He was much more interested in changing Paul and this is still His desire for His children.
    • 2 Corinthians 3: 4-6 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

• • • Whatever Christ has for you to do, He will supply the power. Whatever gift He gives you, He will give the power to exercise that gift.

• • • Let me put this teaching in one sentence: Through Jesus Christ you can do everything God wants you to do this year. You can face everything he wants you to face, you can fight every battle he wants you to fight, you can obey every command, you can endure every trial, and you can overcome every temptation through Jesus Christ. (Ray Pritchard…Philippians 4:13: One Word You Shouldn’t Say In 1993)

• • …through Him who strengthens me.
    • In Him…John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
    • To abide in me’ expresses the continual act by which the Christian sets aside everything which he might derive from his own wisdom, strength, merit, to draw all from Christ.

• • • Gal. 2: 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

• • • Strengthens…endunamoo
      • Endunamoo means “to put power in” and so to make strong, vigorous, to strengthen, or to be strengthened, enabled or empowered inwardly.
      • Infuses strength into me.
      • Infuse: to cause to be permeated with something else…resulting in an alteration which is usually for the better.

To truly walk in ‘contentment’.

• First…nowhere does the Bible suggest that we should be content with unsatisfactory conditions…BUT
• Because we are ‘in’ Christ we can be content in them
• We learn lessons through difficult times…we learn and we change
• Contentment does not depend on:
  • What we have…depends on who we are
  • A spiritual attainment…not something we can contrive or create in ourselves