The Secret of Contentment

Transcript

GRM 644
6/5/1983
The Secret of Contentment
Philippians 4:10-13
Gil Rugh

Philippians Chapter 4, going to be moving through to the conclusion of the Book in the coming weeks, very significant section as Paul closes out his study of Philippians. Come to a very important section in our study this morning. In effect it is a break in the letter going back to what Paul had been talking about. Here Paul in effect picks up the personal note of the letter. He has been talking about false teachers and false doctrine warning them in Chapter 3. Then down into Chapter 4 he encourages the believers to get along as they should in the Lord and the factions that have contention should resolve their differences and the body should help them resolve their differences.

And that key section in verses 4 through 9; talking about our peace as believers, the privilege we have to live apart from anxiety, to experience the peace of God in every situation that happens as we commit our concerns to God in prayer. We fix our mind on those things which are consistent with the character of God himself and then we put into practice what He has instructed us to do, the result of that is peace.

Come to verse 10 you’ll note it begins with "But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly" and here he’s going to revert to some of the personal things that he had talked about earlier. Back in Chapter 2 he had talked about Epaphroditus and the ministry of Epaphroditus, about Timothy and there was a more of a personal note. The letter closes out with that personal note. The very key emphasis here that is related to what we talked about with the peace of the believer and that is contentment really verses 10 through 13 where we are going to focus our attention today deals on contentment with the believer. Living a life that is characterized by being content and it is a contentment that is not related to circumstances and situations.

I was interested in the cover story of Time Magazine this week and was looking over to again this morning, I encourage you may be to take time some time to glance through that this week. The cover story is on the subject of stress and factors that bring about stress in the life and things that are being done to try to alleviate stress. And as you through that article, you have to sift it through your mind and see the connection with the biblical facts and factors. I am amazed that the very things that are being emphasized to deal with stress are those factors that the Bible has emphasized for century, for us as believers the way we are to live. Now they wouldn’t be quoting Bible verses or saying the Apostle Paul said this, but you’ll see much connection with the factors they are saying ought to be involved in limiting stress and dealing with stress in the life of the very things that Paul talks about when he talks about contentment.

We live in a stressful society. And it was interesting the article was saying that they don’t know whether our society is more stressful than previous societies. They have no way to measure that, but one thing they are sure of that people of our society are not able to cope with and handle the stress. So it is becoming a pervasive problem and a very costly problem physically as well as monetarily. And interesting to see the physical results, physical diseases that are caused or compounded by stress. And we as believers are not immune from stress. We are not immune from the pressures of this life. The pressures of the day in which we live and if we do not handle these pressures in a biblical context, in a biblical way we will suffer the same results in our lives as the non-believer does.

The only problem is it is more frustrating for us as believers because we know that we ought to be functioning biblically. We know that we ought to be enjoying the peace of God. We know that contentment ought to characterize us and so we have an added dimension of stress because when it’s not there, I feel the pressure all the more because then I believe something is wrong with my Christian life. Something’s wrong with me as a believer. I am not what I ought to be and that just compounds the pressure that I feel. So in one sense we as believers are to be those who can live not without stress, but handling stress and pressure in a proper way and when we don’t, the results are probably even aggravated more seriously for us.

So in verses 10 to 13 Paul is going to relate his own contentment. So here you have personal experience if not do as I say not as I do, what Paul is sharing with them what he does and now he lives. And we see as we look at his experience God’s provision for us. Let’s pray together before we look at the details.

Father again we are greatly privileged to come together as a church family to look into your word, to have your spirit instruct us on eternal truth. We consider this matter of personal contentment. Lord, give us open and receptive hearts and minds. Father, make us a people who absorb the truth by our submissiveness to the spirit. Lord our desire is to be a people that magnify you in our lives. Lord we realize that we must live in a way that honors you. Lord thank you for the provision that enables us to live in a stressful society with full contentment in peace. Lord our desire is that every believer experienced this in his own daily life. Pray that I study this morning might move us to that end we ask in Jesus’ name Amen.

In verse 10 Paul begins 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. But that resumes the personal emphasis that is characterized earlier parts of the letter we mentioned back in Chapter 2 beginning with verse 19 down through verse 30 in particular strongly personal section. Here again, now he’s going to talk about what has happened to him and their ministry to him. He says I rejoice or was caused to rejoice, passive voice here, something happened to him. I was made to rejoice in the Lord greatly.

And one of the things ought to note before we go any further is that Paul’s rejoicing here greatly, not just normal but in a great way, only time this particular word for greatly is used in the New Testament. Either way he is caused to rejoice greatly and it was by the actions of the Philippian believers. Now to me that’s significant, that Paul was caused to rejoice by what other believers did. As I study this it made me stop and realize and think again of the important part I play in the joy that other believers have. Now we often emphasize the fact that believers ought to have joy, that we as believers ought to be rejoicing all the time and that’s true. And that’s one of the fruits of the spirit that he produces in the life. But one of the ways that the spirit does this is he uses fellow believers to cause and produce that joy in the power of the spirit.

So Paul wouldn’t discredit the fact that it is the spirit working because he rejoice in the Lord, he recognize the hand of the Lord in what the Philippians did, but nonetheless it was the Philippians and their actions that God used to bring joy to the life of the Apostle Paul. Now you stop and think about that, look around and we see sourpuss Christians. Christians that aren’t characterized by joy that somewhere along the line there’s something lacking and it’s easy to become critical of them and say obviously they have a spiritual problem because spiritual Christians have joy and that’s true, because believers under the control of the spirit have joy. But I must stop and ask is there’s something that God could use me to do to help produce that joy in their lives so that they might say I was caused to rejoice by what Gill did, what that body of believers did.

You see the important part that we play in one another’s lives is as you read this article on stress that I referred to; one of the important things in dealing with stress is that you be involved with other people. Other people be involved with you and there will be a sharing going on in your lives.

You know the Apostle Paul did not function as an island. We have that dangerous tendency as believers as we swing in our pendulum that we get the idea that I am a believer priest, I stand on my own therefore I can stand in isolation. And that is not God’s plan, and believers who become isolated lose the joy that God intends for us to have. He intends for us to be functioning in such a way that we produce joy in one another’s life. There are things that you do for me and to me that cause me to rejoice greatly in the Lord, and my life would be impoverished without that ministry you have to me, and that ought to be true to all of us as believers.

We have to be producing that joy. So as we look around and say well this body doesn’t have the joy that it should, there’s something wrong I need to look at myself and say what am I doing to bring about that joy, to be a producer of joy in others lives. Now be careful there and say, aha! Sit back see that’s what’s wrong with me, I don’t have joy and this body’s fault. You know that’s the way that the flesh wants to turn it around. I knew there was something wrong with you that I am unhappy.

Well Paul doesn’t go that way and neither do the Philippians. It’s a matter of looking to see what I can do to produce joy in you in the power of the spirit, in the Lord, and you to me and if we function that way which is true love in that concern for one another then joy will characterize us all. That’s what Paul says here has happened as a result of the Philippians actions. Now he says I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me that at last is not critical. Comes across that way in English but that’s not its emphasis or importance. It means now with the passing of time they’ve had opportunity again to express their concern for the Apostle Paul that were to revive, you have revived your concern to what that means to flourish or to blossom, be used of a plant, the spring that blossoms forth.

So what he says, your concerned for me as blossom forth like a plant. You can jot down Ezekiel Chapter 17 in verse 24 words used in the Greek translation of this verse. Ezekiel 17:24, it says you make the dry tree flourish, uses the same word, the dry flourish or blossom, that’s the word he uses here. Your concern for me has blossomed. Now we’ll see the Philippians had a concern, they had Paul in their thoughts regularly and now an opportunity came for them to express that concern, that thoughtfulness in a special way and they were ready to take advantage of it to seize the opportunity and when their concern for him blossomed forth, they reached out to him, it caused the Apostle Paul to rejoice.

Your concern for me, that’s one of the key words in Philippians, it’s the word to think or to be minded. It’s the word he translated concern; your thoughts for me have flourished again. So they’d been thinking about Paul in their mind that’s the concern. He’d been on their mind and now it flourishes, they’d taken opportunity.

Now he says, indeed you were concerned before but you lacked opportunity. So you know this concern is thinking about him had continued on in a regular basis. But there had been no opportunity, no season literally for them to express it. So now the right season, the right time had come and they reached out and expressed to him. Now why they hadn’t had opportunity we’re not sure. What we’re talking about here, the concern they expresses of monetary concern, material things. We’re going to be talking about this as we close out the book of Philippians.

Need to see our material things in the context of the spiritual ministry and provision that they really are. It elevate the mundane material into the spiritual realm because they are used under the direction and guidance of the spirit of God again, they accomplish spiritual ends. Here, the concern of the Philippians manifest itself in a monetary or material provision and the Apostle Paul is caused to rejoice in the Lord. Now why hadn’t they had opportunity before? He doesn’t say and we don’t know, it may have been they were too poor. Remember that the Philippian Church is part of Macedonia, and the Macedonians, I want you turn back to Second Corinthians 8. Macedonians were those who gave out of their poverty several years earlier than this letter that Paul is writing for the general collection at Jerusalem for the poor at Jerusalem. So the collection in Second Corinthians 8 is different Paul is making a collection in Second Corinthians 8 for the poor at Jerusalem but you get some insight into the material condition of the Church at Philippi.

Again verse 1 of Second Corinthians 8, now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia. Philippi is one of the churches of Macedonia. That in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints.

Now you get some appreciation of the character of the church at Philippi, characterized by deep poverty and yet begging Paul for the privilege of giving to the poor at Jerusalem. Several years later what do you find, no reason to expect that the monetary or material situation of the church had changed but who gives to the Apostle Paul in time of need? This church that he had characterized as in deep poverty perhaps they were unable to give because of their poverty stricken condition. Perhaps there was no one to take the gift, perhaps they had it, but there was no opportunity.

It’s a long trip over to Rome; you don’t just jump over and take a few hours to go. So for someone to deliver this then we take someone who had the freedom as Epaphroditus evidently did or took to take the extended trip over to Rome where Paul is imprisoned and give the gift and minister to him but whatever the reason they didn’t have the opportunity but you know, as they are concerned in thinking about Paul when God provides the opportunity they are ready to blossom and that’s key.

I don’t have to be concerned about the opportunities God doesn’t give me. What does concern me is I am not ready when he does give the opportunity. So if I am concerned for other believers, if I am thinking about other believers, I am burned for them, I am praying for them, then when God provides the opportunity I am ready. We’ve all had the situation we’ve been a believer very long where there’s been opportunities come up and you miss them and you sit down and look and say, my that was a tremendous opportunity. That would have been just the great time for me to minister to them so what, my mind was someplace else, I hadn’t been thinking about them, so I missed that opportunity for ministry.

Back in Philippians Chapter 4. Now Paul wants to be sure, anytime you talk about money there’s a danger of misunderstanding, we know that. If you know I am going to preach at 35-week series on money you get concerned and you are especially concerned if you are going to bring friends or family or unsaid relatives why, oh they are going to misunderstand if he talks about money and I get concerned if I talk about money they’re not going to understand and my they will misinterpret my motive. Paul’s concerned about that. Here he says oh boy it’s great that you blossomed well shouldn’t the Philippians blossom all the time, therefore be great if they gave to Paul all the time and therefore Paul is just a little bit greedy.

Well, let him explain it and here’s where you see his contentment that you have to admire because he lived it. Not that I speak from want, not that I speak from want; I am not writing to you from poverty, I am not saying this in complimenting you because I have needs although Paul does have needs, he’s imprisoned in Rome and we know from other places about the Apostle Paul’s life. He was a man who lived on what was given to him and I am not writing to you because I expect to be given to, I have a want or need, or poverty for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

Now, couple of things we have to emphasis here the first an overwriting one that leaps out to me is that statement, I have learned to be content. You have to underline that I have learned, I have learned as tremendously encouraging to me. Contentment is not natural to fallen humanity, yet the Apostle Paul writes and says I have learned something. That man threw the process of time functioning in some mission to the spirit through various experiences he had learned to be content. I read that and say oh boy, I am just not like Paul, I just can’t be content you know why, I haven’t learned like Paul have. I haven’t grown like Paul has, that’s not a surely a pleasant experience but he says I have learned to be content and that encourages me because that means that something that I can learn to as a believer as I function biblically.

Now the world cannot, the unbeliever cannot, but I can, I can learn contentment. Now it’s overnight that does not mean that you hear one Sermon, that you go to special meeting and all of a sudden you have contentment. Paul says I learned it that is a process of time in submission to the spirit. Now when he says I have learned to be content, what is contentment as Paul talks about it, well, the word is a compound word. Word self and the word sufficient, we take these words self and the word sufficient they put it together. I have learned to be self sufficient and an interesting thing about the word and you may want to do some study on this word, you’re interested in word studies just to read about the background it’s interesting it was used in stoic philosophy.

Now the stoics, you had a philosophy where they thought that a person ought to cut themselves off from everything. They ought to face the situations of life impassively, so they would try to build themselves up in an attitude of indifference. If something happens here, ignore it and they had a process of telling you how to begin to ignore and being indifferent to the little things and build so that the stoics thought that if you follow this consistently you could come to the point even where our loved one dies in your presence and you will be unmoved. It will have no impact upon you. But you see what the stoics were doing, they were trying to make man less than he really is as a person, Isolate him cut himself off and make him self-sufficient he’s not depended on anyone or anything, we still use this term, he held up stoically in that situation what do they mean, impassively he wasn’t moved or tore apart by he stood through stoically, unmoved, heroically, he didn’t let it get to it.

Now Paul’s not talking about that here he’s talking about being self sufficient but not in of himself. The area he picks up is to be independent of external circumstances, that’s the idea that the stoics were emphasizing to be independent of external circumstances but Paul does that by being depended upon Jesus Christ. And what is going to develop in the next verse is how he was independent of the circumstances. So whether Paul was in poverty or Paul had riches, Paul can honestly say it’s really not an issue regards my contentment, regarding my sufficiency in Christ thus regarding my peace and satisfaction. Whether I am rich, whether I am poor I want you to understand I have learned to be content. Now that’s a remarkable statement especially if you have really learned it. Now we live in a society where that is not learned just the opposite is, we have a society that contentment is found in acquiring and gaining, whether it’s prestige or power, influence, money, security those are the things that bring contentment.

Paul says my contentment has nothing to do with those things. If I have nothing I’m content, if I have riches I am content. Note what he says in verse 12. In the end of verse 11 says I’ve learned to be content in whatever circumstances and he’s going to elaborate whatever circumstances. He does not hedge it, didn’t say I’ve learned to be content in prison, whatever circumstances. I know how to get along with humble means, I also know how to live in prosperity, I think that’s important to note.

Paul says you can live biblically in poverty you can live biblically in prosperity. I say that’s good to know because I’d rather live in prosperity biblically. But you note he says I am content in whatever, he sees God in control and if it’s in poverty I’m content. So you Philippians don’t have to give so the Apostle Paul can be more content. I’m no more content now that I have your gift than I was before I had it because my sufficiency is not related to my things.

So I know how to live in with humble means I know how to live in prosperity. That humble, that word humble is been used before in Philippians back in Chapter 2 in verse 8 it’s used of Christ and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself that’s the word. Humble means Christ humbled himself, loneliness he had nothing he had no place to lay his head, he had no place to call his own, humble, low Paul says I’ve learned how to live with that. I know how to live in prosperity. Apostle Paul evidently had wealth before he was saint, studied at the feet of Gamaliel, famous Jewish teacher. Most writers believe that, that would have been limited to a select few from among the wealthy of the time.

Paul’s position in Judaism Galatians Chapter 1 says he excelled above his contemporaries indicate that he probably was a man of means before his conversion, more probably he’s talking about the fact with the Philippians gift that gives him even more than he needs right now and he knows how to handle that. You know some Christians do okay in poverty, it’s wealth that ruins it. When we were talking at lunch this week with # and talking about what wealth does to Christianity. You know if we were to look at this one of the most difficult things we could say for a believer is to learn how to live with prosperity.

What prosperity does to the church of Jesus Christ, how it takes the edge off our commitment. Now I want to live a balanced life protect what I have, not endanger my position, not endanger my security but still maintain a testimony. We lose something of that abandoned, that all our commitment, that edge, that whatever the cost, whatever it takes I’m going to represent Jesus Christ faithfully and aggressively. Somehow as we rise in success the edge is lost, it’s blunted. We’re talking about various Christianity flourishing today in the world. The wealthy countries, no the poor countries and we look and say my, my, my how can those people live in those conditions and Christianity is sweeping across like a tidal wave but here we’ve all we have which I say we have the resources to fund whatever we want to do in carrying forth the gospel and what happens we’re dying.

We haven’t learned how to live with prosperity and something that has to be learned. So whether its poverty or prosperity Paul says in middle of verse 12 in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret, you have to underline that, I have learned the secret, that’s an expression that we use to people who were initiated in the secret Greek mystery religions, they were the initiators. Paul says I have become the initiator and he knows that he doesn’t say this is something that everybody knows he says I have learned a secret; I have become initiator of being filled and going hungry of having abundance and suffering need.

That’s remarkable, Paul have been initiated into the secret I have learned of secret of being filled, going hungry, having abundance, suffering need the Apostle Paul goes on just like this unmoved, content. What is the secret that comes up in verse 13; I can do all things through him who strengthens me. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. It’s the work of Christ in the life that enables one to be content in every circumstance.

Now that’s crucial, that’s the secret. I can do everything, all things through him who strengthens me. Now you put this in the context if you will. Paul is talking about material physical things on this occasion. He’s not saying that I could be the world’s greatest mathematician because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can be the world’s brilliant scientist because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That context tells us what he is talking about. What is he talking about, living with contentment in whatever circumstance God places me and whether he chooses to keep me poor and in poverty or give me great riches, I can do all things through Christ.

So you see what Paul’s sufficiency is. So he is independent of external circumstances because he is totally dependent upon Jesus Christ. That’s the difference, he didn’t need things he had Christ. Now the world cannot understand that, the world cannot grasp that and we as parents need to be careful as Christians we instill this in our children from the youngest days. What happens to young people today, what is the great problem for them, they come out of the home and what have they come to realize in our homes, that things are important and the faster you can get some things and the more of those things that you can acquire, the better life you are going to have.

And we as Christians often communicate to that our kids and what happens, they come blowing out of our homes into the world and they are not in their early twenties yet and what happens they collapse under a mountain of debt why, well, I know, I know my parents we’ve instilled into them well, if you get a good job and get a good income that’s going to make all the difference in life. And if you can get a nice home and be comfortable and provide for your future and what, they can’t wait to get out there and do it. Reflection on us from where we’re coming from that’s important to the world, It ought to be important to the world, that’s all they have they don’t have Jesus Christ. And apart from Christ they must find contentment in things. When artificial contentment in themselves is the stoics try to do but then they are like a piece of marble and what good are they.

What do we do, what do we communicate to our kids, what are our kids looking for as they leave our home, which is driving them on. Have they seen contentment in us whether it’s poverty or riches how do they hear you talking husband and wife, mother and dad complaining about what you don’t have. Talking about how you really would like to have this, oh boy wouldn’t have been nice to have this. What are we communicating to them; all things would make a difference in my life. Things would make me happier it’s more important if I could drive a new car oh wouldn’t that be wonderful, not that’s only we can enjoy thing as God provides them.

Paul says I know how to live with prosperity doesn’t mean oh I have got a new car and I have to come and say oh well, don’t care about the new car yeah, it’s just a piece of junk. No, I can rejoice in what the Lord provides, I can enjoy what the Lord provides but I need to be careful that I am content in Christ and not in things that my children are learning to be content in Christ not in things, that our lives do not revolve around things, that the goal of my life is not to excel in my job at the cost of everything. And the more money I can make and the more influence I can have all the more happy I will be. You know what happens, kids see through that also. If you tell them you have parents who are wealthy and very miserable, you have parent who are very poor and very miserable, be careful. It’s not just having things, it’s not having things.

Often when we don’t have we manifest our lack of contentment that I should live in this circumstance in this situation, that I should have to drive that rattle trap then you got to tie the door closed, there’s window well, can I be content in Christ? Well, I don’t being complacent. Again I as a man ought to work, I want to apply myself diligently to providing for my family, but I may only be able to provide the very essentials, I may not be able to provide the kind of house that someone else has, the kind of car, the kind of cloths but as I commit myself to doing what God wants me to I can provide your needs.

And if God chooses to give more fine, we content, do we manifest that content? God chooses to take away everything you have this week will it make any difference in your contentment in Christ? If he chooses to give you great riches will you be able to handle it, content in Christ? Now those things are just things, they are there but my relationship is to Christ. My contentment is based on that relationship and that’s where my life centered, and I don’t expect the unbeliever to understand. I don’t expect my unbelieving friends, my unbelieving family to understand. And parents, I don’t know how to stress it, we need to be careful we want the best for our children.

I met a guy in Israel, a delightful person. One of the things he was stressing is I had to struggle in the work and I made up my mind my kids weren’t going to have to do that. You know we develop that Idea, we want to shelter and protect our kids. So I want to be sure I provide everything for them so they don’t have to have as hard as I did. What do we telling them, contentment is found in things. I hope my children, if they get nothing else from me as a father and as a parent learned that contentment is found in Christ and not in things, that our family could be just as happy, just as content in Christ if we had nothing or if we have millions.

So Paul says I have learned verse 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Paul learned that, how did you learned that? Read Second Corinthians Chapter 11 beatings, imprisonments, being impoverish, going without, being hungry, not having a place of his own, what did Paul have for retirement? I mean it is a little bit foolish you just can’t treat the world when he was 90 you know, didn’t have to worry about, that did he? God is going to take him home before that. He was secure in Christ, he learned it through the hard times, that’s how you learn it, that’s why I say contentment is not necessarily something we want because when I am going through the hard times that’s when I say I am going to trust Christ in this circumstance. I am going to trust his sufficiency, his enablement he’s adequate for me.

And if you only provide a loaf of bread for this evening I’ll trust him, and as I trust him that’s where I find him as adequate and sufficient. He strengthens me and you know what am I learning, contentment. I am learning to be sufficient in him, that’s all Paul learned said, oh, I want to be like Paul, but wait a minute I had a crisis in my life, I lose my job, I take a 50% cut in salary, whatever all of a sudden what I am restless why, is not Christ adequate anymore, yes. Can you be content in him, sufficient in him, oh yes, so put it in to practice. Why you’d just assume be sufficient in him in wealth? But if I can’t be sufficient in him in poverty, I can’t handle the wealth either.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Just a couple of verses in closing look back in Second Corinthians Chapter 3. Now I had to be amazed as I studied this and prepared for this study today and how simple this is. I think here you’ve got in the world the greatest minds trying to cope with the issue of stress, dealing with the subject of contentment and here we have such simple truth. Say oh my, that’s so easy; it’s so simple, not necessarily easy.

Second Corinthians Chapter 3 verse 5. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves but our adequacy is from God. Now here he’s talking about in the ministry of the word of God. Over in Philippians 4 he was talking about material things but whatever area you move into you see it’s a spiritual issue, sufficiency in Christ, adequacy in Christ who makes us adequate, who makes us sufficient in whatever the situation.

Look over in Second Corinthians 9. I used this same word for self-sufficient that we have translated content in Philippians 4. In Second Corinthians 9 verse 8. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, now he’s in here in the context again a physical thing, giving material things. God is enabled to make all grace abound toward you. His unmerited favor overflows to us so that always having all sufficiency, you know as the word translated as content in Philippians 4, in all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed and you know the all’s and every’s in that verse.

God’s grace are balanced that he makes us self-sufficient, that self-sufficiency is in the context of his grace, sufficient in him in everything for every good deed and that’s another encouraging we had an emphasis on giving in recent months. You know some people say oh, I wish I had more to give but you know the need that we had was more than met. When each of us gave as God enabled us in his grace and some are in a position that at that time they couldn’t give anything. Some are in a position they could give much and most some were in between, but what the need was now. God doesn’t ask me to do what someone else does he ask me to do what I can do as he provides in his grace. All sufficiency in his grace, in every situation so I don’t have to sit back in a circumstances and say oh, if I was only and I can say well, in this circumstance and situation God’s grace is adequate to enable me, to do whatever he wants me to do not necessarily whatever I want to do but whatever he wants me to do.

One other passage over in First Timothy Chapter 6, First Timothy Chapter 6. He again uses the same word self-sufficient or content. First Timothy chapter 6, here he’s warning about the danger of lack of contentment, the desire for gain and in verse 6 of First Timothy 6 but Godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment, contentment, godliness is gain. In Christ you can be content we all can understand that. They look and say how can you be satisfied living in that shack? How could you be happy watching a black and white TV of all things? They don’t understand it, don’t understand in Christ Godliness I have great gain with contentment.

Remind you if we brought nothing into the world so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering with these we shall be content. God provides the basics when we get into trouble is we want to move beyond that. I want my new house and I want it yesterday, I want my new car and I want it today. I want this and I want it now and the world provides me that doesn’t it? So I get these little plastic cards. Get it today, and with all these ads on TV you watch them and how many of them talk about, try to show how happy you are. Everybody is happy when they get their new car and all the neighbors are envious. If it’s happy when you’re having a beer party or whatever, and here you can have it now and when they want to advertise on TV they will even take your master card number call this number, toll free and give them your what, you got to do it now, pay later, danger.

Those who want to get rich fall into temptation, a snare many foolish and harmful desires plunge men into ruin and destruction. The love of money are root of all sorts of evil some by longing for have wandered away from the faith pierce themselves many a time don’t say money, it says the love of money. God’s blessed you with great wealth you can praise him for and your responsibility is to be sufficient in Christ and not in your wealth to use your wealth in accordance with his will for you. If God has given you nothing, your responsibility is the same to be sufficient in him and use the little he gives you wisely to meet the needs that you have, it takes the pressure off doesn’t it?

You know Socrates had a statement that went to the effect "He is richest who is satisfied with least." "He is richest who is satisfied with least" you know why, that person not always driven for the next thing not something else, something a little newer, something a little bigger, something a little more expensive to be satisfied with what I have in Christ makes a difference. You have contentment in him, have you learned to be content, content in Christ that he’s sufficient doesn’t matter what I have, how much I have or how little I have, I am content in him.

If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, you can’t have that apart from Christ. But God offers it is a free and gracious gift isn’t amazing? People of the world would devote themselves 18 hours a day, seven days a week to trying to acquire contentment and God offers it as a gift. His peace, his satisfaction to any who will believe in his son Jesus Christ as the one who died to pay the penalty for sin, who has raised from the dead because the penalty had been paid. You say oh no, no I won’t take it but they’ll drive themselves on to an early grave looking for that contentment, that satisfaction, that peace that can only be found in the gift of God, which is his son Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray together. Father, how we praise you today for contentment in Christ. Lord, the fact that we are self-sufficient not in ourselves but in him. Lord, we praise you for such grace and the burden that we have is that we as believers be enjoying this contentment. Father, with the pressures of the world the allurements of the world; Lord there’s constantly the danger that we would reach out, lust for something else and something more, covet that which we don’t have. Lord, be let astray from the faith be brought to ruin. Lord, pray that we as believers, my focus or attention upon Jesus Christ, the sufficiency we have in him. Lord that we might be a people who are content. Lord, not depending on circumstances but depending upon the savior.

Lord, I pray for those who may be here today great pressures in their lives, great burdens; Lord for those of them who are your children pray that even this study together might be part of the process of learning contentment. Lord, for those who are here are not believers in Christ cause them to see the utility of life apart from him who makes life meaningful. We pray in His name, amen.