Sermon: "Contentment in All Circumstances"

Ninth in the "Philippians" series.
Delivered August 13, 2006 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

Theme: Contentment is a big issue. We live in an environment that constantly works to help us be discontent, so that they can keep selling us stuff. Just making a decision to follow Jesus doesn't totally fix all that part of us that is tempted to become discontent. Paul doesn't have 7 secrets of contentment. Only one - Christ. Christ who gives us strength.

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Last week we had a good time together as a staff team with volunteers, hearing some great teaching. It was a really motivating time together. A time to get a sense of an incredible challenge that God gives us as Christian leaders, but in all of those presentations we didn't get any secrets and we like secrets. People like secrets. Most of us like it when somebody comes and tell us something special; something that nobody else can know. And so you know you get somebody come up and they whisper to you, "Nobody else knows this, but did you know that such and such?" And there is a part of us that kind of likes it, likes being on the inside track. Secrets sell books. I went to Amazon.com and typed in "secrets of," hit enter: 37,190 book titles came up. I didn't look at them all. It's obviously something that people connect with. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Secrets of Longevity. A related book, Ancient Secrets of the Fountain of Youth. There are a few strange ones out there. Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, okay? How to calm, connect and communicate with your baby. There is one or two that are downright scary. Leadership secrets of Atilla the Hun. We are going to run the staff through that this fall. I think it is going to remake this church.

I think one of the reasons that we like the idea of learning a secret; one of the reasons the staff team maybe would have loved to hear some secrets during the leadership training is because we feel like if we learn a secret, it's going to be easier. That is what we want. We want it to be easier. Take a look at this book here; Seven Secrets of Slim People. Now you know that if you buy that book it's because you want something easy, but let's face it in that book and I haven't read it, but it probably says that slim people eat less, eat better and exercise more. Now you know, that's not what I am paying money for. The Secrets of Happily Married Men. Eight ways to Win Your Wife's Heart Forever. Now I want you to know and I am fairly confident of this, every man who buys that is looking for eight things he can do one time and his wife is going to love him forever. He can be a jerk after that, but I have done the eight. We want it to be easy.

Well in today's passage Paul is going to share with us a secret. It's a life size secret because we have real problems that need real answers. We want it to be easy, but what Paul is going to share with us is simple, but it's not easy, because it is still going to require us to face life as it really is. But in it he has a secret for us. We have a problem. We have a problem of how to survive, how to thrive, how to be content in all the mess of what life really is. This is a problem. We all face it. Contentment; to have that peace and settleness in our hearts despite what's happening to us. This is a real issue for us because we live in an environment and a whole society that's constantly working to make us discontent. That is how they sell products to us. The reason why I have to get new shirts is not always because I have outgrown them or because I have worn them out, but sometimes they are not just the right color anymore, the collars are not the right size, the ties I have don't look right. We buy because we are not content with what we have; it's not right for now, we have moved on to something new, something that will satisfy us. Our whole society is based on that.

And there is a part inside of us that even though we have become a Christian, still is willing to be discontent very easily. Change something in our environment and it's so easy to get angry and react to that. And so we ride a roller-coaster in life. Everything that changes changes what's inside of us and life doesn't cooperate, because life is always throwing stuff at us that's really hard to accept. Some really difficult things come as we live. There are tensions in our families, very real tensions that we are living with. There are illnesses out there. It might be us, it might be our spouse, it might be our parents, it might even be our children. How can you be content when life is throwing something like that at you. We have terrible accidents that change things forever. We lose our jobs and things don't immediately resolve and we don't immediately find another one. We carry financial pressures over long periods of time and we just don't seem to be able to get out from underneath it. How can you be content in life when life is like that?

Let's take a look at what Paul says, because Paul wants to share a secret with us. It comes at the end of the Book of Philippians. We have been looking at the Book of Philippians now for a number of weeks and this is the final week. We are closing down. We are going to read all of the words at the end of the chapter and finish up looking at this letter that Paul wrote to people that he deeply loved. I am going to begin at Verse 10 of Chapter 4.

"I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. 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. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send greetings. All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen."

Let's pray. God, help us to just hear from your word, speak to us through your Holy Spirit whatever we individually need to hear and whatever we need to hear together, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Well there is no possible way that I can cover all of the things that are in these final words of this Book of Philippians. But in it are just a few verses beginning around Verse 11 that I want to look at and I am just going to look at 2 or 3 verses and spend all of our time there today as we finish up this series on Philippians. The particular verses that I have picked out are really interesting because in these verses Paul uses two words that are used nowhere else in the New Testament. That's always interesting to be in a spot where a totally unique word is being used. This happens twice in two verses. And as we look at those verses we will get a feeling and an understanding of what Paul is trying to teach us.

The first one that I want to look at is in Verse 12 and in Verse 12 it says this, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation." The unique word there is "I have learned the secret," that's one word in Greek. I have learned the secret and that particular word comes from the mystery religions of Paul's time. Now the thing about a mystery religion was that they had all kinds of secret rites that you only learned when you joined and went through their initiation rites, special symbolic events that happened. So you came in to the group and those who were a part of the group would teach you secret words, a secret history, secret heroes, a different way of viewing the whole world and when you learned these secret things you became a member. And so, once you had learned them, once you had been initiated, once you had been instructed you would say to someone else, "I have learned the secrets." That's the term they would have used. And so, Paul says that he has learned something that many people don't know; that he has been initiated into something that explains to him, that connects him with the core things about the world and reality. But what is it? What is this thing that Paul has learned, what is this mystery?

That brings us to the next unique word that's in this passage. It comes in Verse 11. In Verse 11 it says, "I have learned to be content." The unique word there is content. It's an unusual word for a Christian to use because it comes from stoic philosophy. Paul here is using one of the great words of Pagan ethics: autarkas and that word means to be entirely self-sufficient. What is Paul driving at? Let's first look at what the stoics meant by it and then we will compare it to what Paul meant. Self sufficiency was the highest aim of the stoics. In stoic thinking it meant a state of mind in which a person was absolutely independent of all things and all people and they proposed to reach this by certain pathways in life.

And they proposed to reach that by first eliminating all desire. That is the first thing that they wanted to do. Now the right thinking of the stoics is that you can't be content by simply feeding discontent. You know, I am feeling pretty good, but I will feel better if I get a bigger house, a better car, a new outfit, a new hair color and then we get all of that to happen and we feel good for a little while, but now I have got to get a bigger house, a bigger car. They knew that you couldn't continue to try to go up that path, that instead of life going up and down you can't just keep it from going down, by keeping on adding more and more material things. The stoics knew that and so what they said was contentment didn't consist in possessing much, but in wanting little and so this is a quote from them. "If you want to make a person happy, don't add to someone's possessions, but take away from their desires." That was part of their thinking. And that is still part of the thinking of major world religions like Buddhism. Zen Buddhism works at eliminating all desire.

The other thing they were out to do was to eliminate all emotion; to get people to a point where they didn't care what happened to themselves or to other people. So Epiptafis, one of their teachers said this, "Begin with a cup or a household utensil and if it breaks say I don't care, then go on to a horse or a pet dog and if anything happens to it say, I don't care. Go on to yourself, if you are hurt or injured in any way say, I don't care. And if you go on long enough and if you try hard enough you will come to a stage where you can watch your nearest and dearest suffer and die and say, I don't care." That is what they were shooting for; to abolish every feeling in the human heart and to do it by a supreme act of will.

Paul uses that word, but Paul uses it differently because Paul cannot and does not mean the elimination of all emotion and desire, because Paul really cared for other people. The book we read, Philippians, a few weeks back when we were looking at it, we were in Chapter 1 and in Chapter 1 when we began in Verse 3 it says, "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now". Being confident of this, that he would begin a good work and you will carry it on until completion until the day of Christ. Verse 7, "Its right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my hearts." Paul cares. Paul loves. Paul is deeply invested in the lives of these people and prays for them and his joy wells up as he thinks about them. So Paul is not talking about not caring when he uses this word for contentment.

But there is a point where his meaning intersects with that of the stoics; because what Paul is talking about is that there is a place in life where we can live independently of our circumstances, that there can be a peace, a stability in us, a sense of contentment and joy that's not related to all the things that are carrying us up and down in life. Now the way that Paul says that he says, I learned how to be content in good times and in bad, rich times and in poor, when I am hungry and when I am feasting. In all of these kinds of times, I have learned how to have a sense of wholeness that's independent of all of that. I have learned the secret of having all of these kinds of things happening, and despite all of that, being free inside, being whole, being safe. Now, do you want that?

Do you like being buffeted by life? Riding that roller-coaster, every time something good happens, going up. Every time something bad happens you start screaming down. Is that the way that we want to live forever? Or do we really feel like, no we don't want to live that kind of life. The way we are going to live is we know that if we start going down we are going to feel bad, so we are going to go up forever. So I am going to make big money. I am going to buy all of those things. I am going to be famous. I am going to be powerful, that is what's going to fill me because I am just going to keep on going up. Do you really think that is possible? Do you really think that is going to be an answer? Or maybe like the stoics, you know you can't keep on going up forever and you know there is going to be a time when you are going down, but you are going to protect your heart from that. You are not going to care. You are not going to extend yourself to these people that are hurt. Yes, my mom is 1,000 miles away and I don't have to think about her. My neighbor, yeah I know they are having trouble, but I don't have enough of me to reach out. Is that the answer? To not care?

Paul says no. None of these things work, but he is willing to share with us a secret. It's simple. It's not complicated, but it's not easy, because Paul's secret still means we are going to have to live through the ups and downs of life. But it does work. It worked for him again and again in beatings, in shipwrecks, in hunger, in sorrows that he faced. It worked for those Christians who had to face wild animals in the arena. It worked for missionaries who went out to places not knowing if they would live or die, leaving all that they knew behind them. It's worked for people again and again in life as they faced crises in life and faced difficulty and hardship in fellowship with God. And it has worked here.

Let's take a look at it. Its in Verse 13. "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Let's look at that closely for a moment. "I can do everything;" not "I will escape everything." We will go in to deep water. We will go in to fiery trials, but I can prevail. I can do everything. I can face everything and it can be well with me in the deepest parts of who I am. Yes I will be upset. Yes I will be grieving. Yes I will be struggling hard. Yes there will be fears, but in the core of who I am, I can be well and whole and safe. I can have power to live through whatever I have to face. No matter what happens, I can do everything. That is how Paul begins his secret. I can do everything through Christ, through him. So Paul's secret is a relationship. It's a person. It's no technique. It's not rules. It's no mind game. It's a person. It's a person outside of ourselves who is there with us. Paul is not sharing with us eight secrets for a happy Christian; seven secrets to be a content Christian. That is not what he is saying. He is sharing with us one secret, one secret only: a person, Jesus Christ. A relationship with the living Christ who loves us.

When we were alienated from God and enemies, the biggest issue in human life, the biggest danger, the biggest thing that will crash it all, is that we don't have a right relationship with God. That is what will truly destroy everything. And the cost for dealing with that is immense and yet that is what Jesus tackles first. The biggest problem in human life; he suffers in our place. He pays the bill for us; to deal with the only thing that is ultimately going to destroy us. He has done it. Now if he has done it, if he has dealt with the only thing that can truly destroy us, will he not be with us in the other things that threaten us. Doesn't he love us that much? The living Christ who reigns right now in power, who is in control of all things, Christ who is with us, Christ who is for us, Christ who is inside of us, this Christ Paul says gives us strength. That is how the verse ends. It's not something that we have earned. It's not something that we build up to. There is real power, real strength that is given to us, but it does require some response from us, but it's a very simple one.

When you are coming up on a busy intersection and there is all kinds of dangers and you have a small child with you, at that point as a parent you make sure that you have got a good hold on their hand. In times of difficulty, all God is looking for is that we leave our hand in his. He will reach out first. He will grab us and let's not be like the 3-year-old that pulls the hand out at a dangerous moment. We will have everything we need. As we choose to look to God, as we stay close, as we hold on, as we are in this living relationship with God, with our eyes on God, and our hearts open to God, our hand still in God's hand, as he grabs it firmly, then power is given, grace to supply all our need. We will not crack and splinter. We will not fall apart and we might not have that strength one day early and it might not last one day more than we need it, but the promise is there that the strength will be there. Strength. Secret strength. Strength from a relationship with God. That is the secret.

Now right now in a sermon this would normally be the spot where I would tell you some great story about somebody who lived this out so that we could see how this worked out in a real person's life, but I can't do that. I can't tell you that story because that story is being written right now in the lives of people in this congregation. There are people among us who have faced sorrows and difficulties and challenges that I can't imagine. They survived. Their faith survived. God was faithful. There are people who are facing difficulties right now in family, in illness, in accidents, in finances, in jobs and right now that story is being written out; a story about God's faithfulness in you. And I am watching you. And your brothers and sisters are watching you, because we can see in you that God is being faithful. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. You are doing all things. You are facing all things right now through Christ who strengthens you and I would like to thank God together for God's faithfulness among us.

Let's pray. Gracious God, we don't have any great spiritual muscle to bring to life and there are some real hard things that surround us or that we faced in the past. Thank you that as we reach those difficult times when we reach our limits that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. So teach us now God how not to pull our hand away from yours, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

© 2006, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org