Apostles Church

Philippians 4:10-13. The average American house size has more than doubled since the 1950s; over past 20 years average food portion sizes have increased dramatically along with the average waist size. We live in a monoculture of more, the days of discontent where satisfaction eludes most of us. Our city is a monument to more. Everywhere we walk, we are sold the story that having is happiness, and the more you have the happier you will be. We are a culture that never seems to have enough; simplicity is shunned and more and better are the desires of the day. The Good Life is believed to be a life of amassing more and ascending higher. And here we have a contrarian’s perspective on the Good Life; a perspective that says the Good Life does not consists in amassing, or ascending, but is found in possessing the grace of contentment.

What is contentment? The word means self-sufficient, independent of circumstances. It doesn’t mean that we never seek to improve our position or condition – we must be good stewards of our lives. It is not a stoic, unfeeling submission to circumstances. It means “joyful Mastery over my circumstances.” Not being mastered by anything but rather being the master of your circumstances; not in the sense of being able to control them, but being free from the control of them. So, to be content, means to be self-sufficient, not dependent upon your circumstances for your disposition, but having a joyful freedom from your circumstances, any circumstance. Paul says, I have learned that in whatever state I am in to be content. Notice the polar circumstances he has experienced: brought low, facing hunger, and in need; and on the other pole: abounding, facing plenty, and having abundance. It did not change his overall disposition. He was in a steady state of peace and joy whether he was comfortable or suffering great pains, whether he was free or in a jail cell where he sits writing this letter. Catch him in the best of times and in the worst of times and he is the same Paul with the same joy and the same peace. There was no foreseeable situation in which he would not be content. He even says earlier in the letter, “to die is gain.” Even the threat of death could not rob him of this contented state. That is freedom; that is the Good Life.
    This is elusive. If I were to poll us today, few of us could say that we are content. We are plagued by unfilled desire and an incessant drive to have more and better and easier. (Being content with discontentment does not count). We might even find it difficult to name someone that we know who is truly content – possessing a steady state of peace and joy independent of circumstances. But, it is a grace we all desperately need. Without it, we will be miserable creatures because our world is a tragic, volatile, place. We have been reminded lately just how quickly circumstances can change – how we can experience a sudden jolt in position or possessions or worldly security. We can be on top one minute and looking up from the bottom the next. And in the midst of this cruel volatility, contentment is a rare jewel that few possess. Few can say, “whether I am abounding or suffering loss, facing hunger or having plenty, I am in the same disposition, content, in a steady state of joy and peace.” Loss and disappointment are inevitable. If we cannot gain mastery over our circumstances and conquer the controlling desire for more and the craving for comfortable, soft living and the incessant need for fulfilled desire, we will be miserable, never at peace. Proverbs 14:30 “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy (unmet desire) makes the bones rot.” Discontentment rots away life, but if we could experience contentment, our lives would flourish. 

Contentment is not the natural condition and response of the human heart. Our disposition heavily depends upon our possessions, position and pleasures. If there is plenty of money, sex, food, drink, toys and praise we are happy. If we are hit with loss, loneliness, lack or failed pursuits we are inclined toward anger, murmuring, complaining, despairing, and fearing. When the world says “yes!” we are joyful; when the world says “no!” our natural tendency is to sulk in sadness, scream in anger, or just slip into quiet despair. So the text says we must learn this contentment. It is something that must be cultivated in us as we open ourselves up to God’s gracious instruction. He is ready to teach it to us, if we are ready to learn it.

Un-Learning Discontentment. We must first unlearn something: “contentment is found in what we do not possess.” Contentment is just one more thing away. This was the lie that our first parents bought – all the trees of the garden, but one tree they could not eat of. That tree was the one they desired and thought would fulfill them. We have been buying that lie ever since. We are like Ahab in 1Kings 21, who possessed the entire Kingdom but was not happy until he could have Naboth’s small little vineyard. So he had Naboth killed to possess it. Contentment is always one more thing away (a relationship, an iphone, a vacation, a raise, a promotion, a meal, a TV...). Illus: Children. How do we unlearn this lie that contentment is found in what we do not possess? Answer: Realize that more and better are insatiable goals incapable of ushering in contentment. Alexander the Great with the world at his feet cries for another world to conquer. The lie says that Contentment is a future possibility dependent upon the attainment of more. It is out there, later. But the text says that contentment can be a present reality, celebration of the right here, now. Many of us spend more time secretly lamenting what we do not have, rather that celebrating what we do have.  We unlearn the lie as we celebrate today the smallest expressions of beauty and goodness that are gifts from God (sight, touch, the smell and taste of food, an autumn breeze, a good book, a child’s laugh, a work of art, music, dance…); cultivate celebration. “Why is it so hard to know quiet joy – or even just a mild satisfaction? You can blame it, in part, on the world we live. The world doesn’t value the father shooting hoops with his kid; it values the NBA multi-zillionaire hitting the three-pointer to win the championship. The world doesn’t value sitting around the front porch; it values the trip to Disney World. The world doesn’t value sacrifice; it values the quest for “fulfillment” – which is always off somewhere else. – Elizabeth Cody Newenhuyse.

Learning Contentment. Contentment is not experienced just by celebrating the good gifts, but ultimately by knowing the Son of God. Verse 13, “I can do all things…” Christ is The Key.  Sports stars quote this all the time. This is not about winning, but about not needing to win; our disposition being independent from winning or losing. We can be independent from our circumstances to the degree that we are Dependent upon risen and reigning Jesus. Paul is saying Christ is strengthening him in the face of suffering, trial, loss and even death giving me contentment and steady joy. Illus: this is why martyrs in the early church could brave death and dance in fire, and why you can face a tumbling economy and have still have rising joy. Christ working powerfully in you sustaining your joy. Christ Strengthens us by Satisfying us. Phil 3:8 Suffered the loss of all things and count them skubala (excrement) that I may gain Christ. Paul is saying, Christ outshines everything so that having Him has made everything else unnecessary. So, whether I have much or little, it doesn’t matter; I am satisfied in Christ. All that He is for me is enough for me. To know this one who possesses fullness of life and indestructible joy; to be in a real experiential relationship with Him where he guides me, instructs me, comforts me, restores me, transforms me making me what I never dreamed I could become, and forgiving and accepting me when I fail to be that; To be used by him to accomplish things that go beyond my natural abilities or courage, to bring his transforming grace to bear upon others – That is Life. That satisfies to the core so that all the external circumstances become irrelevant. This is what God wants for you. He wants you to know Christ as Savior and Risen Lord in an experiential way and be satisfied in him so that, God forbid, if you lost everything, you would have still have Everything. This is what will make you glad and it will glorify Christ as the greatest joy giving treasure in life and increase his renown in our city.

One last key: There are things God intends to give you, but he will not give them to you until you are content without them. Until your heart is still in Jesus, God will not still it with something else. Because only then will you love that gift rightly. You would make it an idol, the source of your joy, and if you ever lost it you would be devastated. So God wants your heart to be still in Christ so that he can give you good gifts without you exalting them to the status of necessary and failing to learn the grace of contentment.

To the degree that I experience all that He is for me as Savior and Lord, is the degree to which I will know contentment.