the secret of contentment

Phil. 4: 10-13

Last week I shared with you a message about overcoming anxiety and depression.  And in so doing I also ended up sharing with you some of my personal testimony.  I did so, not to try to elicit some sort of sympathy, but because I felt that having gone through these things, it qualified me to be able to speak to you not just from a theoretical point of view, or even a scholarly point of view, but from the voice of personal experience.

As we discovered last week, the opposite of anxiety and depression is peace.  And in Philippians 4 we find that the God of peace offers us the peace of God, which passes all understanding, to those who have learned to put their trust in God, in spite of whatever circumstances they may find themselves.

So today is really just a continuation of that message.  But what we are going to look at in more detail is how the peace of God is achieved on a practical level.  And Paul tells us here that the peace that God provides is called contentment.

Now, contentment is almost a foreign word in American society today.  We are programmed from birth to be anything but content.  In fact, in our society we tend to look down on people who are content as non achievers, as being practically delinquent.  We are expected to be ambitious, to be climbers, to be striving to get ahead.  That is the American way.

I can remember a couple of job interviews I went to back in my younger days, when I was working in the luxury hotel market.  And during the interview with the general manager or VP of a hotel chain, invariably they would ask the question;  “Where do you see yourself in the next five years?”  And you were expected to give them some sort of answer that showed that you were ambitious, that you had aspirations of climbing to the top.  I found out the hard way that they used that mentality to offer you a carrot on stick and get you to work 6 days a week, 80 hours a week for what amounted to slave wages, in the half promise that if you did a good job you would get a promotion and start your climb through the corporate ranks.

But this is the American way.  Being discontent has become a way of life. Our materialistic culture basically is trying to keep us dissatisfied, so they can sell us a new product.  We haven’t managed to even learn how to use our iphones yet and they are already trying to sell you on a better one.  And unfortunately, we buy into it.  We have created an environment in which we live our lives in expectation of tomorrow.  We buy and borrow and live today in expectation that we will be able to pay for it tomorrow.  Because we are told we really need it today, and so we borrow or put it on credit cards, financing our discontent on the promise of a better tomorrow.  We are bred in discontent, so we leave our wives or our husbands in search of the perfect mate.  We sacrifice homes and families to fulfill our unfulfilled desires that are set aflame by what Hollywood and crass commercialism tells us is necessary for happiness and fulfillment.

Our parents somehow made do with a tiny 3 shoebox houses with one bathroom and yet raised five kids.  They got by with just one car and just one job.  Dad worked 5 days a week, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, and had time on weekends to take us fishing or camping or something.  Mom stayed home and took care of the house and found time to actually keep her own house and cook 99.9% of the meals from scratch.  We had one phone that was tied to the wall.  We had one black and white tv with only 3 channels.  And yet in spite of such deprivation, life wasn’t all that bad.  Today, Dad works 60 hours a week, and also Mom works a 40 hour week because they are convinced they need two incomes.  So they need to hire a maid to come in and clean the house.  They need child care for the kids and put them in every after school program that they can find because they need to work later.  To compensate for all of them going helter skelter in every direction they need to buy a cell phone for everyone in the family.  They need 3 cars, all of them less than 5 years old.  They need to live in a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house with a two car garage, yet they only have 2 kids.  Family dinner is a thing of the past, now it’s in the fridge or on the stove when you get in. They have four tvs and 100 channels and nothing good is on.  They need an average of three computers.  And yet in spite of meeting all these needs, they are still dissatisfied.  The divorce rate is higher than 50%.  Drunkenness and drug addiction among our children is rampant, and as a society we are like a runaway train that is careening off the tracks.

It’s no wonder depression and anxiety are at epidemic proportions.  It’s no wonder that anti depressant anxiety medication is the most commonly prescribed medicine in this country.  It’ no wonder the divorce rate is going through the roof.  And as Christians  we are not immune to this, ladies and gentlemen.  Because we have bought in to the message of the world, which is no less than the message of the devil. Ephesians 2:1 describes this world force that works to bring discontentment.  “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”  This “course of the world” that Paul speaks of the way of the world, being controlled by  thoughts and pursuits designed by the devil to rush men headlong after fleshly gratification which can never satisfy, like a raging river that courses along sweeping everything in it’s path towards destruction.   And as Christians we are not impervious to this current.  It is the nature of this world.  It’s end is destruction, it results in unfullfillment.  There is no real satisfaction that can be found in either our circumstances or in our acquisitions or our indulgences.  It is a rat race, a course designed by the prince of the power of the air, that is Satan, catching us up in a headlong rush to futility and ultimately destruction.

Now that is the way of the world.  It promises happiness but brings distress, dissatisfaction, despair and depression.  But the Bible says the way of godliness brings the peace of God which is contentment. 1Timothy 6:6 says, “But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.”

So Paul gives us in this closing passage of this letter the secret to contentment.  Contentment is something that eludes the world because they are told the wrong way to achieve it.  They are told that it is through acquisition of the latest thing, through acquiring something new, to making it to the next rung on the ladder. But Paul tells us the secret to contentment is contrary to human wisdom but is something that is learned from godly wisdom.  Contentment is learned behavior.

Look at verse 11; Paul has just commended the church at Philippi for sending him a gift, probably a monetary gift and he thanks them, but then he adds, “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.”  Contentment, Paul is saying, can’t be acquired at the mall, it can’t be ordered, it can’t be bought.  It is learned.

The way of the world teaches us that contentment is earned by acquiring - through addition.  But godliness teaches us that contentment is learned through subtraction.  Giving rather than getting. Godliness teaches us that it is better to give than to receive.  The world tells us that we somehow have to live life more fully, to go for it all, to grab everything we want.  Godliness tells us that for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Phil 3:8 tells us that godliness counts “all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

Learning contentment then requires that I retrain my thinking from conformity with the world view to conforming to godliness.  As it says in Romans 12:2 to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, and when I have retrained my mind according to godliness, and no longer trying to  conform to the standards of this world, then comes about the offering I give to God, the sacrifice of my body to be used for His glory and not mine.  This is a radical, life changing departure from the worldly view of life.  But this is the secret of contentment.

Unfortunately, some modern day Christians don’t get this.  They want their cake and to eat it too.  They want the pleasures and treasures that this world offers and they want a God that is nothing more than a genie who is going to help them accomplish all that they wish for.  This isn’t true Christianity. This is little more than idol worship, and you are the idol and God is serving you.  This is the kind of man talked about in 1Tim. 6:5,  “men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”  In other words, these depraved men who are still looking at their lives from a world’s point of view, who think that godliness is a means of gain.  God is just some genie who guarantees our financial  and material success.  But the next verse says, no, but godliness is of great gain when combined with contentment. “For we have 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.  But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

Listen, sanctification is one of those Bible words that are tossed around in church and nobody seems to know what they mean.  But I’ll tell you simply what sanctification means.  It means growing up, maturing.  Salvation is the new birth.  But once you are born into the family of God, the idea isn’t to stay an infant, but to grow into maturity.  And sometimes that can be painful.  One thing for sure, is it is a process.  It’s a process of learning.  Learning to trust in God, learning not to trust in your own understanding of how you think things should be, and learning to accept and embrace the way God wants you to be.

Psalm 131:2 illustrates this idea of maturity.  It says, “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.”  And the illustration is that of a child who has come to a point where he no longer needs milk and is able to rest upon his mother without needing milk anymore.  Now there is nothing sweeter than a baby who suckles his mother’s breast for milk.  But there comes a time when it is time for the baby to grow up and mature, and milk isn’t going to be enough for him anymore.  The baby doesn’t understand this.  He cries and cries and throws a tantrum wanting more milk, and yet the mother knows what is best for him.  If he was able to get what he wanted, his growth would be stunted.  He would never attain the usefulness of an adult.  So his mother weans him off the milk.  It is a painful time for the baby, but it is necessary if he is to grow and mature.  And how necessary is it for us, that when God brings about changes in our lives, many times by taking away something that will keep us from growing and maturing, we cry and cry, thinking we know best.  But God knows best.

I can tell you from my own experience, that my meltdown and descent into depression and anxiety coincided with a process of God taking away things I depended upon.  I don’t know if it always has to be that way, but I’ve found that it often is the way God brings about maturity in a believer.   God takes away  our crutches, things that we lean on, that we have counted on to define ourselves, to measure ourselves by.  God takes them away, one by one, until we learn to lean totally on Jesus Christ.

When I went through the meltdown phase of my depression, I was at the top of my profession.  I appeared regularly on television as an expert in the antiques field.  I was recognized nationally as an authority and someone that had a gift for coming up with what we used to call national treasures.  I had a good career, I made a comfortable six figure income, I had a beautiful house on 8 wooded acres, I had furnished it with all sorts of nice things, I sent my kids to the best private schools, and I had nice new cars.  But when my anxiety reached the point where I couldn’t work anymore I began to see my bills start to mount up.  Debts that I thought I could handle, I couldn’t handle anymore. I began to have serious financial problems on top of all my health problems.  And I can assure you that the first 20 times or so I read through most of the Bible, I was looking for promises from God that He was going to restore my fortunes.   Godliness I thought should have brought about financial gain, not loss.  And I couldn’t understand why God would allow me to lose all that I had worked so hard for.

In my case, it took a few years, but eventually I lost my house that I had built with my own hands.  I lost my career.  I had a lot of very specialized knowledge that wasn’t able to do me any good anymore.   Eventually everything I had was either sold or repossessed.  In five years I went from a six figure a year income to living in a two bedroom crummy apartment that defies description and living below the poverty level.

But I let me tell you what I gained through that loss.  I gained contentment.  I gained the peace of God that passes all comprehension.  I lost a career but I gained a ministry.  I lost my house but I gained a mansion in heaven.  I lost my valuable antiques but I gained treasure in heaven.  I learned contentment from what I lost, what I went through, which taught me that I could trust God in all my circumstances.  That when I reached the end of my extremity, God was sufficient for my needs.

Paul said in vs. 11, that I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  Whatever circumstances I am, God is faithful.  God is my resource.  I have learned I can trust in his providence, and learned not to trust in my resources.

Listen, I don’t think my situation is all that unique.  One way or another, God’s purpose in saving us all is to conform us to the image of Christ.  And that means that if it pleased God to crush His own Son according to Isaiah 53,  so that He might learn obedience from the things He suffered, as it says in Hebrews 5:8, then it stands to reason that no servant is greater than his master, according to John 13:16 and He will use the same suffering to conform us to His image.

Look at Paul’s words in the next verse of our text, Phil. 4:12;  this is the curriculum that we are to learn; “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.”  Paul can say I know contentment because he had come to know Christ.

We looked at what Paul had to say about knowing Christ earlier in our study of  Phil. 3:10.  Paul said, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”  Knowing Christ means knowing the power of his resurrection;  knowing that He lives so that we might have life in His name.  But it is predicated on knowing the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to his death.

And for Paul and for me, knowing the fellowship of his suffering meant that he learned how to get along with humble means, how to live in poverty, how to be hungry, how to rejoice while suffering need.  We don’t have to learn how to get along in prosperity so much, do we?  We don’t have to learn how to deal with abundance so much do we?  But having had those things, we do have to learn how to deal with not having them.  And I can tell you that it is painful.  We cry why Lord?  Why not?  Why can’t I have this thing?  I liked it so much.  I want it so much.  What’s wrong with it?  And maybe the answer is that there isn’t anything wrong with it.  Maybe it was good for a while, but now it is time to move on.  To grow.  To mature.  To get on with the business that we have been called by God to do.  And that is where being conformed to his death comes in.  We have to die to our desires, and learn to accept His will for our lives. His plan, his purposes.

So what’s the secret to contentedness?  It’s found in Phil. 4:13.  But only after we have come to know Phil. 3:10. Because I know Him, I can do all things through Him. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  That is the secret to being hungry, to suffering need, to living in poverty, to being humbled, I can deal with any circumstances I may encounter because I know Him, I have learned to suffer with Him, and I know that when I don’t have any resources I can trust Him to provide for my needs according to his plan for my life.

My suffering teaches me the difference between my needs and my wants. 1Tim. 6:8 “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.”  Because Phil. 4:19 promises that “my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  Therefore, I suffer the loss of all the extra stuff gladly, and consider it but rubbish for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ.

In 2Cor. 12:9 Paul said he was given a thorn in the flesh, to keep from exalting himself.  And through the suffering of this thorn in the flesh Paul finds the secret of contentment.  God said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

But I haven’t learned contentment, until I have reached the end of my resources, the end of my strength, and found that his supply is sufficient for all my needs.  That I can do all things, I can endure all things, through Him who strengthens me.  He supplies just what I need when I rest in dependence solely upon Him.  When I learn that I can trust him no matter what the circumstances, then I have contentment.  That’s the secret to contentment.  Knowing that my efficiency is not dependent on my proficiency, but on His sufficiency.

I leave you this morning with the words of Jesus in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  But let us compose and quiet our soul, like a weaned child on it’s mother’s breast, knowing that God knows best.