FULL (CONTENTMENT) Philippians 4:11-12 October 9, 2016

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1 INTRODUCTION: FULL (CONTENTMENT) Philippians 4:11-12 The truth is that times of prosperity and abundance can provide some of the strongest temptations to pull our hearts away from God. Those with wealth are often concerned with gaining even more, rather than living contentedly. It is often difficult for someone in a prosperous condition to truly live as if Christ is enough. If God s pleasure in the Son becomes our pleasure, then the object of our pleasure, Jesus, will be inexhaustible in personal worth. He will never become boring or disappointing or frustrating. John 17:26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." No greater treasure can be conceived than the Son of God. 1

2 Imagine being able to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded energy and passion forever. This is not now our experience. Three things stand in the way of our complete satisfaction in this world. 1. Nothing has a personal worth great enough to meet the deepest longings of our hearts. I have found a desire within myself that no experience in this world can satisfy; the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. C. S. Lewis Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. C. S. Lewis 2. We lack the strength to savor the best treasures to their maximum worth. John Piper 3. Third obstacle to complete satisfaction is that our joys here come to an end. Nothing lasts. But if the aim of Jesus in John 17:26 comes true, all this will change. John Piper Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have. 2

3 Luke 12:15 And He said to them, " Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. " In other words, observe yourselves, keep a jealous eye upon your own hearts, or covetous principles will steal into them; and preserve yourselves keep a strict hand upon your own hearts, to prevent the covetous principles from ruling your heart. Patrick Morley Proverbs 15:16 Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, Than great treasure with trouble. Ecclesiastes 5:12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, Whether he eats little or much; But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep. God wants to provide our needs, but He doesn t want us to live lavishly when our resources could be used to promote His work in the world. Reduce your wants and you will reduce your debt. Reduced debt leads to greater freedom. 3

4 Your choices increase, you can work less, you have less stress, and you can focus on priorities to which you haven t given your best attention. Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. Clearly the roots of unbridled pleasure is not the course that will lead us to where our soul seeks to go. C. S. Lewis rightly observes that this world will offer us all sorts of things or ways that promise to take us to our soul s destination, but they never quite keep to their word. The supposed satisfaction to our deepest longing just fades away something has evaded us. 4

5 In Philippians 4:11-12 Paul speaks of what he learned (to be content, whether full or hungry.) Word means to be initiated into the secret. Through trial and testing, Paul was initiated into the wonderful secret of contentment in spite of poverty or prosperity. This word was used in Greek mystery religions to describe people who had worked their way up through the various lower degrees and had finally been admitted into full possession of the mystery itself. Paul is saying, I have made my way up through the degrees of progressive detachment from the things of the world, its comforts and its discomforts alike, and finally I have reached maturity on this point. I know the secret; circumstances can never again touch me. Paul had learned the lesson. Bit by bit, test by test, circumstance by circumstance, he persevered through the lower degrees until finally graduated and the secret was his. Contentment did not come easily. He purchased it at the price of exacting discipline. Alex Motyer In Acts 20:35 Jesus said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. EXAMPLE: When the offering plate is passed it is easier to not give than to give and its natural not to give. We work to earn not to give. 5

6 But, when we find contentment, not in a place, possession, poverty, but a PERSON, Jesus Christ as Lord (owner, boss, sustainer). Therefore, if you gave when the offering plate passed, something has happened in your heart. The reality of Philippians 4: Philippians 4:17-19 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweetsmelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. PROPER BIBLICAL REASONING FOR GOD S BLESSINGS: We must consider the outward blessings we enjoy in this way. He must regard these things as good tools that allow him the opportunity to do service to God in the place where God has set him. We are to realize they give greater opportunities for service to God than those who are in a more meager condition here. 6

7 1 Timothy 6:17-19 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. A poor man may be as precious to God as you, but it may be that he can do little for Him because he does not have the ability to use outward things the way you do. We ought to be able to say I praise God for those outward blessings, but what causes me to praise God most are the opportunities these things give me to honor His name, opportunities I would not have otherwise. 7