I'd like to have you turn in your Bibles this evening to Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul's letter to the Philippians. Children, if you want to find that quickly in your Bible, your mom and dad can teach you the General Electric Power Company trick. Pastor Kamega taught that to me as an adult, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. GEPC, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. You'll find that after 1 and 2 Corinthians. If you want to go straight to the page number in the pew, it's 1250. Chapter 4 of Philippians. Well, as we step out of 2015 into 2016, I was reading my weekly news magazine called The Week, and they asked the question, how are you feeling? How are you feeling? The surveys say that most Americans are feeling pretty dismal. Something near 70%. We fear terrorism and worry about the state of the economy, but we hope for divine intervention in our football teams. That's what the numbers say. But how are you feeling? Where are you in those numbers? How do you feel about me asking you how you are feeling? It's a question that you may not like. It's the facts that matter. What's it matter what I feel about them? It might offend you. It's a question that you might even want to dodge with that invisibility cloak. I'm fine. Don't show anything to anybody. But it is a valid question. It is a valid question. A question that can expose how what we want lines up with what we have. I'll use myself as an example. I feel happy when I get what I want. I feel sad when I lose what I was happy to have. I feel frustrated, maybe even angry when something or someone keeps me from getting what I want. I feel anxious, maybe even fearful about getting what I don't want or wanting what I can't get. How are you feeling? In particular, are you feeling content? Are you feeling content? Are you feeling the peace, that inner quiet satisfaction of wanting only what you already have? Maybe you felt it. If even for a moment before, poof, it's gone. Are you feeling content? What is the secret of contentment? How do we get it? How do we hold on to it? Well, there are several answers that have been floated across the centuries. At one extreme, we have the Stoics who say, well, the secret is not wanting to have anything different than it is. You just take it as it comes, stiff upper lip, grin and bear it. If you can do that, you can be content. At the other end of the spectrum, we have the Buddhists, Eastern religions that say the secret is realizing that there really isn't anything to have. It's all an illusion. So if you just let go of the desire for what's really not there, you're going to be content. Take it as it comes, grin and bear it. Don't worry about it at all because it really doesn't matter and you'll be content. Which is it? The world, the flesh, and the devil say, and they say it in great harmony, that the secret is having what you want, when you want it, how you want it. That will make you content. The world promises you can gain it if only you'll make that next purchase. The devil promises you can gain it if only you'll give in to that temptation. Your flesh says you can gain it if only you'll follow that desire, the desire of your heart. if only this if only that then you'll be content I hope you know what I'm talking about because I've been down this road a million times myself and I suspect you've been down this road too no sooner do you get it and it's gone discontent well scripture says that the secret of contentment is not something that you can gain by your own effort it's not something that you can chase after and grab hold of. It's not something that you can ignore and somehow take hold of it. The secret of contentment is something that you can only receive. It can be given to you. It's a byproduct of something greater. In 2 Corinthians 9, verse 8, the Apostle Paul calls it a gift of God's grace. It's a goodness that we don't deserve. There he says, God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having contentment in all things at all times. That's the byproduct of grace. You have contentment in all things and at all times so that you can abound in every good work. You're free to work for Him. It's a gift of grace. And in 1 Timothy 6, verse 6, he assures us that godliness with contentment is a good thing. It's great gain. It's a great thing to receive. In our text this evening, Paul reveals three things from his own experience about the secret of contentment. The first thing he's going to show us is that it has to be learned. It has to be learned. It applies in every circumstance. And it is empowered by Christ alone. That's what he's going to show us. We're going to read from verses 10 through 20 of chapter 4. We're going to give our attention to verses 11, 12, and 13. We'll hear now the word of God with regard to the secret of contentment. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance, and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment and more. I'm well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gift you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches, in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Here ends the reading of God's Word. Paul begins in verse 10 by saying that he rejoiced in the Lord greatly. When they were once again able to show their care for him, they'd wanted to, they hadn't had opportunity, now they had. He rejoiced in the Lord for that. And in verses 17 to 19, he explains that he rejoiced not because of what their gift meant to him, but because of what their gift meant to God. It was to God a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing. It was the visible fruit of God's invisible work in them, and so he rejoiced in that, not in the thing or the things that he received. And according to our text in the middle, he's not writing these things because he was in need of their gift. He's not rejoicing because they had somehow satisfied a need that he had. And he tells them straight out, he says, that even before it arrived, he had already learned to be content. With or without it didn't make any difference. He's thankful for it, to be sure, but he didn't need it. His contentment did not rest upon that gift coming. He says in verse 11 that he had learned to be content. And that's our first point. The secret of contentment must be learned. How do we know? Well, we know that by nature we do not know contentment. We can't be content. The Scriptures tell us that. Psalm 51 says that we're all conceived and born in sin. And sin, by nature, is concerned with self. By nature, we're at odds with God and our neighbor. We can't be content with anyone. And if we haven't learned it from the Bible, if we've had any life experience at all, we've learned it from children. even those sweet, beautiful little babies. They come out of the womb, and they're just so lovely, especially when they're asleep. But no sooner than they come out that they let us know they're discontent. We all come into this world wanting what we want, when we want it, how we want it. Dry bottoms, full tummies, and warm snuggles. And that's just the beginning. We love ourselves above all, and we expect God and everyone else around us to take care of us. We'd like to think we grow out of that, but we really don't by nature. That's who we are. The world spends countless money and the devil spends all of his time and his effort to inflame this natural discontent that we have that motivates us to sin in order to get what we want, that motivates us to sin when we don't get it. We'll sin either way because by nature we're discontent. contentment doesn't come naturally and everything in this world is stacked against us knowing it and having it therefore the secret of contentment must be learned in verse 11 Paul says I have learned to be content and as a result in verse 12 he had come to know something that he didn't know before he says it twice for emphasis I know I know I know something that I didn't know before and according to verse 13 he learned the secret he learned the secret because it had been taught to him he said I have learned the secret and the word that's used for learned there is different than the other word he used for learned this one is about someone taught him someone took him to task and taught him young musicians you're being taught how to play scales in order to learn how to play music. Young athletes, you're being trained in how to do exercise in order to play the game. Paul had been taken to task. He had been initiated and trained in what it means to be content so that he could be content. And just as Paul needed to be taught, we need to be taught. We need to be taught the secret of contentment that applies to every situation. And that's our second point. We need to read verse 11 very carefully, and I want to read it again with you. Paul is not saying it this way. This is not what he's getting at. The second half of verse 11. I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. He's not learned a new obligation for living. He's not learned that he's responsible to make himself content in every situation. He's not learned to be a stoic. to just put up with it, get on with it, get through with it, and smile. That's not what he's saying. What he is saying is, I have learned in whatever situation I am, I have learned at whatever situation I find myself in, to be content. I've learned how to do that. I've learned how to be something in whatever situation I am. And he impacts that in verse 12 by representing any and every circumstances by the extremes of life, the highs and the lows. In verse 12 he says he had learned not only what it is to abound, but what it is to be brought low. And he'd also been taught how to be content when he's abounding. And how to be content when he's brought low. Before his conversion, by every standard of the Jewish community, he had it all. Paul had position, prestige, education. You've got to believe he had money. He came from a city of Tarshish. He had it all. He was on top of the world. He knew what it was to abound. At his conversion, Jesus knocked him right off his high horse. He took him down. He brought him low. He blinded him. he made him dependent on the very people he'd been persecuting that they would lead him around by the hand. He knew what it was to be brought low. And after his conversion, he experienced highs and lows again. He had the highs of having a vision of paradise in heaven, hearing things that ought not be said. He knew what it was to abound. And he knew what it was to live like the scum of the earth. As he wrote to the Corinthians, he says, As we hunger and we thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless. We have become and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. Paul knew what it is to abound. He knew what it is to be brought low. He knew what it is to be content abounding, to be content brought low. He says that I have learned a secret in verse 13. I've learned the secret of facing hunger and need. I've learned the secret of facing plenty and abundance. I've learned the secret of being content. Paul had been schooled through all these circumstances and more than we could possibly know that there is a God and he is not he, that he couldn't choose or manage any, let alone all of his circumstances. And he could not control other people. Other people would disappoint him. We have record of it. And he would disappoint other people. Paul had learned through all such things what we need to learn through all such things that our discontent is bound up in trusting ourselves to give what we want. That contentment is bound up in trusting God to give us what we need. We confess along these lines in Heidelberg number 28 which has to do with God's providence but I'm going to translate it here for this contact that as we more and more trust the almighty and ever-present power of God, we learn to be patient when things go against us. That is, to be patient when we're brought low. And we learn what it is to be thankful when things go our way. Be thankful when we're made to abound. And for the future, not knowing what circumstances the Lord will bring, what people we will meet, who we have to deal with, what we have to cope with, we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love, which is in Christ Jesus. It's through these things that we start to learn and we are learning the secret of contentment. We don't go off to a seminar and then come back to real life. The learning, the teaching, the training is right here, right now. Every day, every way, every person, every circumstance. Now, I know some, but certainly not anywhere near all of your circumstances in life. But I know enough to know that many of you are being taught what it is to abound and what it is to be brought low. And I know that through that process that many of you are being taught what it is to be content when you're abounding. And to be content when you're brought low. Because this is the Lord's work. I can know this and you can know this is true because of what Paul goes on to say in verse 13. Where he tells us the last and most important thing about the secret of contentment. And that is, it is bound up in, it is enabled by, empowered by Christ alone. It's the, that's the only way we'll know it. It's by the power of Jesus Christ in our life. Again, we have to be careful with this verse, verse 13. It may be a favorite. It may be a favorite for all the wrong reasons. When Paul says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me, what does he mean? Don't you love that verse? Maybe you've grown to not like that verse so much because the things you try, you can't get done. It's tempting to lift that verse out of this context and take all things to mean anything. But I can do anything that I want to do if Christ is on my side. Now, that's not what Paul's saying at all. And if we're honest with ourselves, we know that this is just foolishness. We know there's lots of things we can't do, even with Jesus on our side. Jesus told us so much. Sermon on the Mount, he told us, he asked the question, who can add a single hour to his lifespan? None of us. He says you can't even make one hair white or black. So that's certainly not what Paul means. And in order to get at what he's after here, we want to rephrase verse 13 according to how he has written it in the Greek, the order that he wrote it in, because it kind of separates it out for us. English does a tricky thing for us here. Verse 13, if we read it this way, In all things, I am able. Not, I am able to do all things, but in all things, I am able. Through him we strengthen. Completely different point. A point we need to get. In this context, all things, in all things, is the same thing he's talking about in verses 11 and 12. In all things is the same as any and every circumstance, verse 12. It's the same thing as whatever situation, verse 11. He hasn't changed the subject. And in these things, in all things, I am able. Able to do what? To do what he knows how to do, verse 12. How to be brought low and how to be abounding. To do what he knows how to do, how to face hunger and need and how to face plenty and abundance. That's what he's able to do. He's able to do what he has learned, verse 11, to be content. I'm able to be content. I'm able not to clamor after this, that, and the other thing in order to find my contentment. I'm able to be content. So Paul has been taught and he has learned that in all things I am able to be content. In any and every circumstance I am able to be content. In whatever situation I am, I am able to be content. That's what Paul has learned. That's what we can learn. How is this possible? How is it that Paul was made able to do what none of us is able to do by birth? How did he get that ability? Well, here it is, verse 13. I'm able through him who strengthens me. Through him who strengthens me. Him who? Him who? Him, the Lord, verse 10. Him, my God in Christ Jesus, verse 19. Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is how he opened the letter, chapter 1, verse 2. That's through him who strengthens me. It is true, as Jesus said in John 15, I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul tells how he was taught this empowerment that he has in Christ, this ability that he has in Christ that he doesn't have in himself. And you know the story well from 2 Corinthians 12. He'd been given a vision of paradise and in order to keep him from getting proud, he writes, a thorn was given to me in the flesh. A messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient. For my power is made perfect in weakness. I'm able, Paul says. Through him who strengthens me. I am therefore pleased to boast about my weaknesses, Paul would go on to say, because when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. Through him who strengthens me. And when he wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1, he told him that he gives thanks to Christ Jesus, our Lord, who's the one who gives him strength. You see, Jesus Christ is the only, if only, that will lead us to contentment. Apart from Him, there is no contentment. If only you have Jesus, you have contentment. And you have Jesus by the gift of faith which God gives. It's a gift of grace. In Christ Jesus, you can learn contentment in whatever circumstances you're facing, in whatever relationships you're in. Whether you are abounding or being brought low, He will never leave you nor forsake you. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's He who will strengthen you as you look to Him for strength. In Him, God has given you everything. He is enough for this life and for the next. In Him alone, we can have contentment, that peace and that quiet satisfaction of wanting only what we already have. if we have Christ Jesus, we have everything. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms has been given to us in Christ Jesus. And Paul had learned how to keep his eyes fixed on Jesus, above his circumstances, above his relationship, and be content in any and every circumstance. So Paul has taught us from his own experience that our contentment, the secret of the contentment, must be learned, that it applies in every circumstance, and that it is empowered by Christ alone. Class has begun, and we can trust that our tutor is at work through all of our circumstances to have us learn contentment, to finish the job he's begun, to bring us home to glory more and more like Jesus than the day we began. The promise is sure from verse 19. Hear this promise and believe it by faith. If you have Christ, you have this promise. My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. It's true. Believe it. And find your strength in Him. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you meet us where we need you. In every way in Jesus Christ. We know, Father, that by nature we are discontent. We are discontent with you. We're discontent with one another. We're even discontent with ourselves. We don't know what it is to rest and to be at peace and have a quiet satisfaction of not wanting any more than what we already have unless you have joined us to Jesus in whom we have everything. Help us, Father, as we step into this next year, this next month, this next day, this next hour. To remember and to live according to the strength that we have in him. To learn contentment, no matter our circumstance. For every circumstance comes from your hand and you turn them all to our good for Jesus' sake. We pray, Father, that by your spirit that would be on the front of our minds, before our faces, in our eyes and in our ears as we step back into life. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.