It's good to be back and at being at Grace Chapel two weeks ago and at Fellowship last week for the last two services of 2023. But it's good to be back here in our first time to come and worship together here in 2024. And I do think I was able to go back and listen to Brother Tim's message from last week. And it's amazing sometimes how these things work out. But I knew before I listened to that what I was preaching on today. And they really go very closely together. So just thankful for that. The title of the message is A Cure for the Discontented. A Cure for the Discontented. We try as much as possible to give people credit, and I'll say this about that. Brother Timothy Guest, this is his title. He assigned me the title to write an article for the Baptist Witness, which It just came out, it's the January-February issue, and it has three articles. There's Cure for the Discontented, written by myself, and then there's Brother Isaac, which I recommend these other two 100%. I've read both of them, they're fantastic. Brother Isaac Guest wrote on bitterness, and then Brother Robert Kale from Ripley Church wrote on depression and how that affects the child of God. I highly recommend that you go check those out. And after this morning, if you want a good summary of what I'm going to present this morning, it would be in that short three-page article there in the Baptist Witness. So the title belongs to Brother Timothy, and as I said, I wanted to say something about that. You know, a true man of God would never claim his own content, right? It's all God's content. And so I know Brother Timothy wouldn't care if I gave him credit for it or not, a cure for the discontented so normally, I read my text and then we kind of unpack that a little bit and then we Jump into the message, but I'll do it a little bit differently this time We're going to kind of introduce the topic itself and then we'll go to our text. So a cure for the discontented What does that really mean? What is discontentment or what is contentment would be the positive way of saying the same thing? So if you are contented What does that mean? So we're gonna start with a few questions. The first one is, these are not the kind of questions that you just simply give an answer to, okay? These are the kind of questions that you think about over long periods of time. These are the kind that people sit around and think about sometimes for their whole lifetime and never come up with a great, perfect answer for it, unless they're Christian. So this question says this, what defines and gives meaning to your life? So now you see what I'm talking about. Philosophers have spent entire lifetimes trying to come up with the meaning of life. And like I said, if they're not a Christian, that answer's gonna be elusive to them. So what defines and give meaning to your life? Remember, we're talking about contentment. So if you're a discontented person, this is a question that you ought to really think a lot about. What defines and gives meaning to your life? What is the basis for joy in your life? So what gives you joy in your life? And notice I didn't use the word happiness. Happiness and joy are two different things, and we'll probably talk about that as we go through. But what is the basis for joy in your life? This is a big one. How do you view the God of the Bible, yourself, and the world around you? Because how you view those three things are gonna impact every aspect of your life, And one area in particular that it's really going to affect, how you see God, how you see yourself, and how you view the world around you, one aspect that it's really going to impact a whole bunch is your level of contentment. According to the world, So now we're not gonna talk about the biblical view first, we're gonna talk about the worldly view of contentment. According to the world, we might attempt to measure our level of contentment by assessing our satisfaction with our current situation and our current circumstances. So what does that mean? That means what's going on in my life right now? If I'm gonna measure my contentment, I have to look at my current set of circumstances, where I'm at, what I'm doing, all of those things, and I have to say, am I content with that or not? This is by the world's definition. The most common example, I think, especially for Americans, in our very materialistic society, would be our economic circumstances. So a lot of times when an American, especially, or really just anybody in today's culture, in most places, in most of the developed world, I think when people think about contentment, the first thing their mind goes to is your economic circumstances, our vocation, our level of income, our amount of material things, the size of our house, the array of our toys. Yes, it is true that adults have toys, they do. Whether you believe that or not, you do, you've got your toys, and you probably have a collection, especially here in America. Many times that is seen as the measuring stick for our contentment. Now, we can also determine our level of contentment by our status in different areas of life, our place in society, where do you fit on the social ladder, things like that. Our role as an employee, even our relationships with others, can cause us to be discontented. So when we say relationships with others, what do we mean? Well, one of the key relationships in society is what? It's marriage. That can be a source of discontentment for a lot of people. I hope that's not true of you. I hope that in your marriage you're very happy and contented, but did you know that marriage is really hard? And sometimes it's difficult and sometimes maybe the grass looks greener on the other side. That's very true from a worldly perspective. Remember, we're talking about this is the world's view of contentment. Maybe you're single and you long to be married. That can be a huge source of discontentment. You know, all my friends are getting married and they're starting to have children and I'm still single. You know, what's going on? What does God have against me? That's discontentment. So it can be also in our relationships, even maybe your church situation. Maybe you see other churches that seem to be thriving and they have things that your church doesn't have, and so you become discontent in your church situation. I think one modern writer, he kind of summed it up pretty well about the world's view of contentment. He said it this way, contentment means to be happy with what you have, who you are, and where you are. Well, there's multiple things that are wrong with that, and we're going to unpack a lot of those. One of the things I would point out right away is, did he use the word happy or joy? He used the word happy. He said contentment means to be happy with what you have, who you are, and where you are. So he's tying contentment to happiness. If you're not happy, you cannot be content. So one of the big problems there from the beginning. But then he also ties that with what you have, who you are, and where you are. So it goes directly back to our definition that we just said is the worldly view. of contentment. So people rarely share their true feelings on this stuff, and I think part of the problem with contentment, it has been exacerbated, discontentment has been exacerbated by a tool that is not evil in and of itself, But this thing right here has caused us a whole lot more discontentment for this reason. A lot of us in this room are on social media. And I can promise you, I'm not telling you that you need to get off social media for 2024. I'm not doing that. I think that's a personal decision. I know some people who do that for seasons and get back on and get back off. But I'm not telling you that biblically you just don't need to be on it. It's wrong. It's bad. It can be a tool for a lot of good. There's a lot of good in it. But in this sense, it can be something that causes a lot of discontentment because, in case you haven't noticed, the people who post, especially in social media platforms, they rarely share the unfiltered truth of their life. Did you know that? They're putting their best foot forward. So especially for young people, they see people posting all these things on social media, and they look at their life, and they say, that doesn't look anything like my life. I wish I had their life. Man, everything's going their way. Every picture looks perfect. They don't have any blemishes. It's called filters, by the way. They filter that picture, and they make it look perfect. They make everything look like everything in their life is going wonderful. And we look at that and say, man, I wish I had their life. when most likely the truth is their life is probably no different than yours, and they have troubles and problems and trials of their own, but instead they're just putting their best foot forward. So that leads many to envy, but their envy, this is the funny part about it, their envy is based on a reality that is not even It's not even true. There is no truth to it. So comparing our lives to what we perceive as the better lives of others, and we've always done that. I think social media just makes it, like I said, it just exacerbates the problem a little bit. There are many problems with viewing contentment in this way, as we will see when we look at the biblical view of what it means to be content. So the way the world views the topic is very different from what Paul wrote in Philippians 4 verses 11 through 13. So let's turn there Philippians chapter 4 and we're going to look at verses 11 through 13 of Philippians chapter 4. We'll go to some other texts as well but I think this is one of the key texts in scripture on this topic. Philippians chapter 4 verse 11 through 13. While you're turning there, I'm going to go ahead and give this disclaimer as well. I'm going to try to, as I talk about contentment a lot through this message, to not focus it in on just material things, because it's much more than that. I probably won't succeed at that. It's just difficult. Our minds key in on that so much, but we'll try to make this as broad-based as possible. Philippians 4, verse 11, not that I speak in respect of want, For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content." So that's kind of a thesis statement that you could say for the message this morning. And Paul jumps out with that here in verse 11. What an amazing statement that is. Paul says that no matter what is going on in my life, I've learned to be content. Whatsoever state I am." Now that's King James language. We don't use the word whatsoever quite so much anymore, but that just means anything. In any state that I am, therewith to be content. Let's continue with verse 12. I know both how to be abased and how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. So Paul, throughout the book of Philippians, has been building a foundational principle. And in this particular section here at the very end in Philippians 4, he's gonna apply that same principle to the subject of contentment. And he's gonna make it personal. He's gonna say this is what Paul personally believes about contentment and what Paul understands about contentment in Philippians 4, verses 11 through 13. And we're gonna unpack that a little bit later. But first, we wanna start with Learning contentment. So point number one, learning contentment. Paul says something really important about this. The first thing we should notice about what Paul says is that contentment doesn't come naturally. So your default mode as a human being is not contentment. If you rebooted your system, you don't come back content, right? It's just not natural to the human condition. Paul says contentment doesn't come naturally, but instead it's something that he has learned. So where do we see that in the text? In verse 11 he says that he has learned, and in verse 12 he says that he was instructed. So in between those two statements, he's gonna give us a summary of those lessons. However, the lesson Paul is laying out for us, that lesson that this must be learned, what we have to understand about it is that lesson cannot be learned apart from a work of grace in the life of the student. Contentment is a grace that we must continue to grow in through experience and a deepening of our faith in God. So the other difficult part about this message is I'm gonna continue to get ahead of myself and I'm gonna try not to do that. But it really ties together so closely that it's hard not to. So we're saying that contentment is something you must learn and it's something that is a grace that we must continue to grow in through experience and a deepening of our faith in God." So we see the clear connection here between the knowledge that Paul describes in this text, the knowledge of contentment, and faith. Faith and that knowledge are linked. You must have faith to be able to learn this type of contentment. Not what the world says is contentment, but what Paul says is contentment. And not just Paul, what God says is contentment. I'm going to try to do a better job of preaching. I don't think it's wrong to say that Paul said it because Paul wrote it, but who ultimately wrote this? God wrote it, right? So God's view of contentment means that it is a grace that we must continue to grow and it's not something that we can just learn. The working of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer as he experiences both abounding and need will grow this grace of contentment in each Christian. So it's through experience. That's the point of that statement. It is by experience that you're going to learn this. That's how you're going to be taught. When Paul says that he has learned and that he was instructed, that was done through experiences in Paul's life. Now, I'm not going to take the time to do it, but if you want a little side study to do after this morning's message during this week, go back and review some of those things that Paul went through that were his experiences that taught him contentment. It would be a great study. There's plenty of them there. So it was Paul's experiences that taught him contentment. Let's turn over to James chapter 1. James chapter 1. Very familiar passage of scripture. James chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. That's a strange verse, just right on the face of it, right? When he says, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, how can that be? He says this, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. So when we go through things, when we have experiences, This trying of our faith worketh patience. It builds something in your life. It builds, in this text, James calls this patience. It builds patience in us. When we go through trials and the Spirit of God goes with us through those trials and gives us strength, it builds patience in our life. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. So the trying of your faith works patience, that's the spirit at work. And so this principle, I think, is just what I wanted to point out from that section. The trials and difficulties in our lives are the construction zones of our life. That is where the building takes place. It's not that it cannot happen in better times, but in most cases, the building that goes on in your life, if you want to be a mature Christian, then you're gonna go through some difficulties and trials. And that's gonna build in you a patience, and a contentment that the world cannot understand. I think verse 4 is really important in this context. So I don't know about you, but when I get in the midst of a trial and I don't like what's going on around me, whatever it might be, financial problems, family problems, whatever, I'm trying to get out. I just want it to be done. I want it to be over with. And what do we normally do as human beings? We try to figure a way out ourself. I'm going to figure this out and get out of this mess that I'm in. I'm going to try to fix it myself and make this go away. Brother Tim talked about that with the snakes, if you remember last week. The fiery snakes that came in the camp, even when God did give an answer, Did he take them completely away? Did he take them out of the camp? No, he just gave them a remedy so that when they were bit, and why? So that they would learn the lesson and continue to learn the lesson. They would continually be having to depend on God. Well, so much the case with us. So don't tap out too early. I'm not going to go into that whole example there, because it's sometimes not maybe the best example for a sermon. But you know, when combat sports, when somebody taps out, if you know what that means, it's a great example of this. Don't leave it too early just because it's painful. God has a purpose in it for you to learn. And so don't, he says, brethren, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." God is doing something in your life through this trial, and you need to go through the trial trusting Him that He has your good and His glory in mind. That's the faith that we talk about when we said that this knowledge of contentment is tied to faith. So this is a big statement about learning contentment. that I want you to remember or write down if you're taking notes. Contentment is not a spiritual gift, but rather a sign of spiritual maturity. All right, contentment is not a spiritual gift, but rather a sign of spiritual maturity. So this is not something that God just grants you as one of your spiritual gifts and you just get it and you've got it and then you move on. It doesn't work that way. It's a sign of spiritual maturity. So it is something that we learn over time through experience. As we saw there in James, don't tap out too early. Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be complete. Perfect means complete and entire, wanting nothing. So as our faith matures, we begin to embrace the assurance and trust in Christ that we see in the Apostle Paul when he says in verse 13, I can do all things through Christ. which strengthens me." That's looking forward to our last point on this text. So we must learn not only to be abased and be hungry, this is another interesting aspect of what we must learn in contentment. So probably if you think about learning contentment, you probably think, okay, so what God is teaching me through the Apostle Paul here is that when I go through times of lean financial means, when I go through trouble in my relationships, and I'm not content in my marriage, or I'm not content in my singleness, or I'm not content in my church situation, or I'm not content in all of these different areas, that when those things are negative, I need to learn contentment. Well, that's half. believe it or not, that's just half of what he's saying. Because what does Paul say, let's go back to our text there in Philippians, that's half of what he's telling us that we must learn. We also must learn something else that probably doesn't make quite as much sense to us. He says, I know both how to be abased, and this is the interesting part, I also know how to abound. You gotta learn how to abound. Isn't that interesting? Why would Paul say they need to learn how to abound? That doesn't seem like a problem to me, right? If God wants me to abound, I'm good with it. Just give me all the abounding you can, I'm good with that. The other example he uses is to be full and to be hungry, or to abound and suffer need. So wouldn't you rather be on the side that talks about abounding and being full and abounding, or would you rather be on the side where he talks about being abased and being hungry and suffering need? Well, we kind of understand that, well, maybe there's a lesson in us if these negative things are going on, but Paul said there's also a lesson sometimes when you're abounding. Christians have to learn how to abound. I'm gonna be honest with you, probably at this point in my life, abounding scares me more than being abased. It's so dangerous for us when we begin to abound, when we begin to have enough, when we begin to have good circumstances in our life because it's easy then to get away from God and say, well, I'm doing pretty good. I don't need God as much anymore. I've kind of got this thing licked. I've got it handled. That's a very dangerous place for Christians to be. So Paul says, not only do these lessons take place when we're lacking or when we are abased, but also when we're abounding. We must learn not only how to be abased and be hungry and suffer need, but also to abound and be full. So we must think of it in that way. The answer to this would be this. How many rich, popular, and important men and women in this world do you know that have true contentment? They're truly content. Go interview a few, because it's been done. It's been done. They've done this a lot. Because these people who are seeking for the meaning of life outside of Christian principles, they'll go and interview these people and say, well, you've got it made. You can have anything you want. You've got enough money. I mean, somebody like Elon Musk, for example. That guy's got enough money. Anything that his heart desires, he can have it. He can buy anything that he wants. And yet, if you were to talk to him about true contentment, the guy really is depressed a lot. I've read some of his interviews. He really, he struggles a lot with the deep, deep questions and different things. He has really no true contentment. And I'm not just picking on him. He's probably the richest guy I could think of in the moment. So even despite their circumstances, they lack contentment. So even in abounding, we must learn this lesson that Paul is teaching us here about contentment. He had to learn contentment in all circumstances and be instructed both to be full and to be hungry. Now the problem with this is these lessons don't take place in a quiet classroom. Right? That would be nice if we just all met at the church and said, we're gonna learn contentment tonight. So I want everybody to come and wear your good clothes and we're all gonna come in and sit down and somebody's gonna teach us contentment and you're gonna learn that lesson and you're gonna go back out in the world and everything's gonna be great. That's not how contentment works. As we said, it's taught through experience and those experiences happen in the midst of a fallen world that views our satisfaction in Christ as weakness and our contentment as foolishness, our faith as foolishness. So the Holy Spirit must strengthen us and teach us to be content in the midst of the circumstances of life. And that leads us right into our next point. So our next point is this. Circumstances and contentment. So point number one was this is something you have to learn, it's not natural, and you have to learn it in different ways through experience. Second, circumstances and contentment. So what is the relationship between circumstances and contentment? Well, we observe that the grace of contentment is not determined by our circumstances. So that's the thesis, I think, that Paul is telling us here. And that's the what, if you're kind of explaining what I mean by circumstances and contentment, that's the thesis statement. We observe that the grace of contentment is not determined by circumstances abounding or abased full or hungry and then Paul just kind of wraps it up he says if you're trying to think of other things that I'm not saying I'm gonna say it in a way that you can't say anything about in whatsoever so you can fill in the blank there with whatever circumstance you want, in whatsoever state I am, Paul says, I've learned to be content. The world, apart from the grace of God, does not understand contentment in this way, as we've already talked about. The world's view of contentment is based on external circumstances. It's based on the things that are happening to you in your present situation in life. In this view, contentment is possible because life is going our way at the moment. We have the money we need for things that we need. We have a good job. We love our spouse and our family. We enjoy a good church situation. All of these different areas in the social status, we're happy with our social status. The problem with this understanding is that it's based on circumstances and external factors that will certainly ebb and flow throughout your life. Those of you who have traveled down the road longer than I know this better than I. I know it better than the young people, but did you know that there's going to be ebbs and flows in life? This is something that I think we must come to terms with as Christians. When you follow Christ, there is just a zeal and an exuberance, and it's great. It's a wonderful thing, but you just think, oh, I'm going to follow Christ and everything's going to go great. And so we see our line of best fit our line graph like this. We say, okay, well I start following Christ and man, it's just gonna keep getting better and better and better and I'm gonna go on to heaven, right? Wrong. That's not how that graph looks. It's more like this. You know, all the way unto the end. That's the Christian life, and that's what Paul is preparing us for. And he says, if your contentment is tied to circumstances, guess what? It's going to be all over the place. There's going to be times when you're not content at all, because the circumstances around you don't merit it from the world's perspective. So, that's the biggest difference between the two things. The truth is that those things, financial stability, our marriages, our families, all of those things are difficult sometimes. can be areas where we can fall into the sin of discontentment. Now, I'm going to try to mention it that way many times because I think sometimes we placate this sin. Well, I'm just not content. That's not a big deal. It's a sin to be discontent. It's basically saying that God doesn't have my best in mind. And I'm not content with what God is providing for me. That is a sin. So it is the sin of discontentment. So contrary to the opinions of some popular preachers today, following Christ doesn't guarantee that all your trials and tribulations are passed. Every day is not a Friday for a Christian. It's not. It's not going to be. But you can have contentment through all of those things. We're going to get to that. That's going to be point number three. But it's not tied to our circumstances. Just to illustrate this point even more, do you know where Paul is when he's writing this letter where he mentions contentment? Paul is sitting in prison, and Paul is saying, I'm content. Isn't that amazing? So now, if tomorrow, the Biden administration, I get political here, the Biden administration comes up with some crazy reason to throw you in jail, And I mean, they just trump up some charges, and there's nothing real about it. And they just throw you in jail, and you're sitting in jail, and people are trying to get you out, and they can't get you out. Would you write a letter to the church and say, in whatsoever state I find myself, I'm content. I'm content to be in jail right now. That's a high bar. There's no doubt about it. That's a high bar. And so just to illustrate the point about circumstances, Paul is writing this from prison. The words of the old hymn say, God has not promised skies always blue, flower strong pathways all our lives through. God has not promised sun without rain, peace without sorrow, joy without pain. And I'm glad that's not the last verse of that song, by the way. Did you know there is another verse in that song? These are the things that God has promised. I'm not going to read it directly, but this is what that song says God has promised. Strength, rest, light, grace, help from above, unfading kindness, and undying love. So the songwriter doesn't leave us in the pits of despair. He does tell us that there is a lot of things that God has promised. So as a believer, a believer's contentment is not to be founded or based on their circumstances. Let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 6 through 10. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verses 6 through 10. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." So what this is teaching us, for the most part, is an eternal perspective. 1 Timothy 6-7 tells us to avoid the allure of greed, with the result of being content with what God has given, even if it only consists of food and clothing. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Now, once again, I'm not telling you what to do, and I'm not telling you to do this, but I will say it, and I haven't done it myself, but if you were to write that statement on a note card and put it on your mirror in the bathroom where you go in every morning to get ready to do whatever you're gonna do for the day, it'd probably be a good thing. Godliness with contentment is great gain. That is just a key statement about contentment. So he's really talking about an eternal perspective here. And what is condemned here is not being rich. And it's not material things. I think some people take this text and make it kind of try to say that being rich is wrong as a Christian, that there's no way that a Christian should be rich because it just brings all these things. That's not what's condemned here. It's the desire to be rich. It is the desire to be rich that leads one to fall into temptation. If God blesses you with material things, He expects you to do good things with that. I think that's 100%. He expects you to be a good steward of it. But it doesn't mean that it's all wrong. But if that's what we love, and it becomes the focus of all we do, The love of money is the root of all evil in 1 Timothy 6, 10. So Paul's present circumstance as he's sitting in a prison cell would not warrant strong feelings of contentment from the world's perspective, but two words of warning about this before we move on. We said that from the world's perspective, it's all about circumstances. And what Paul is teaching us here from the biblical perspective is that circumstances don't matter at all when it comes to contentment. That's a really hard lesson for us to learn. But I do want to give two little words of warning before we move on to the last part of the text. I think it's really important as we are considering this principle for ourself or especially if we're counseling others who are struggling with the sin of discontentment to remember these two things. This view of contentment doesn't mean, when we say that it's not based on circumstances at all, It doesn't mean that we're forbidden from trying to better our circumstances as Christians, right? So you can't say, well, Paul said it doesn't matter whether I'm abounding or abased, so I'm just gonna sit at the house and not go work and provide for my family and do good things to make my situation better. That's not biblical at all. And so it doesn't mean that you can't try to better your circumstances or your current situation. We don't have to try to ensure that we have nothing or no ambition or not work hard to provide for our family or not worry about our relationships, right? It's a good thing for us to work on those things. And some of you may say, well, why did he mention that? But I promise you there's a reason. Some people can take these things and kind of get twisted in their mind. So we want to make sure that's not what we're saying at all, that we're forbidden from trying to better ourself or our circumstances or our current situation. It also should never be oversimplified to tell those that are struggling with contentment in their life that you simply need to just have more faith. You know what? You just don't have enough faith. You just need to trust God. Well, that's a simple answer that I don't believe the Bible would warrant us telling somebody who is struggling with discontentment. There's more to the answer than you just need to simply have more faith. Sometimes a child of God may experience a difficult struggle with daily assurance in these areas. So Paul is teaching us in this text that Christian contentment is based on something more than our circumstances, more than our current lot in life, and we need to absolutely give that message to those who are struggling. But that doesn't mean that our present circumstances are meaningless. and they don't matter, right? So Paul's not saying that because contentment is not based on circumstances, circumstances are completely irrelevant. What did Paul pray about the thorn in the flesh? He said, God, please remove it. He wanted it to be removed. But then when the answer was no, God's grace was sufficient for him to continue on. But it didn't stop Paul from praying again and again and again, please remove this from me. So can you say, as we wrap up this section about our circumstances, can you say today, as you look back over 2023, I think at the end of the year, a lot of times, we do a lot of looking forward. So, you know, everybody about the new year, they're all about making resolutions. I think that's right. There's nothing wrong with looking to the future and making some resolutions and trying to make some goals. I think that's actually really good. But I think sometimes it's also a time we should have some reflection. We should look backwards as well. So when you look back over 2023 and everything that happened to you in that year, and for some people it was a really tough year, I'm sure, but as you look back over that, can you say it's well with my soul? That's a contentment question. Regardless of everything that happened, can you say it's well with my soul? Have your circumstances made you discontent? Are you struggling with the sin of discontentment with your current situation in life as you end one year and start into another? So how can we then be content if it's not determined by our circumstances? It's a key question, and Paul's going to give us the answer to that in our text. So let's go back to Philippians chapter 4. verses 11 through 13 and we're going to wrap up this section and then I want to give some just practical helps on how we can fight against the sin of discontentment very quickly at the end. So our third point is contentment in Christ. We're going to go back to our text and we're going to see that contentment is in Jesus Christ. I'm gonna read the whole text again. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. So contentment in all circumstances. I know both how to be abased, I know how to abound, everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. But then he leaves us with this verse. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. So the answer to Christian contentment is Jesus Christ himself. It is Christ himself. It is not circumstances, and this is really difficult, but it's not even God fixing our circumstances. God may or may not deliver you from the trial. Remember, going back to the previous message, he may not deliver you from it, he may deliver you through it. So it's not even God fixing our circumstances, it is God himself. It is faith in Christ that determines our ability to be content. in any circumstance. So I told you Paul had been laying this foundation. I'm going to try to do this really quickly. In Philippians chapter 1, you don't have to turn to these. These are very familiar texts to you. Paul begins laying this foundation in the very first chapter of Philippians in verses 20 and 21. According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." So you want to talk about some circumstances? What about life and death? Is that big enough circumstances? Paul says, that in my body Christ be magnified, whether it be by life or death. So regardless of whether he wants me to stay and live and suffer, or whether he's gonna allow me to go on, Christ be magnified in my body. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And then in Philippians 3, 7, and 8, he continued with that same principle. What things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ." So is Paul saying that, well, I've suffered the loss of all of these things, and so my circumstances are terrible, and it's a loss for me. No, he said it's a win for me because of Christ. So just to put it in stark terms, If you've ever seen a balance sheet before, I deal with them all the time in my line of work, but a balance sheet for a business is basically your profit and your loss, okay? It's just to oversimplify it, it's profit and loss. So Paul begins that chapter by putting a bunch of things that we would see from a worldly perspective as profit. He's of a certain tribe, he has been trained in a certain way, he has knowledge, he has status, he has all of these advantages And then he gets to the bottom and he says, I know you've been writing them down on the column of prophet, but you need to move them over because I count them all as loss. The only thing on my prophet side is Jesus Christ. That's the message of Philippians chapter three. And so he says, all the circumstances really, you know, if I have Christ, I can be content in any circumstance. It is because Christ strengtheneth me, I can do all things now. This verse, and I don't mean to be mean about it, but it's taken so out of context, it's terrible. It's one of the most quoted verses of the Bible, in case you didn't know it. So, you know, Tim Tebow wrote it on his cheek when he was playing football. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can throw for 400 yards. I can run over linebackers. That is absolutely not at all What Paul was talking about when he said, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me, right? Can you literally do all things, whatever you can imagine, whatever you want to do because Christ strengthens you? That is not the meaning of the text. I love, there's a website that I follow called the Reformed Sage and he's got a t-shirt that says, I can do all things through a verse taken out of context. I love that, because that's not what Paul is saying here. What he's saying here, I can endure all things. I can be in any circumstance. What I've been talking about to you, in all of those different circumstances, I can do all things. I can be abound, I can be base, I can be hungry, I can be full. All of those things I can do through Christ, which strengtheneth me. It is through faith in Christ. So he's applying this concept that he's been building through the whole book to his personal contentment. When we see Christ through faith and we value him above all else, our circumstances no longer determine our contentment. Now, that's a difficult thing. That's easy to say. It's easy for me to stand up here and read that to you from my notes. It's a whole lot different to live that out. When we see Christ through faith and value him above all else, Whether living or dying, Paul says, everything on my balance sheet, I moved it to the other side. When we value him above all else in that way, our circumstances no longer then determine our contentment. Discontentment is just the result of allowing temporal things and concerns to blur our view of the true treasure, which is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And the truth is, even from a worldly perspective, so I'm gonna kind of shift gears here, because this is true whether you're a Christian or not, the human heart cannot be satisfied with what the world has to offer. They think it can, and they keep trying, and they get more and more and more and more, but like we said, go interview some rich people and see what you find. See if there's really true contentment there. The human heart cannot be satisfied with what this world has to offer. It will always want more. But for the believer, we find in Christ all that our hearts could ever desire. He alone is worthy to bring a contentment that shines light into even the darkest night of earthly circumstances. So no matter what it is that you're going through, Christ can strengthen you. Faith in Christ can see you through that dark circumstance. So our challenge then is to refocus our eyes from the circumstances of the moment to the God who declares the end from the beginning. Hebrews 13, 5, it's a key text on this. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Let's just unpack that really quickly. In this passage, we are not told to be content because God will provide what it is that we need, a thing, right? He doesn't say, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have, because I'm going to give you everything that you want. That's not what it says. In fact, the answer part of this has nothing to do with anything material or any earthly relationship or anything of this world. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, so the answer is, I. Just stop right there. The answer to it is God himself. The answer to contentment is God. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Regardless of your circumstances, regardless of what's going around you in your life, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Listen, I don't know where you've been in your life, but if you've been in a pretty low place, it's amazing how many people will jump ship on you. I'm just telling you. They're jumping. They're getting out. They don't want any part of it. They're not going to get down in it with you. They're just getting out. They don't want any part of it. What he's saying is, no matter how bad the circumstances get, I will never leave thee forsake thee. For my children, those who are mine, those who I've called out and believe in my son, Jesus Christ, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So the anecdote to discontentment comes from trusting in God's promised provision. And the greatest provision that God has provided for his people is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. God has provided, is providing, and will continue to provide many other blessings in the lives of his people. So I didn't really plan on this, but let's just stop and think about that for a minute. if we really get right down to it, what Paul is saying here is no matter what happens to you in your life, no matter if there are no other blessings, no matter if you have the worst circumstances that's ever been considered and there's nothing else that you can look to in your life other than Jesus Christ as a blessing, which is not true of anybody in this room, but hypothetically speaking, Christ is enough. Christ is enough. That's what he's saying. And so then when we think about all the blessings that we are given, you know, Food and raiment, therewith be content. How many in this room can actually even take that statement seriously? I mean, how much food and raiment do we have? I mean, we drive air-conditioned cars. We have a nice place to come and worship. There's people in the world that are hiding in a basement this morning trying to worship God, because if they get found out, they're going to get killed. That's true. So all of these other blessings are just in addition to the one blessing that is of most importance, and that is the provision of Jesus Christ. We look to Christ for our contentment, and because of that, our circumstances lose their power over our life. The life of faith, trusting and leaning on Christ, will have a joy and a peace and a contentment that the world cannot understand. So now very quickly, I have no idea what time I started, but it's 11.35, so I'm gonna pretend like I got till 12, and I'll beat that. Give me 15 more minutes and we'll wrap up. But I do wanna give you some practical things. We've unpacked that text, we understand what it means now to be content as a Christian, what Paul is teaching us here in this text, God through Paul is teaching us in this text. So then practically when I leave here today, what are some things I can do to help guard me, what is the cure for discontentment in my life?" Well, the short answer to that is it's Christ. The cure for the discontented is Jesus Christ. But there are some practical things that we can do that we can help focus our minds in these areas. The first one is very simple, and I won't take very long with it. If you go in our text right up above where we are in Paul says it this way, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. It's easy to forget due to the busyness of life and the tyranny of the urgent to take time to remember our joy in the Lord and worship leads our minds back to right thinking about God. Okay, that's what worship does. There's a reason God designed for us to meet once a week. Did you know that's God's design? I'm glad he designed it that way. Can you imagine having to go a month without coming and worshipping? How crazy your mind could get and how far away from God you could get within a month of not worshipping. I'm glad that we do have the joy of doing that. Rejoice in the Lord. Worship can lead our minds back into right thinking and away from the very things causing our discontentment. So spend time alone with God and with others beholding the beauty of the Lord in worship. So the practical way you do that is you make worship a priority in the coming year. And I'm not just talking about corporately. Take time personally with your family and corporately in the church to worship God and learn more about him and all he has done. for you that will guard against discontentment. Secondly, count your blessings and give thanks. I mean, this one I think just makes a lot of sense when you're talking about contentment. Count your blessings and give thanks. Contentment and thanksgiving are very closely related, and a discontented heart is saying that what I have is not enough or not what I desire. We need to take time to remember all that God has done for us and thank him for it. Psalm 103.2 says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Psalm 107.1, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. His mercy endureth forever. So as we enter a new year, we need to take time to look back over the past year, see maybe how many things you can come up with, maybe two or three blessings, maybe, in the whole year that God granted in your life, and then return and give thanks for those things. I'm sure if you think back over the whole past 12 months, that'll keep you busy for quite a while on remembering what God has done and thanking Him for it. Once you do that, thank God. Do you remember the 10 lepers? 10 were healed, one returned to give thanks. We need to always remember to return and give thanks. A thankful heart is a content heart. Someone who is truly thankful is someone who is also truly content. And the third one. is to filter your thinking. This is a lot, and I'm gonna have to summarize. I probably have two pages of notes on this one that we're gonna try to summarize very quickly, but it is a very practical way to fight discontentment in your life. Filtering our thinking through the precepts and principles of scripture will help us guard against discontentment. The first way to filter our thinking is to ensure that we're basing our understanding of God and the world around us and ourselves on what the scriptures say and not what we would like it to be. So we must remember what the Bible says about the character and attributes of God, the fallen world that we live in, and our own position before God. And we can guard against discontentment by reaffirming what we know to be true as believers in the Word of God. And you say, okay, well, What do you mean by that? Well, the world is going to tell you that God is keeping things back from you. That's what the world is going to use. Satan uses this all the time. You deserve to have, you fill in the blank, whatever it is, you deserve it. If you trust in Christ, every day is a Friday. I know I keep going back to that one. Marriage is an outdated institution and it's holding you back from reaching your full potential. So what about this famous quote? And you tell me if you know who said it. Yea, hath God said? Who said that? Y'all know? Genesis, go all the way back to the beginning. Genesis chapter three, verses one through five. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, yea, hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. The woman said the right thing. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the woman a bald-faced lie." Right? You shall not surely die. That is a lie. You shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's, knowing good and evil." It's the same thing I just told you. God's holding out on you. There's something better that he just doesn't want you to have. And if you'll think of it this way, there's things that you would really enjoy and are really good for you, but God's just holding out on you. It's a lie, and it's been from the beginning, and it's still that way today. It's a great example of how we should filter our thinking through what the Bible says about God, about us, and about the world in which we live. So knowing what the Bible says about those things is extremely important. Secondly, on this filtering idea, we can learn by replacing negative things with positive biblical thinking. I just think it's a replacement issue. In Philippians chapter 4, I think I made a mistake of using that reference earlier. In Philippians chapter 4, right above our text, he says this, think on these things. And then there's this whole list. Whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, whatever things are lovely, things are of good report. And he just goes on listing all of these good, he said, you need to think on these things. So the way you filter your thinking is you replace negative thinking about, man, I really should have that, or I should have this, or I deserve that. What is good? Fill your mind with good thoughts, keeps you away from that which is negative and not good for you. And then the last thing is prayer for contentment. The last practical way that we can fight against discontentment is prayer for contentment. Prayer is an important weapon for every believer in battling discontentment. Talk to God, unload the desires of your heart before Him, acknowledge your discontentment, and ask the Lord to remove the things you desire that are not in line with His will and purpose for you. In fact, If you do that, probably sometimes just in the doing of that, you might change your mind. You might be embarrassed. You might say, you know, I really thought that I wanted this, but now that I'm having to go before God and say that's what I really want, I'm embarrassed. I'm not even going to ask for that. That might happen sometimes to you if you really acknowledge your discontentment before God. In Colossians 1.9, Paul prays, Discontentment arises when our will has pulled away from the will of God. And so we need to pray that God's will be our will, that we have knowledge of His will, and that makes us content. If we know God's will for our life, we're in it, then our contentment comes much easier. So now in closing, I'll close with a hymn, a quote from an old hymn, gives perspective to our lives here in this world and the wonderful reality that salvation and an eternity spent in the presence of the Lord are much more amazing than anything that we could have here. The writer said this, Oh what are all my sufferings here if Lord thou count me meet with that enraptured host appear and worship at thy feet. So he says, no matter what you're going through in this life, it'll be worth it all, as the hymn says, when we see Christ. May our lives be defined by faith in Christ and our joy based in knowing him. A Christ-centered life is a cure for the discontented. So if you are living life today without faith in Christ, then my call to you would be to exercise faith. God, if God is working in your life and He has borne you again by His Spirit, then the answer of that is for you to publicly profess Him. You know if God's working in your life and He's convicting you of sin, and then you come forward and you express faith in Christ, you will never live a more contented life than a life based on faith in Jesus Christ. A Christ-centered life is the cure for the discontented and produces a joy that endures through all the circumstances of life. Hope those things have been a blessing to you this morning.