Let’s begin this morning with a quick question. Raise your hand if you have had coffee from Starbuck’s in the past 2 weeks. Me too. Well I want to tell you that I am mad at Starbuck’s. I have drank coffee for years and been content with Maxwell House or Folgers. I was content to brew a cup coffee in the morning, dump some sugar and creamer in it and sit back and enjoy. I even looked forward to the smell of the coffee when I woke up in the mornings. Then I re-discovered Starbuck’s.
When we moved to Springfield (Northern VA)I discovered a Starbuck’s coffee shop between the church and my home. Since that time I am sad to say that terms like “Grande” and “Venti” and “Caramel Macchiato Latte” have become a normal part of my vocabulary. In fact, I planning a new website called MarkQuitsStarbucks.com that will chronicle my attempt to break my addiction to Starbuck’s.
You see, I was content with Folgers until I discovered Starbuck’s. Starbuck’s taught me to be discontent so that they could re-define contentment for me as a $3.50 latte or a $1.40 cup of American Blend coffee. Living in a state of contentment can be quite a challenge for Christ-followers in our day. Consider these statistics.
1. According to TIME Magazine, approximately 1.4 billion credit card offers are mailed every 3 months in America. That means that the average household receives about 6 offers every month. (TIME-Oct 18, 2004). The result? A seduction to a life style described in articles like “Teens Are Buying Now, Paying Later” in a recent issue of Plugged In (October 2004).
2. America has 4.5% of the world’s population but purchases 45% of the global toy production. A recent U.S. News & World Report article stated that “26% of kids 2 and under have a TV in their room and the average American child sees some 40,000 commercials a year. That in turn helps explain why the United Sates, with 4.5% of the world’s population, buys 45% of the global toy production…Somewhere along the way we decided that one American Girl doll or one Thomas the Tank Engine was simply not enough. But in this land of plenty, many of us are overwhelmed by our kid’s possessions.” (September 12, 2004, Kid Power).
Marketing to children has become so lucrative that marketing specialist have created new terminology and strategies to get children and parents to pony up for more stuff. For instance: (see US News article)
• Nag Factor; Shut-Up Toys; Transtoying
3. Another U.S. News & World Report article of several years ago stated that the average American needs 50%-100% more money than they currently have in order to fulfill their American dream.
4. Now just in case you are not fully convinced that we American’s have a problem with contentment let me you one more example...toilets. According to CNN/Money, it seems that a Japanese toilet maker is introducing a $5,000 toilet to the US market. This is no Green Acres outhouse men and women. This baby features a wireless remote to raise and lower the seat so you don’t have to actually touch it. It has a deodorizer, a warm-air dryer and options for setting water temperature and…you ready for this…a massaging option.
Surely this is not the lifestyle God wanted for His children. Surely He wanted us to be more than a sailboat driven by the winds of greed on an ocean of materialism. So what if we could really find contentment in life? Would we choose it?
Well several hundred years ago our wise God penned some words through His servant Paul to speak to our need. This morning I want us to begin a journey of learning how to be content. And along the way, I want us to learn how to slay three enemies of contentment: Self-Sufficiency; Attachment to Things; and Isolation. As long as these enemies live among us contentment will remain an illusion to us. I also want us to discover that contentment is not something we acquire but Someone we experience. And finally, I want us to identify a couple ways we can determine how content we truly are. Let me summarize it this way: Contentment is an expression of communion with Christ and a reliance on His power and His provision to prevail in all life situations.
Let’s read the passage together. Read Philippians 4:10-19.
Paul concludes this book by saying Thank You to the Philippians for their generous financial gift to him. The Philippians had supported Paul’s kingdom efforts in the past but for some reason had not been able to support him in recent days. Yet they dug deep when they learned of Paul’s need and moved to support him. Paul is now responding to their generous gift and intermingled with his gratitude is some wonderful teaching about contentment. Source of contentment.
Contentment is an expression of communion with Christ – vs. 13 & 19
What does that mean?
1st, it means you must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in order to experience contentment. If you do not know Jesus Christ and live in relationship with Him then contentment will always remain just out of reach for you. The contentment that truly satisfies the soul can be found only in the One who created our soul; God Himself.
2nd, it means that as followers of Christ our goal is not to acquire contentment, but to live in communion with Him & allow contentment to flow from that communion.
Look at verses 12 and 13 again. In verse 13 Paul gives the secret of being content: Communion with Jesus Christ. This verse is not a blanket promise that we can do anything just because we are Christ-followers. Paul’s statement is that in any and every life circumstance, he can be content because he is living in communion with the living God. The key to this verse is not “everything” or “power” but “through Him”.
Now before we go on it would be helpful to pause for a moment and consider who it is that said, “I have learned to be content in any and every situation.” Paul does not speak about contentment lightly. He is not being glib. Paul is not one of those guys who just kind of hydroplanes over life and has no difficult situations to face. He has been alone. He has been stoned, whipped and beaten with rod. He has been mocked, ridiculed and lied about. He has been shipwrecked on islands and even as he writes, he is in prison shackled to a Roman guard. Men and women, Paul is no Pollyanna religious con artist. He is the real deal and he tells us that he has discovered the secret to contentment: On-going communion with Christ.
Paul re-states the concept again in verse 19. And “MY GOD” he says. Not some god you have created. Not some impersonal superior being. Not some pitiful Santa Claus god. The God to whom Paul appeals is his personal, intimate God.
The book of John expresses this concept in a little different manner. In John 15:5 John says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” It doesn’t get much clearer than that folks. On the one hand we are told that apart from Christ we can do nothing of lasting value in our lives. On the other hand we can bear much fruit when we abide or dwell in Christ. One of the fruits we bear is contentment. Those who discover life in the vine discover contentment in life.
There is one more thing communion with Christ means.
3rd, communion with Christ means I am never alone. Read Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my Helper, I will not be afraid. What can me do to me?” Hebrews 13:5
When I live in communion with Christ I DO NOT LIVE ALONE! Contentment is not a battle I fight alone. And when I commune with Christ I discover how to slay the enemy of Self-Sufficiency.
Self Sufficiency. During the time when Paul wrote this there was another philosophy at work as well. The Stoic’s of the time used the word “content” to describe a person who accepted without emotion whatever came their way. The goal was to live independent of others and circumstances in the sense that one was free from the effects of either. Maybe that doesn’t sound so bad. But the source of that power was not found in Christ but within my own being. All the resources necessary to cope with life were located within the individual.
For the Christ-follower, contentment means we too live above circumstances and their effects on us. But the source of that contentment lies not within our self but in a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not facing a crisis with a pasted on smile and a glib, “I’m happy in Jesus” response. It is a deep peace and contentment born of the knowledge that Christ’s power in me is sufficient any situation.
Evidences of A Contented Life
1. I rely on the power of Christ to prevail in all life situations. 4:10-13.
While Paul is grateful to the Philippians for their financial support, he says that his contentment is not dependent on their gift. In fact, he has learned to be content whether he is feasting with the rich or eating soup with the poor. Whether he is hanging out with corporate influencers or a poor widow. Whether he is a general giving orders or a captain following orders. Circumstances do not determine contentment.
The great theologian turned actor Alan Alda once said, “It isn’t necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It’s only necessary to be rich.” Contrary to Alan Alda, contentment does not come from getting everything but from finding Christ in everything. Contentment is not asking God to rescue us from our circumstances but asking Him to empower us to find Christ adequate through our circumstances.
Earlier I mentioned how Starbuck’s has seduced me to discontentment. If we were honest, we too would have to admit that we have some Starbuck’s like cravings that seduce us toward discontentment. For some it may be the “For Sale” sign in front of homes we cannot afford. For others it is ads for the latest, coolest technological gadget. Still for others it is seeing the furniture in someone else’s house and deciding that their 3 year old stuff must go.
While these certainly challenge our sense of “need” there are other things that I believe can be far more dangerous. A husband whose contentment with his wife is slowly distorted as he indulges his thoughts about the other ladies at work. A wife who is living in a vivid romance novel grows increasingly discontent with her beige husband. A college student who slowly spirals into a competition with friends to have the latest greatest.
Contentment is not to be limited to just things and attitudes. It also speaks to our relationship with God during difficult life situations. Our contentment quotient with God is challenged when we suddenly loose our job or when a teenage son wrecks the car or a life-threatening disease is discovered in our bodies.
Yet Paul tells us that when we live in communion with Christ that Christ’s power will flow through us and give us the strength to be content regardless of the circumstances. Yet how does that work? Commentator D. Martin Lloyd-Jones compared the flow of Christ’s power to physical health.
“Health is something that results from right living. Health cannot be obtained directly or immediately in and of itself. There is a sense in which I am prepared to say that a man should not think of his health as such at all. Health is the result of right living and I say exactly the same thing about this question of power in our Christian lives.”
“I can summarize the teaching like this. The secret of power is to discover and to learn from the New Testament what is possible for us in Christ. I must spend my time with Him. I must meditate upon Him. I must get to know Him. I must maintain my contact and communion with Christ and I must concentrate on knowing Him.”
Just as health is the outgrowth of right living so power is the outgrowth of relationship with Christ. The power of Christ flows through those who commune with Him. When I know Him and when I rely on His power, I can look my greed and materialism straight in the eyes and choose to be content with what I have. In His power, I can conquer that second enemy of contentment: attachment to things.
Suggestions for conquering our attachment to things
• Cherish what you have been given. Learn to say Thank You to God
• Daily affirm your dependence on Christ.
• Renounce the temptation to compare.
A second evidence of contented life
2. I embrace generosity as I rely on Christ’s provision: verses 14-19
In these final verses Paul again turns to say thank you to the Philippians for their financial support over the years. 10 years earlier the Philippians expressed their love for Paul by supporting him when other churches could not. They even continued to support Paul’s kingdom efforts for several years.
These verses communicate a deep friendship that existed between Paul and the Philippians that caused each to act for the good of the other. Notice the language of verses 15 & 17. The relationship was one of “giving and receiving”. This was a deep friendship developed as they partnered together for the cause of Christ.
The phrase “giving and receiving” and all of verse 17 communicate a “contractual friendship”. The terms Paul chose were commercial terms used by those in the business world. What Paul is saying is that he and the Philippians have a friendship born of love and contracted together to expand the kingdom of God. What a cool friendship. We are friends in Christ who support one another in what every way necessary to expand God’s kingdom. In love, you help me in my kingdom endeavors and I’ll support your kingdom pursuits and together we will serve God and others. In the bond of Christian friendship, we will give and receive our resources so that each of us can fulfill God’s plan.
Paul concludes by saying that this giving relationship and the Philippians financial gifts served as an act of worship that pleased God. Do you see the power of what Paul is saying? When Christ-followers financially support the kingdom of God in the context of godly friendship, God is PLEASED! It makes God happy to see His children supporting His cause in friendship together. In fact, Paul says that when God’s people support God’s cause in friendship together, you are smack dab in the middle of a worship experience that thrills God! And the monster of isolation is slayed by the generosity of friends sharing their resources to expand God’s kingdom.
Suggesting for slaying the monster of isolation
1. Regularly ask yourself, “Do I view the needs of people and God’s church as a burden or an opportunity?”
2. Develop the habit of being generous with your time, money and abilities. This week perform an “act of generosity” for or with another person.
I will conclude as Paul did. As you experience this Extreme MakeOver of your life, “To our God and Father be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
