AM Sermon preached at Syria Christian Church December 5, 2004
“George Bailey, Scrooge, The Grinch and Paul… and a Secret They Share…”
Imagine it. March Madness at its climax. It’s Saturday night. Only two teams remain in the tournament. Your school is there. You’re on the team or your best friend is on the team or you’ve got a son, daughter or grandchild on the team. The final seconds tick away and it’s happened. You’ve won or they’ve won the championship game. You and everyone around are high-fiving it. Applauding, screaming, shouting, laughing, talking excitedly. It’s an awesome moment. Your emotions are soaring, your adrinilene is off the charts.
Now picture yourself, the next day at an afternoon pep rally. A welcoming home for the victorious team. Video clips of the final seconds are shown. The response again is one of excitement and joy. Cheers. Fists pumping. People holding up the number one and calling out “we love you guys!”
Now it’s Monday. You enter the gym and the coach has rigged up a VCR and TV. The game is on, but crowds are gone. Other than a few occasional supportive comments and a few joking remarks about bad plays. Little is really said.
Now it’s the first Monday of May. You go to the gym. It’s the same thing. The VCR and TV. The championship game. In fact every Monday since the game was won it’s been the same thing. And with each passing week. The enthusiasm has lessened. Cheering has turned into moaning. Close watching to napping. While I doubt any of us has or will ever had to go through that particular scenario---most of us do know how repetition often leads to a loss of enthusiasm or boredom. And this is true for many when it comes to Christmas. But not for me ---and I hope not for you either!
I’ve been through more than four decades of Christmas seasons---and out of those---more than 30 have come and passed since I accepted the gift of salvation. But rather than lose its appeal to me, I am finding that my anticipation of the Christmas season is renewed year after year. I mean really love this time of year. I love the lights, the decorations, the music, the smell of Christmas trees, the wonderful array of Christmas candies and cookies, the movies. But what I love most about this time of year is the fact that without fail, every year God touches me in some special way… every Christmas season God does or uses something to make me more aware what He has done for us in Christ Jesus---and with every passing Christmas season I find myself more in tune with a secret shared by George Bailey, Scrooge, The Grinch and Paul. And that secret is contentment.
Today, we’re wrapping up our study of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, looking at the final verses of chapter four. In these final verses are some timely words for us as we approach Christmas. For you see, probably now more than any other time of the year, we are being inundated with advertisements and commercials bent of making us discontent. And here in our scripture passage Paul gives us some much needed insight on how to have experience the kind of joy reflected in the characters of George Bailey, Scrooge and The Grinch after they experienced their changes of heart… Let’s read the concluding remarks in Paul’s letter…
[SCRIPTURE SLIDES]
10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.
15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only;
16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.
17 Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account.
18 I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.
19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
20 To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
21 Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send greetings.
22 All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
Paul wanted to do two things as he closed out his letter. He wanted to thank the Christians at Philippi for their ongoing financial support of his missionary work---and he wanted to be sure to draw attention away from himself and back on to God. In the process Paul has shared with us some wonderful insights on contentment.
First Paul shares with us that contentment is not innate, it is learned. Mark Adams, writes in his sermon on today’s text…You know, some people are thermometers in that they merely REGISTER what is around them. If the situation is tight and pressurized, they register tension and irritability. If it’s stormy, they register worry and fear. If it’s calm, quiet, and comfortable, they register relaxation and peacefulness. Others however, are thermostats. They REGULATE the atmosphere. They are the mature change-agents who never let the situation dictate to them. And Paul was a thermostat kind of guy. He was content regardless of his situation.
I would add though that Paul’s contentment was learned. Contentment is not a state of mind we are born with, if it is something we have…it is because we have acquired it. Paul writes in verse 11, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances….” and in verse 12 he writes, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation…” Contentment is something Paul learned. And good news, folks we can learn it to. But learning it may be hard. And learning to be content requires some definite willful decisions on our part.
To reach a state of contentment, we have to agree in our hearts and minds that contentment is an inside job… to agree that contentment is not the result of having owning certain things or being in a particular set of circumstances. Now, this line of reasoning runs contrary to or culture. And truth be known, it threatens the very premise our economy is built upon which is all about more. Produce more, buy more, sell more, have more. And so for our economy to run well, we the consumers have to buy into the idea of more---to get us to do that specialists have been called in---and they’ve been analyzing and studying us----you name it they looked into it---they’ve studied the way we think, our spending habits, how we make buying decisions and so on---and they’ve done all this so they could learn how to design television and radio commercials and printed flyers which would cause us to be discontented with what we now have and which would at the same time convince us that if we had the item they’re promoting we would be satisfied, happy, content. Content that is until they came out with their next new product.
That reminds me of a study which I came across this week which reveals just how much our nation has bought into the idea of more…John Rosemond is a family psychologist who wrote several years ago about the epidemic of discontented boredom in our culture among suburban affluent children. As part of his study he found that on average the typical American five year old owns 250 toys. Now, think about it, a five-year-old has only lived for 260 weeks. That’s almost one toy per week. But they’re bored and discontented with what they have! Mark Adams, a minister, has nailed down the reason why. He writes: “The pleasure that comes from accumulating things is always temporary at best. Like a drug it satisfies for a short while but the more we get, the less satisfying it is.”
Listen---we don’t have to buy into the idea of more. This is so important for a lot of people to hear at Christmas time. Too many people increase their debt to dangerous levels during the holiday season buying unnecessary things on credit. If you’re one of those people who is tempted to go out and blow your budget and over-extend your finances just so your kids or grandkids can have a “good Christmas” I’d suggest three words of advice…don‘t do it! If you buy into the idea that for the kids to have a good Christmas you have to give them lots of stuff---you’re being a thermometer type of person---you’re letting the culture regulate you. Don’t do it. Be a thermostat type like Paul. And remember…as good as it might make you feel to give those things you can’t afford to your kids and grandkids---realize this--- on top of the fact it’s poor stewardship to pay high interest rates to creditors---realize that what you want most for your kids and grandkids---isn’t something that can be bought, wrapped up and put under a tree. So I encourage you---don’t spend what you don’t have trying to buy what can’t be bought. Contentment is not a matter of the external but the internal. It’s an inside job.
A second step that must be taken if we’re to reach a state of contentment is to intentionally decide that what we have right now is enough and we’re going to withdraw from the comparison game.
Jesus tells a parable that addresses the topic of contentment. It’s found in Matthew 20. As the story goes a landowner went out and hired some men early in the morning to work in his vineyard, agreeing to pay them a full day’s wages. Three hours later he went out and hired more men to work for him. Three hours later he went out and hired a few more. And three hours later he did the same. It was so late in the day by the time he hired the last men that they were only able to work and hour before it got dark. He told his foreman to have the men form a line so he could pay them. He paid the last guys he hired first. And even though they had only worked an hour, he gave them a full day’s wages. You can imagine that those guys were ecstatic! The men who worked four hours were also paid the same thing. So were the guys who worked seven hours and the guys who worked ten hours. Now everybody should have been content----all the guys who worked less than a full day had been paid more than they deserved---and the men who worked a full day received what they had expected----but the guys who worked ten hours and who received ten hours wages weren’t happy because they got caught up in the comparison game. They started grumbling and complaining.
Isn’t that just like us? We’ve got it good and we should be content---but we start playing the comparison game and the next thing you know we’re grumbling and complaining. Paul’s words about being content regardless of things and circumstances encourage us not only to be satisfied with what we now possess but also to steer clear of unhealthy and needless comparisons which lead to discontentment.
Paul in a letter he wrote at a later date tells his son in the ministry, Timothy, (1Timothy 6:6-10), “ Godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Paul’s telling Timothy---we start with nothing and we end with nothing. So contentment is not about what we accumulate, it is about living with satisfaction one day after another.
In Hebrews 13:5, the author says, “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.’”
And this brings us to the third and most important step to becoming a contented individual and that is to be open to the working of God in our lives. As we just saw, the writer of Hebrews said, be content with what you have…WHY? Because he writes “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” The deepest possible contentment we can enjoy doesn’t come from things or external circumstances---no, true contentment comes from being in a relationship with God in which we allow Him to work in us and through us. Paul says as much in Philippians 4 as he summarizes his thoughts on being contented with the words, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
This word translated gives me strength rarely appears in Greek writings, but it is one that Paul used quite often. In I Timothy 1:12 he said, 12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength…In II Timothy 4:17 he said, 17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength. In Ephesians 6:10 he said, 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. The word translated power is a form of that same word we’ve seen translated as gives me strength. You see, the word means to infuse strength or to put power into. This strength, this power to be content, then, was not something that Paul conjured up from within. No it was a power that was infused into his life. Paul’s statement in verse 13 was not an expression of self-confidence but rather God-confidence.
Several years ago a visitor to the World’s Fair noticed a man, dressed in a brilliant gold suit, standing beside a hand pump. His arm was moving up and down and the water was gushing out of the pump. Observing from a distance, the visitor said, something to the effect Check out that guy pumping that water. However, when this visitor moved closer he discovered that the person at the hand pump wasn’t a person at all. It was instead a dummy. The dummy’s arm is was tied to the arm of the pump which was being operated by electricity. The visitor then realized that the man wasn’t operating the pump, the pump was operating him. And in a very real sense that is the way it is with the Christian. People possibly observing us from a distance as we go through the motions of life with incredible energy and endurance may say something like “that person is doing incredible things for God.” However, when they come closer and really get to know us they realize that we’re not doing the incredible things but instead God is doing incredible things through us. We’re not moving the power of God---no it’s the power of God that’s moving us. Paul relied on this power. It was the source of his joy, his hope, his contentment, and so he declared, I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.
As we approach our hymn of invitation and decision you may find that God is prodding you to become more contented and thankful for what you already have. In your heart God may tell you that you need to stop trying to rely on your own willpower in your battle against sin and begin relying more on Him. And, if you are here today and you are not a Christian I hope you see your need to embrace Christ as Savior and Lord. Hebrews 12:2 says that dying in your place brought Him joy. Friends, He loves you that much! He wants to be the center of your life! You were designed for that relationship and you won‘t experience the truest form of contentment this life has to offer without it. We invite you to make this or any decision public by coming to the front now as we stand and sing…….
NOTE TO THOSE WHO READ AND OR CHOOSE TO MAKE USE OF ANY OR ALL OF THIS SERMON: I am sharing this sermon with the hopes it will be an encouragement to others. I know that coming up with new Christmas sermons every year can be difficult! I apologize for any blatant typing errors---I debated submitting the Christmas sermons I have this year because I have not taken the time to edit them. However, I decided that people will find them more helpful at this time than at other times of the year. So, there you go…. I try to give credit where credit is due, noting writers and or sources to the best of my ability. I have for years been drawing from a wealth of sources including this website. I recognize that my mind and writing processes are fallible. I may occasionally fail to properly identify a source. Please do not take offense if you see anything of this nature. I never intend to plagiarize. Having said that I want you to feel free to draw from my message. When appropriate I hope you will give credit as I do. But most of all I hope Christ will be lifted up and God will receive the glory in all things.
