Philippians 4:10-23 February 21, 1999
The Secret of Contentment

In 326 B.C., when the Macedonian king Alexander the Great had extended his empire from the Mediterranean Sea to the muddy banks of the Indus River in what is now Pakistan, it is said that he wept because "there were no more worlds to conquer." What Alexander the Great came to realize in his 30 years is something which many of us struggle with all our lives. What crushed Alexander is what often leaves us empty: the notion that perfect contentment is impossible to achieve.

But still, we strive for contentment; we yearn for satisfaction in life. Contentment remains the taunting, elusive dream we can never reach.

The poet Wallace Stevens said of contentment: "Even in contentment I feel the need of some imperishable bliss." Stevens put his finger on the problem. Even when we grasp that moment when we are gratified, we then realize there is something more out there. The soothing sensation of satisfaction soon becomes a dagger in your heart as you realize this too will end. The perishable blisses arouse in me the realization that they cannot satisfy, that there is something within me that longs for something more. What I most enjoy serves to remind me that complete joy is not found in it, but there is something more.

So while we may spend our lives in search of that imperishable bliss, we quite often resign ourselves to never attaining what we know will give us satisfaction.

A fortune-teller studied the hand of a young man and said, "You will be poor and very unhappy until you are 37." The young man responded, "Well, after that, what will happen? Will I be rich and happy?" The fortune-teller said, "No, you'll still be poor, but you'll be used to it after that."

Unfortunately, those seem to be our only choices in life. We can either constantly grab at something that we think will make us happy, but never will &ldots; or we will just give up, concluding we can never be happy. Either way, contentment is not a part of our lives.

Discontentment permeates society. Greed has destroyed gratitude, getting has replaced giving. In our search for tranquillity, we think contentment is attained by the pursuit of self-sufficiency. No one else can make me happy. I 11achieve that on my own. As you and I have believed the lie that we are what we make of ourselves, that we are measure of all there is, my needs, my wants must dictate what is best in life. Self-sufficiency is self-centeredness dressed in fancy garb, but it still has the stench of death.

Our discontentment is aroused easily whenever we turn on the TV. Let’s face it, commercial television presupposes that you and I are discontent. The shows we watch are but vehicles to get us to watch the commercials. The goal of TV is not about the program, but what allows the program are the companies which advertise. If the program does not secure the sufficient advertising, doesn’t guarantee the right market share to purchase the products, its in the can. And the commercial is designed to create within the thought that you have a need, that you are lacking unless you purchase the product. The commercial is the capstone. But of course the commercial does not cause the discontentment; it merely capitalizes on what is inherent in each of us.

So we spend our times looking for that which will satisfy, but we don’t find it. Neil Warren in his book Finding Contentment, claims many believers seek contentment through what he calls "happiness highs." We leap frog from one activity, relationship, or acquisition to the next and still peace eludes us, a malady expressed in many ways: frequent boredom and emptiness, a frustrating job, our mate demanding but unexciting, and we wonder if we belong together, feelings of being lonely, purchasing someTHING, only to find the satisfaction wears off almost as fast as we bring it home.

But there is a secret to contentment. It can be found in a place where we often refuse to examine. For Paul, and us, the secret of contentment comes by learning. Philippians 4:10-13 gives us a peak.

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. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 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. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

The first secret is seen in verses 10-11

We continue from where we left off last week as Paul does the very thing he commands of his readers.

Last week we saw how our joy is to be found in Christ, verse 4: "Rejoice in the Lord" is how we are to live. Paul takes his own advice and in verse 10 expresses joy that has as its foundation the Lord. We see a hint at the source of contentment here, but there is more.

His joy is also associated with a gift.

Remember Paul is writing to the Philippians a thank you note for the gift Epaphroditus brought. But his "thank-you" seems a bit odd, almost sarcastic to some: "at last you have renewed."

Sounds like a letter from Aunt Mabel saying "it was nice to hear from you... at last... and to know you received the present I sent you last year."

What is more, he seems a bit detached, a tad ungrateful in verse 11: "I am not saying this because I am in need." Imagine Sue Spranger writing a thank you note for a wedding gift: "Thank you for the blender, not that I needed or wanted one, but thanks anyway."

What Paul is doing may seem a bit foreign to us, but he is trying to make it clear that their friendship is not based on usefulness (I like you because you give me something). That form of utilitarian and conditional friendship in the first century was understood to be the lowest. Rather, Paul is pointing out that his joy in their gift is based not in the gift per se, but in something much deeper. His contentment is found somewhere else.

He can rejoice because they have renewed their concern for him.

This word "renew" carries with it a botanical image; literally it means to blossom like a spring flower. There was a long hiatus between their previous giving and this gift. The barren winter season between their other gifts and this may have been as much as ten years. It was ten years earlier that Paul arrived in Philippi, was arrested, beaten and thrown into prison, that afterward he left that fledgling church and went to the next town of Thessalonica; they sent him some support money. And a few months after that when he went to Athens and Corinth that they again sent him another gift. But we are not told of any other gifts and this passage admits to some time since the last gift.

But notice what he says about the time in between: "you had no opportunity to show it."

This gives him the opportunity to explain why he can still rejoice in their gift, verse 11.

Here is the first part of the secret: "I have learned to be content"

The word Paul uses for "content" is laden with images that those first century readers would have known. "Content" (autarkes) was a virtue in Greek culture triumphed by the Stoics.

The Stoics believed that this concept of contentment was reached when you had come to the point of total indifference, when nothing would bother you; then and only then would you be content. Contentment was equated with self-sufficiency.

In other words, you sort of thought yourself into an "I don't care" attitude. One ancient writer, Epictetus said, "Begin with a cup or a household utensil, if it breaks say, `I don't care.' Go on to a horse or a pet dog, if anything happens to it say, `I don't care.' Go on to yourself and if you're hurt or injured in any way say, `I don't care.' And if you go on long enough and if you try hard enough you'll come to a state when your nearest and dearest suffer and die and you say, `I don't care.'"

That was the Stoic meaning, but that is not Paul’s meaning. He transforms that common word and fills it with new ideas. Paul transforms the Stoic "self-sufficient" man, of whom Socrates is held up as prime exemplar, and makes contentment to describe our relationship with Christ. Self-sufficiency becomes Christ-sufficiency.

First Secret: Contentment is found in God’s Providence - verses 10-11

He can rejoice in even a sporadic gift for he knew that ultimately even the timing of that gift was not outside the domain of a sovereign God.

He knew it was all in God's hands. There was no panic in heart, no need to manipulate people. There was no turning of the screws, as it were, to get what he thought he wanted or needed out of someone. He was certain that God in due time would order the circumstances so that his need would be met. He just waited patiently until the Lord made it happen.

Until you come to the place in your life where you understand that God is sovereign and is ordering everything for His own holy purposes, and is working all things after the counsel of His own will and is making all things work together for good, until you understand that you will always be discontent because you will take on the responsibility to organize and order your own life, you will frustrate yourself if you can't control everything.

Watch me turn a nervous wreck when I’m running late for an appointment and the traffic is backed up. What do my frayed nerves communicate? What does my lack of contentment say? That God suddenly disappeared from His throne. I forget the secret of contentment in God’s Providence.

How do you respond when the unexpected car repair bill wipes out your checking balance, when the flu hits just before the important meeting, when the kids let loose with embarrassing behavior before the in-laws? What goes through your mind when your job evaporates?

God’s loving, overarching care for His creation is what I mean by Providence.

This is a term not used very much in our culture, but it simply means that God is the one who provides. It is God who orchestrates everything to accomplish His purpose. God’s control is not just exercised in the miraculous, where the natural order of the universe is suspended and there is an intervention by God contrary to what we normally perceive. God’s control is not just seen in miracles, but in a way that should also boggle our minds. It must be easy for God to just say, "Hold it, I want to do this," and do it. Much easier than to say, "Let's see, I've got 50 billion circumstances that I've got to orchestrate to accomplish this one thing." That's Providence. But when you come to understand that a sovereign God is not only sovereign by supernatural intervention, but He is sovereign by natural orchestration, you have confidence and you have contentment. The contented person is the person who knows that God is ordering everything for His own holy purpose.

Here is contentment.

When you’ve been trudging through the Slough of Despond, when you can’t solve your problems, you can’t eliminate the conflict, fix the marriage, your kids are running amuck, your job is dragging you down, there is nothing you can do about your health, then you realize that God has not left you alone; your life is not about your fighting your way to make yourself happy, but that God Himself is at work to glorify Himself in your life, that He foreordains whatsoever shall come to pass&ldots;then contentment begins to settle in. But that is not all.

The Second Secret is found in verses 12-13

Discontentment is revealed in misplaced trust. When we mistakenly trust ourselves and forget that God is in control, discontentment rears its head under two very diverse circumstances. The secret of contentment is shown when we fail the tests of plenty and want.

The myth of contentment is exploded by not only our failures, but also, even more so, by our successes. The way you can tell you know the secret is if you can handle plenty and want.

The nineteenth century playwright Henrik Ibsen said: "When you take away the life’s lie of anyone they lose all their happiness." Sounds cynical, doesn’t it? But it is so true. Strip away what gives you happiness and soon you’ll discover the lie you believed about happiness. We all think we know what will bring contentment. The way you can ascertain whether you’re chasing a lie is to have it removed. Then how do you feel?

Okay, maybe Ibsen is a bit too esoteric at this hour. Remember the comedy Cool Runnings about the first Jamaican bobsled team to go to the Olympics? John Candy plays a former American gold medalist who becomes a coach for the Jamaican team. The players grow to like the American coach and affectionately dub him `Sled-god.' Later in the story, the coach's dark history comes out. In an Olympics following the gold medal performance, he broke the rules by weighting the U.S. sled, bringing disgrace on himself and his team. One of the Jamaican bobsledders could not understand why anyone who had already won a gold medal would cheat. Finally, he nervously asked Candy to explain. `I had to win,' said the coach. `I learned something. If you are not happy without a gold medal, you won't be happy with it.'"

Candy learned his life’s lie. Contentment was winning, but even with victory, even in times of plenty, he still was not satisfied. Job was tested through the loss of what he loved. We may be tried by getting everything we ever wanted.

There are two situations in which people despair.

Despair comes when either you discover you’ll never achieve your dream or when you achieve every one. These are the people who lose life’s lie. Plenty and want exposes that you are building your life on a lie that will never come through. Plenty will expose false contentment. We set our hearts on something and when we get it what we hold in our hands is hollow; it evaporates in our palms.

But most of us don’t get to plenty and want - our dreams rarely get dashed, nor are they completely fulfilled. You and I just stay in the delusion a lot longer. You catch a little of your dream, always trying to make it, always trying to adjust. We stay in the veil of illusion. So we struggle, but never are forced to see our life’s lie.

Maturity comes when we realize that we will never be happy, when we know that contentment will elude us&ldots; and we do not despair. The secret of contentment is knowing that we will never be happy, that we need an imperishable bliss. We need a power that far exceeds us. The reason you get depressed, upset, unhappy, miserable, is because you want something and you believe that having that thing will give you power. It is an idol.

Second Secret: Contentment is found in God’s Power - verses 12-13

Paul set aside the lie that he could be happy if he either got it all or got rid of it all.

Apart from God’s grace, this seems to be our only option. We must either grasp everything we desire, we must become materialists and get it all or we become minimalists and throw it all away, trying to live a more basic life. Both are lies that will leave us discontent.

Rather the secret for Paul is not in his power to enjoy plenty and endure poverty, but contentment is found in God’s power at work in him: "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

Do not isolate these words from their context. Paul is not saying that he could do anything to which he set his mind. The "everything" refers in the first place to coping with need or plenty. What will allow me to see God’s hand of Providence is nothing less than God’s hand of grace, God’s power. These are rich words of encouragement; they teach us that it is possible, by the grace of God, to be content, even in a world like this where we face trial, difficulty and deprivation.

The contentment we may experience in this world does not depend upon anything that it alone has to offer us. It is only "in Christ" that we can learn to be content. What the NIV translates as "through him" is really "in him," that great prepositional phrase Paul returns to again and again.

Knowing ourselves as being "in Christ", as having Christ as the source for our happiness, contentment radically changes our perspective in life. This is what we saw in 3:10, that being found in Christ means we have resurrection power.

The power of contentment resides neither in denouncing everything nor demanding everything. Rather, contentment comes not from outside sources, nor from inside strength. Contentment comes from God Himself.

Far too often when faced with discontentment, realizing you’ve built your life on attaining a certain status by a certain age, you’ve made it your life’s dream to have the perfect family, the perfect home, the perfect marriage, but they never delivered the goods. You lacked the power to do what you set out to do. So, being powerless, you trust nothing, you give yourself to no one. Because you did not like the smell, you cut your nose off. Because you didn’t want your heart broken you made it hard. Perhaps you, like Alexander the Great, weep, for there are no more worlds to conquer, or you weep because you’ve been conquered far too often.

Here is where Christ should be good news to each of us. Contentment is not an elusive dream, not a hopeful wish with no substance in reality. Contentment is a secret to be learned as you realize that God is at work not only in the universe, but will work in you, too. The same God who orchestrates all the universe to glorify Himself is the same God who cares enough about you to give you the strength to find contentment in your life. Do you want it? Trust Him today.