Paul's Thankfulness - He Reveals the Secret of Contentment

Well let's take our Bible. Let's turn to Philippians chapter 4. We are moving along and we're really close to the end of the book of Philippians. I'm not sure how many more messages we'll have. We could have a concluding type message. We'll just see how it works out with me in my study in prayer time. But tonight we will be in verses 10 to 14. Philippians chapter 4 verses 10 to 14. Now last week we finished up verses 1 to 9 and we saw Paul the pastor. That may have surprised some of you but we saw Paul the pastor.

Although he was an appointed apostle with apostolic authority we saw that Paul was really acting like a pastor for the Philippians in the church there. We can say it like this. The apostle Paul demonstrated that he had a pastor's heart and he certainly did have a pastor's heart. But now we transition really into what scholars say of the concluding verses of the book. And in the conclusion of this letter to the Philippian believers and the church that he dearly loved Paul writes on three things that pertain to their congregation to their circumstances and their relationship to one another.

We can see that verses 10 to 14 Paul shares his secret. He explains to them that he had learned the secret of being content in whatever circumstances God may have him in. And this secret was connected to how they had reconnected with Paul and how they had sent him multiple gifts. They sent him money. They sent him a man to serve alongside him. We know a Paparditis. And then they sent him their support. We see in verses 7 to 14 Paul shares his ministry partnership list. Yes Paul shares his ministry partnership list. He explained to them that when he left them no church had partnered with him in his ministry endeavors except them.

So that's a short list. That's a very short list. And they even struggled to partner with him not because of some kind of fault or sin on their own or on their end but they had become disconnected. We're going to talk about that tonight. And then we see here in verses 8 to 20 Paul shares that he was well supplied after having received the gifts that they sent him through a Paparditis. He says he was well supplied. He had the money that he needed. He had the ministry help from a Paparditis that he needed. He declared to them that he knew that God would supply every need according to his riches in glory.

But there's one thing that is woven all through these verses. Wonderful. Great gratitude. Paul's thankfulness. Paul's gratitude. Paul was expressing his gratitude and thankfulness all through these verses. So much so that these verses verses 14 to 20 can kind of be a thank you note along with certain particular teaching and thoughts. And as we will see he was thankful to God first and he was thankful to the Philippian church and to those believers. Now in doing this I will be reading ahead really reading the verses that we're not going to cover tonight.

But I want us to look at verses 10 to 20 and let's listen or see if you're reading along and see if you could recognize Paul's gratitude and his thankfulness. Verse 10. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me but you had no opportunity. Now that I am speaking of being in need for I have learned not that I am speaking of being in need for I have learned in whatever situation to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger abundance and need.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel when I left Macedonia no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help from my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied having received from a Papariditis the gift you sent a fragrant offering a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus to our God and Father be glory for forever and ever a man. Now tonight we're not going to cover verses 10 to 20. That's obvious. But we're going to cover verses 10 to 14 and we will see Paul's thank you to the Philippians and he will share his secret with the Philippians and his secret was learning to be content in all things. Learning to be content in all things. Now let's read the verses that we're going to cover tonight verses 10 to 14. Paul says I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.

You were indeed concerned for me but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstances. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share in my trouble or share my trouble. Now if we were to divide these verses into three subjects this is how I would divide them. Verse 10 is all about how the Philippian church had reconnected with Paul and Paul rejoiced that this had taken place.

Verses 11 to 13 are all about Paul sharing his secret of learning to be content in all things. But verse 10 is connected to verses 11 and 13 as well. And how the Philippian church had reconnected with Paul has a bearing on Paul's learning to be content in all things. And verse 14 is all about Paul expressing his thankfulness to them and for the kindness they shared to him in his really unpleasant circumstances. Now that's really a rough outline of how we'll cover the verses. I will refine that outline so let's get into the verses. Number one Paul rejoiced that they had reconnected. That's why this says in verse 10.

Paul rejoiced that they had reconnected. Here we see Paul's thankful heart and notice that he had his priorities right in his thankfulness. He had it in the right order. He was thankful and full of joy in the Lord first. Then he was thankful to and for them. Notice that. That is because Paul knew that any ministry connection, any concern, any help that the Philippians could give first came from the Lord. But notice what we have here. Paul was rejoicing that the Philippians had revived their concern for him. They had been concerned all along but they lacked the opportunity. Listen to verse 10 in the Amplified.

I rejoice greatly in the Lord that now at last you have renewed your concern from me. Indeed you were concerned about me before but you had no opportunity to show it. Now before we get into what's happening here we need to make sure we do not form a misunderstanding here. Paul was not correcting some wrong or sinful behavior in the Philippian Church. He was not saying that they had willfully neglected Paul or somehow forgot about Paul. That was not the case at all. Simply this is what had happened. Ten years had gone by since Paul had first come to Philippi and the Church had been born there in the city.

And those first Philippian believers had generously supported Paul when he left them to minister in Thessalonica and Berea. And when Paul moved on to Achaia the Philippian believers continued to support Paul as he went on to Athens and then the Corinth. And we can see how all of those things played out in Acts chapter 17. But years and distance proved too much. As years went by and Paul was many miles away from the Philippian believers it appears that the Philippian believers did not have the ability or the opportunity to stay connected to and to support Paul. Think about it.

As he left them and traveled on the Philippian believers supported Paul in many ways not just giving money but time and distance seemed to disconnect them. Although the real reasons for their disconnection are not giving we speculate. We can kind of add some things up. John MacArthur speculates that two things could have caused this. First they're crushing poverty. 2 Corinthians 8 1 and 2 tells us that they were a very very very poor people. That could have played into the circumstance. Second MacArthur says they simply may not have known Paul's needs in location. I think that's safe. Those are safe assumptions.

Now before I move on here there are a couple of lessons that I want us to see. There is the lesson of staying connected in ministry. There is the lesson of staying connected in ministry. Now a couple of rhetorical questions. For the Philippian church and for Paul in their day was it easy or was it hard to stay connected. It was very hard. Travel was treacherous dangerous. They had to travel by foot. In many ways if they were going to travel from city to city they were risking their lives. And it took days and weeks and months to travel some of these distances on foot. So it was difficult for them to stay connected.

They had to have a courier to take a letter to take correspondence. And think about this. If someone was traveling by foot and taking money from point A to point B from the Philippians to Paul what kind of risk did they take. Could have easily been robbed and left for dead. But what about now. How easy is it for us to stay connected. I mean how easy is it for us to communicate with believers around the world. How easy is it for us to travel maybe by car or by plane to go see people around the world. Think about it. We really have no clue how hard it was for them in that day. So there is a big lesson here of staying connected.

I know that things will not be played out like this but if we were to die and go to heaven and meet a Paparachitis and if we were to look at a Paparachitis and say you know I couldn't go on a mission trip it was just too hard. A Paparachitis would look at us and say really. Really. Because what did a Paparachitis do. When they reconnected he was the one one of the best men they had and he traveled to see Paul and he took a monetary gift and he was there to serve Paul and he almost died for that service.

So there's a lesson here in staying connected but there is also a lesson here in connecting with people connecting with churches missionaries those that we partner with in ministry and there is a great great great responsibility here folks. I'm going to come back to this but it is obvious that an opportunity for reconnection had come about. News had reached the Philippians that Paul was in prison so their love and concern for him was revived. Notice the English standard the new American the legacy standard Bible says their concern was revived but the King James says your care from me half flourished again which is really a better translation.

Let me read it again. The King James says your care from me half flourished again. That is because this phrase have flourished again. It comes from a word in the original that means to sprout again to grow green again to flourish again. Now if we look outside it's obvious that springtime is here. Pollen is in the air. Anybody suffering yet. Well if you're suffering now just wait the pine pollen hadn't come out yet when the pine pollen starts to come out. That's when we start praying for thunderstorms. Isn't that right Lord bring a tornado to blow all that away. I can replace my roof. But we can see that trees and other plants are budding out.

We see fresh growth in leaves everywhere. The weeds are growing. The privet bushes are growing that we hate. The oak trees and other trees are budding out. I was mowing my lawn the other day and I went under one of those low branches on a pecan tree. I have a stop and looked at it and I thought the pecans not budding out. Not yet. Pecan trees never get fooled. But we are seeing that which was dormant flourish again. Life has been there in those trees in those bushes all along but now they are starting to flourish again. Well that is what Paul was saying here. Their concern for him and their ability to minister to him had been dormant.

That's what the language means. But it is flourished again because of opportunity. We can say it like this for the Philippian believers in church there springtime had arrived and their concern for Paul and their ability to minister to Paul and with Paul was blooming again. So news had reached the Philippians that Paul was in prison. So their love and their concern for him which was there all along it had been been revived. So they took advantage of this new opportunity and they sent one of their best men a Paparidotus and they also sent money for Paul's needs and they sent their love and their support and their heart to Paul.

Now before we move on I want to speak about ministry connections and getting connected with others. We have an opportunity here with Grace Life Church of Cenotobia. You see opportunity is here. We've had these desires all along but now we have an opportunity for that to flourish in a new way. When we meet and we connect with missionaries and churches and pastors at their true church conference you see we have those things within us and we have an opportunity for that to flourish in a new way.

I was thankful the other day one of the ladies in our church told me that her husband just loves Blake Keenum who pastors in Canada and prays for them and prays for Blake and prays with their church. I didn't know that he had connected with him. So that's a life in him and we need to pray that we can become more and more connected with those within our network. How easy is it for us to email someone and introduce ourselves. How easy is it for us to take those prayer cards and write them notes. How easy is it for us to connect with them.

Look there are certain missionaries around the world that I know that if I text message them they'll say can you video chat tomorrow. They can see my face. I can see their face. We can laugh. We can talk. We can cry. We can pray. So ministry connections we need to be making them and forging them and keeping them and working to keep them for the days and the years to come. So Paul rejoiced that their relationship had been revived and it was flourishing again. And then number two Paul explained that he had learned the secret of contentment. We see this in verses 11 to 13. Paul explained that he had learned the secret of contentment.

Now here Paul moves from expressing his joy that they had reconnected and that their ability to minister to him and with him had been revived. He moves to explaining that he had learned to be content in all things. But notice how the two were connected. Paul was not content now that they had been reconnected and men and money and support had been brought his way. He was certainly blessed by those things of course but he was content with their support and he was content without their support. You see he was content with their support and without their support he was content. Now this is how I want to approach these verses.

I wanted to find what contentment is. I'm going to ask the question. Then I want us to see how Paul explains his contentment. He does not simply say that he is content. He said that he had learned contentment and he explained what true contentment looked like. So first our question. What is Christian contentment? And I place an emphasis on Christian. This word contentment in the original is a rare word. It's a rare word. What I mean is this. This word is found only one time in the scripture right here. And in non-biblical writing and in the stoic philosophy of their day this word spoke of a person who accepted whatever came their way in life.

Situations and circumstances that could not be changed were just seen and accepted in life. Freading about those circumstances was a waste of time. This philosophy and this way of thinking fostered a self-sufficiency within the man. This promoted a self sufficiency in which the resources and ability for dealing with the difficulties in life were found within the person. And this was the opposite for Paul here. He said that his ability for dealing with difficulties in life were not found in himself but in Christ. He said that his coping mechanism was not found in himself but it came from Christ and his relationship with Christ.

Now the definition of the word in the original is this. It means sufficient for oneself. It means being strong enough or possessing enough to need no aid or help. That is the Greek dictionary meaning of the word in the original. But notice how this is defined biblically in Paul. He was sufficient in himself. He was strong enough and he did not need any help. He was sufficient in and of himself. But this was not in and of himself at all in any way because he had been crucified with Christ and he no longer lived. Actually it was Christ who lived in him.

In the life he lived in the flesh he lived by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself up for him. So Paul was sufficient in himself and he needed no one or help from anyone because his sufficiency was not in and from himself in his circumstances. His sufficiency was from and in Christ. His sufficiency came from his personal relationship to Christ in Christ living inside him and through him. William Hendrickson says of Paul here. And Hendrickson is putting these things that Paul says in his own words in his own thoughts. I see this as really his own translation of these things. This is really good. So listen.

He says and I'm quoting him. The satisfaction of a material need must not be construed as being either the real reason for or the measure of my joy. On the contrary regardless of outward circumstances I would still be satisfied. And he goes on. My conversion experience and also my subsequent trials for the sake of Christ and his gospel have taught me a lesson. The path which I traveled led me ever closer to Christ to his love to his power. Yes to Christ in contentment in him. This very contentment is riches to me. So here we have true Christian contentment true Christian contentment.

Vincent in his word study says this and I'm quoting man should be sufficient to himself for all things able by the power of his own will to resist the shock of circumstance. Of course that is the definition of the word from the Greek dictionary. But he continues to define the word in and through Paul which provides us a biblical Christian definition of contentment. Vincent goes on to say Paul is self sufficient through the power of the new self. Not he but Christ in him.

So Christian contentment is found in being sufficient in oneself no matter the situation and circumstances but that sufficiency in oneself is not found in self it is found in the power of the new self which is the power of the new creation in Christ. But before we move on we must ask ourselves we must evaluate. We need God the Holy Spirit to help us here. You know there are certain times we hear certain things we read certain scriptures we hear certain messages and we say aha I've got it. This is not one of those times folks. This is where we need a work of God and a work of God's grace here.

First we need to see if we are truly contented people. If we are contented people. Second if we are not then we just may be in sin. At best we are not the good Christian that God wants us to be here. At worst we are in sin and sometimes it's hard to divide the two. Third if we are we need to see what that contentment stems from. Another way of saying it is like this. We need to see where it originates from. My grandfather grew up very poor before the Depression. He was born in 1908 so you can do the math and see when he grew up.

He was really becoming a man during the Depression and he used to always say that they were poor before the Depression during the Depression and after the Depression. But in the 1940s my grandfather was able to buy a farm. He bought 450 acres and he loved that farm. He loved that land. He loved those trees. That was all his life's joy other than his family. And although he had many opportunities to buy more land he was content with what he had. I'll never forget I sat down with him one time at his kitchen table and I began to ask him about all the property around him that he could have bought. Some of it was unbelievably cheap.

I remember there was 125 or 130 acres that he could have bought, sold the timber and paid for the land. And he had several opportunities even to sell timber on his place and buy land. He could have easily doubled his acreage easy. But he was content. Simply he was content in himself and in what he had because he had far more than he ever dreamed that he would ever have. But that kind of contentment is not Christian contentment. That's not bad. But that is not the contentment that we have here in Paul. And my point is this. We may be content. We may be a contented person but our contentment may not be in Christ.

Our contentment might be just a good character trait. So the big question for us is this. Are we content because of the power of the new self which is the power of Christ working within us. And here is my challenge. Don't just say pastor that was a good message. But to take this message to take this teaching to take the truths here the understanding of what true Christian contentment is and begin to pray over those things and put yourself under the x-ray of the Holy Spirit of God to show you what's in you. Maybe you've been contented all along.

Maybe you are truly a content person but your contentment is a character trait and it's not necessarily Christian. Second what does it mean that Paul learned contentment. Look back at verse 11. Not that I am speaking of being in need for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. Now this may surprise you but Paul clearly says that he learned contentment he had to learn to be content. So what does it mean to learn contentment. Paul is simply saying that after he came to faith in Christ true Christian contentment was not an automatic thing. It had to be learned. And this word learned in the original it simply means to learn.

It means to increase one's knowledge. It means to be informed. But we must see that this is not mere information. Contentment is learned by the process of Christian sanctification. Contentment is learned and it is formed by walking with God through the many different circumstances in life. Christian contentment is gained. It is learned. It is formed within us and sometimes it's an uphill challenge. Sometimes it's a downhill challenge. One commentary that I don't reference often it's an easy one. It's a good one volume set. They're free. You can get them out there. It's Jameson, Fossett and Brown.

But Jameson, Fossett and Brown says here he's putting this into Paul's words. He says of contentment. Listen the Greek literally expresses independence of others and having sufficiency in oneself. But Christianity has raised the term above the holiday self sufficiency of the heathen stoic to the contentment of the Christian whose sufficiency is not in self but in God. You might say pastor we've got that. You need to hear it because he continues. Jameson, Fossett and Brown says of this learned and he's putting this in Paul's words. Listen close. The "I" in the Greek is in the emphatic. I leave it to others if they will to be discontented.

This is what Paul's saying. I leave it to others if they will to be discontented. But I, I for my part have learned by the teaching of the Holy Spirit and the dealings of providence to be content in every state. So with their help here this is what Paul was in his saying. He was saying others have learned to be content in themselves by their own strength. But not I. I have learned to be content in every situation. And by saying in every situation he was referring to the working of God, the providence of God being worked out in his life. Good times, bad times, when he was suffering, when he was at ease.

In every situation by the work of the Holy Spirit of God in his life he had learned to be content. And church look there are several big lessons here. These are some critical vital lessons here. And you probably can add to these things. You probably can make these things even sound better. But listen. First, there is a big difference between contentment that comes from within and contentment that comes from a work of God in a person. You may be by your nature a contented person. That might be a character trait. But that doesn't mean that's Christian.

There's a big difference between a work from within or just your character and contentment that comes from a work of God in you. Second, contentment must be learned. You are not born again and then automatically zap with contentment. It is learned. And to me it is learned by a combination of three things. First, the providence of God in our life. Simply the circumstances in life that God ordains for you. You know sometimes we use big church words. We might think, you know, pastor, I don't know what that means. Well I try to put all that in language you can understand. The term the providence of God simply means this.

The circumstances in life that God ordains for you. So we learn contentment by the circumstances that God ordains for our life. The easy times, the hard times, the rough times, the smooth times, the great trials of life. Or when you think life is all great, the providence of God is ordained by God for the work of contentment. Second, the work of the Holy Spirit of God in our life. If God allows circumstances, good or bad, however you would describe them, then the Holy Spirit of God is working and he is wanting to work accordingly.

I heard the testimony of a pastor, different denomination and certainly of a different theological persuasion but no doubt a Christian. He had been planning on moving from one church to another and he had prayed that thing through and felt led of God to go to this particular church and make a particular move and things didn't work out. His plans just fell apart and he was in great despair about it and his wife came to him and tried to counsel him really in an unhealthy way. And he said, he looked at his wife and said, "Leave me alone, let me embrace my trial." So what we see in that example is a combination of two things.

He understood the providence of God in his life. He knew that God ordained that and he was looking for the Holy Spirit of God to take that circumstance and work it out accordingly. And that leaves me to third, our cooperation in these things. We are moral agents, folks. We can resist the work of God in our circumstances. We can react to life in our flesh instead of the Spirit. We can be lazy and not walk with God as we should be. Responsibility.

We have a responsibility to recognize all the circumstances that God ordains in our life, the Spirit of God coming and working in our life and we have to step into those things and cooperate with God in those things. Remember the example of the pastor? What was he saying? He was saying, "God, I cooperate with you in these circumstances." And then the result. The result is this. Automatic one, two, three, in three days, contentment will be worked out in your... no? Doesn't always work that way. We might want it to be easy. One, two, three. See, we really have a Burger King Christianity. We want our whopper our way. It's not that way.

The result is this. If we will walk with God, no matter the time frame, no matter how hard, contentment will be worked out. But if we will not, if we resist, if we complain, if we're lazy, if we're just like your toddler and all we want to do is complain and cry because things don't work out, it won't be worked out. Contentment will be worked out in us or it won't. And I really believe there are a lot of Christians. They are immature in these things. They're just infants in Christ because contentment has not been worked out. They might be mature in other areas. So Paul had learned contentment.

And think about all that he went through to learn contentment. And this was a completely different contentment that's seen in the world. Now the lesson here is this. We should again evaluate and submit to this and say, "Lord, do I have contentment? If I do have contentment, is it the world's kind of contentment? Or is it just something that I'm naturally good at as far as worldly things is concerned?" And you need to pray and say, "Lord, do I have really true Christian contentment?" Because there is a difference.

And then you need to step into the work of God, the plan of God, and submit to how God would work out anything and everything in your life to bring you to a place of contentment. Period. No matter how long it takes. No matter what it takes. You see? Now I might be going over here, but I'll share with you a little personal testimony. I did ten years full-time ministry. And the last church I was at a difficult set of circumstances. And it was the power control in the life of the church. I started off with five staff members and went down to two. I was the last of the two. Well, I didn't make it either. I lost my job. It was really difficult.

The Lord would not let me go serve on church staff. I prayed and walked with the Lord through all that. I had to get a real job, you know? And I got a job to support my family. And I was praying and fasting and seeking the Lord about what my next move was in ministry. And God had me in a waiting period. A waiting period. Psalm 43 verses 1, 2, and 3 about waiting patiently on the Lord. I was waiting, but I didn't have the patiently part down. And I struggled. I struggled. I struggled. And I struggled with contentment and joy in my life.

And finally, finally, finally I got to that place where I had joy and I had contentment and I accepted the circumstances that God had in me. and for me. When I got to that place, that's when God led me to my next step, his next step for me in ministry. Now before we get into the rest of the verses, I said we would look at what contentment is then I said I would show you how Paul explains contentment. Really he defines contentment by giving it in his own life, you see. Now notice we've not gotten into how Paul explains his contentment. We've not gotten into how Paul defines Christian contentment by explaining it in his own life.

We've really just scratched the surface. Now this is what I want us to do. I want to pause here for various reasons. Next week I want to use what we've studied tonight as a springboard. This is really an introduction. So let's make sure that we take what we've looked at tonight and understand what Christian contentment is, how Christian contentment is formed in our lives, simply it is learned and it is much more than information. And then let's use that as a springboard to dive into Paul's example and how he illustrates what Christian contentment looks like and everything in Paul's life should be found in our life.

Now before we close, notice that we really have two different sermons in these verses. Verse 10 is all about Paul's great joy that they have been reconnected, that he had reconnected with the Philippian believers and their church. Their love, concern, and ability to minister to Paul and with Paul had been revived, that had sprung to new life. There's some lessons there. But then verse 11 was all about Paul explaining to them that he had learned to be content no matter the circumstances. Not that this contentment came from himself, but this contentment had come from Christ in him. Remember how I used Galatians 2.20?

Because he had been crucified with Christ, he no longer lived. Actually it was Christ who lived in him and the life he lived in the flesh, he lived by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself up for him. So his contentment came from Christ working in him. Now here's how I want to close. We need to be praying about ministry connections, making ministry connections, and being better at that. And then we need to pray over contentment because some of you may have had your eyes open.

You may have thought, "Pastor, I've never thought about it like that or seen it like that before." Because remember this is a springboard and introduction for dialing into the deep end of how Paul illustrates contentment from his own life. Now the title of the message, is it Paul's joy and thankfulness to the Philippians or is this Paul revealing the secret of this contentment? Well I kind of merged the two. Paul's thankfulness, he reveals the secret of contentment. Paul's thankfulness, he reveals the secret of contentment.