Learning the Family Secret

0:53And it's this one on the screen. If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Now, several of you who are more introverted may be thinking, Amen, I completely agree. A garden and a library, maybe a good cup of coffee, definitely no people. That sounds awesome. If I had a garden and a library, I would have everything I need. Well, let's consider that for a moment. Would it matter what kind of a garden it was?

1:31What if it was kind of small, or it wasn't very fruitful? What if it had weird plants in it that gave off a strange smell? What if it was filled with insects? Now, what about the library? Would it matter what size a library is? What if it was small? What if it was not very diverse? Do you have to have a certain number of books in order to have a library? What if all the books are used copies of Captain Underpants? Would that matter?

2:03If so, I know a couple of young men who have great libraries. My point is: this: even if you felt that you could be content with a garden and a library and that alone, it would only be a matter of time before you started to feel discontent with your garden and your library. At some point, it would cease to satisfy you because it wasn't big enough or diverse enough, it didn't have the right things in it, or it wasn't as nice as the garden and the library of your friend down the street.

2:36See, the myth that we believe is that if we just had this one thing, if we just had this one experience, if we could just take that one trip, if we could just get into that kind of relationship, then we'd finally be content. We would have everything that we need. But you and I know because we've lived enough life. That's not true. Because every time we've gotten exactly what we wanted and thought we'd be content, just a short time later, we've grown discontent. Contentment has proven to be elusive in our lives.

3:17So today, we're going to learn the secret of contentment. It's not a secret that I have as a gifted teacher. It's not a secret that certain people have because they receive special knowledge from the Lord. It's an open secret that anybody can know because it's right here in Scripture. All of us can know this secret, the secret of being content. But most of us, even many believers in Jesus Christ, don't know this secret. So let's pick up now in verse 10 and learn it.

3:58Take a look here in verse 10, and you see that Paul puts his own instructions from the last section into practice here. He rejoices. Remember last week, for those of you who are here who listened online, we talked about how Paul said that we are to rejoice always. Well, he's rejoicing right here, and he's doing so because the Philippians have revived their concern for him. And they revived their concern. The reason that he says that is not because they stopped caring about him at some point, but rather because they didn't have the opportunity.

4:30To care for him. That may have been because they didn't have enough funds. It may have been because Paul was in some remote place or even as he is now in prison and they could not get any relief, any support, any help to him. But whatever the reason, Paul is making sure that the Philippians don't feel guilty for being unable to help them because he says in verse 11 that he wasn't in need. Now, why did Paul perceive himself to not be in need?

5:01Let's take a look at verse 12. He tells us that he didn't perceive himself to be in need because he knew the secret of facing anything that came his way. Any situation, any circumstance. And he came to know that secret, he says, in the same way that all of us learn any secret in life. He learned it. He learned the secret to being content in any and every situation. You see, friends, being content, especially being content in every circumstance, that's just not something that comes naturally to us.

5:42We aren't born content. We're born discontent. And if you've ever been around an infant before, you know that they are born discontent. They're crying all the time, making their needs known. Our sinful hearts are bent from the time we're born towards discontent. And your average company executive understands that completely. He or she may not be able to articulate the biblical and theological reasons that we're discontent, but every company executive understands that the human heart is restless, that it wants more and more.

6:20Over the last few years, more than $500 billion per year has been spent on advertising. And what's the point of advertising? It has one goal, and that is to capitalize on your discontentment and to tell you that you need their product, their service, their experience in order to be content. So a lot of us grew up in the 80s and 90s, or we raised kids in the 80s and 90s. And we remember the Toys R Us jingle from the commercials.

6:56I don't want to grow up. I'm a Toys R Us kid. There's a million toys at Toys R Us that I can play with. That is just brilliant marketing. This company, Toys R Us, is getting kids not just to say, I'm a kid, I like toys, you sell toys, but to literally identify themselves with the brand. I'm not just any kid, I'm a Toys R Us kid. So whenever I want something, whenever I perceive myself to need something, that's where I take my parents shopping.

7:30Every Saturday morning during cartoons, especially around the holidays, me and many other kids in my generation, we were told that our bikes, our trains, our video games, as the jingle went, none of those were good enough. You needed a new bike, a new train, a new video game if you wanted to be content. And as those of us who have grown into adulthood already understand, nothing changes when you become an adult. Except instead of bikes and trains and video games, it's last year's clothing style isn't good enough.

8:05Your last experience on vacation wasn't good enough. Last year's car model isn't good enough. You want, you need, you deserve new things, new experiences. So contentment doesn't come naturally to us. Discontentment is what comes natural. We're born with these sinful and covetous hearts, and then every company in the world plays to that restlessness. So what we have to do is we have to learn the secret of contentment. So what is it? Look at verse 13. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

8:51Now, that verse gets taken out of context all the time. You see it often on athletes. They write it on their tape or on the iBlock. For football players, you'll see Phil 4:13. And it always amuses me because you'll usually have one guy on each team with that on them. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Well, one of you can't because somebody's going to lose.

9:15If that's what that means, this verse is not true. But when we look at the context, we can see very clearly what this verse actually means. What is Paul saying when he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me? He's saying, no matter what my circumstances are, no matter what situation I find myself in, I can be content. God gives me the strength to be content no matter what my life looks like right now.

9:46So how does he define any and every circumstance? Well, take a look at this diverse group of situations that he puts in verse 12. He says, being brought low and abounding, facing plenty and hunger, facing abundance and need. So you've really got two categories of things. Some on their face are bad and some on their face are good. Let's take that first group. And in this first group, we would call them bad circumstances. You are facing hunger, you're facing need, you're being brought low. I think it's pretty easy for us to look at. Those things and say, yes, I would need God's help to be content if those were my circumstances. Being brought low refers to being humbled in some way. It's hard to be humbled. Whether you're humbled because you lost a game or you failed a test or your significant other leaves or you didn't get the promotion that you were hoping for, in all of those situations, you are humbled. You've been brought low, and it's hard. It's hard to be content when that's your circumstances.

11:08What about facing hunger? I think we all know it's hard to be content when you're hungry. We even have a term for it: hangry. Kids get hangry, adults get hangry. Tall, lanky guys like me, we get really hangry. I burned 400 calories walking up those two steps. But people who are really in need, who don't have enough to eat on any given day, some across the world, some in our own community, it is really hard to be content when your stomach is growling, when you don't have enough to eat on any given day.

11:46And then he mentions being in need, facing need. And if you've ever been to a third world country or to a developing country before, you have seen this up close. The poorest person. I have ever been in all the places that I've traveled is about 13 hours from right here, Juarez, Mexico, right across the border. The first home that I was invited into was constructed of shipping pallets that they had taken pieces of cardboard boxes and stuck them inside the slats for their walls. They had no floor, it was dirt. So when it rained, not only did water come pouring in the roof, but it turned the dirt floor into a swampy mess.

12:41You look at and you experience those kinds of situations. You see need like that, and all of us intuitively know, if we haven't experienced it, how hard it would be to be content if that was your situation, if that was your home life. So when we're brought low, when we're facing hunger or need, I think we all understand it's only possible to be content if you have God's strength. He's going to have to give you the strength. He's going to have to give you the perspective for you to walk in joy in those terrible circumstances.

13:17But what about that second group? That second group of situations and circumstances that he brought up. He called it abounding and facing plenty. What in the world? There's a secret to facing plenty? I mean, you don't face plenty. You hope for it. You pray for it. You welcome it into your life whenever you are in a season where you are abounding. I mean, do we really need God's strength to be content when we're abounding? Well, according to Jesus, we absolutely do. Look at Matthew 19.

14:04And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

14:41So let's recap that. Jesus said it is possible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, but that it's easier for a 1,200-pound animal to go through the eye of a needle than it is for that. Wealthy person to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples are stunned. They're like, but wait, if that's the case, is anybody even going to make it to heaven? And Jesus says, it's only by the grace of God that anybody, especially a wealthy person who is abounding, is going to make it.

15:24So, yes, it seems abundantly clear that we do need God's strength when we are facing plenty. There is a secret to being content when everything is going perfectly well in our lives. And I think we understand this from our own experience. When in your life have you ever gotten exactly what you wanted and still been content six months later? You see, that's the lie. If we just had some new outfits, if we just had an opportunity to be promoted at work, if we just could take that one trip, if we could just get into a relationship or get married or have kids, then we would finally be content.

16:21But we won't. Because as soon as you get the thing that you're after, the bar just rises a little. Higher. John D. Rockefeller was one of the wealthiest men who ever lived. And one time a person came up to him and said, Mr. Rockefeller, how much money is enough? You know what he said? Just a little bit more. Friends, it's not hard to see why we would need God's help and strength to be content when our circumstances are awful.

17:03But I think for a lot of us, we don't see that we need God's strength and help when our circumstances are great. We have to believe Paul when he says there's a secret to being content when we are abounding and facing plenty. It's a secret we can learn, we can do it, we can be content in those circumstances, but we can only do it with God's grace and help and strength. Because when we're abounding, when we're facing plenty, the temptation is to continue to want more and more, to hoard more and more things to ourselves instead of seeing it as an opportunity to bless others. Instead of remembering that God is the one who provides for us and we don't have to trust in our bank accounts, in our savings, in our investments, in anything else, we can trust in him.

17:54But for that to happen, God has to overcome ourselves. Sinful bent toward discontentment, are bent to accumulate. And he's got to set us free by his power and by his grace to become generous people who are happy to use our plenty to supply the needs of others. And that's what you see in the next section. Let's pick up here in verse 14. Paul writes, 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 for 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 Epaphroditus the gifts 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 in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

19:28Now, in this section, there's one word. That should stand out to us. And that word is partnership. Partnership. Paul just said that he can do all things through Christ. And when God does things for us, whether that's providing for us, encouraging us, strengthening us, how does he often do it? Through the church, through the family of God. And that's exactly what we see here. Not only did the Philippians share Paul's trouble in his imprisonment, he's in jail right now, but they also were the only church at the beginning of his missionary journeys who partnered with him financially.

20:20Whether he was down the road in Thessalonica or he had left the region, Macedonia, where Philippi was located, they were partners with him. That's how they viewed themselves. And so think about what a partnership is in a business sense. When you've got a partner or partners in business, what it means is that everybody involved is bearing the burdens and the risks equally. And everybody involved is also sharing in the benefits and the profits equally. That's what it means to be partners. Well, as a faithful missionary, Paul was willing to endure anything for the sake of the gospel. Even if he meant it meant he had to go alone, even if it meant that he wasn't well supplied. Now, thankfully, he was well supplied at this point, but that wasn't always the case. He was willing to endure anything. But it shouldn't be that way. It shouldn't be the case that Paul or anyone else who answers the call to go to the nations has to be in a position where they're not well supplied, where there's not that relationship, like he says here, of giving and receiving.

21:29But in many cases, those who are called to go to the nations don't have a real meaningful partnership with believers in a local church. And that is sad. I want to back up for a second and let's think about the big picture here. What are we called to do as Christians? What's our mission? Well, according to Jesus, it's to make mature disciples of all nations for the glory of God. That's what our mission is. And what is the best way to ensure that the gospel is shared, that disciples are made, that churches are planted? What's the best way to ensure that?

22:12Well, the best way to ensure that is to send out qualified missionaries who are well supplied for the work. But the problem, of course, is that many missionaries are not going out well supplied. They're qualified. They've been vetted in terms of their character. They've been trained. A lot of people have poured into them spiritually. They're qualified for the work, but when they get to the field, they're not well supplied. But how does Paul describe himself? He, as a missionary who is currently in prison, says, I am well supplied because of the gifts that the Philippians sent him.

22:58So I want you to think for a minute about doctors. We've got people who are doctors or who work in the medical field, and some of you are studying for that. No one is going to argue that doctors should be well trained, that they should be qualified for the work that they do. That's why we ensure that they go to school and get the appropriate degrees. That's why they participate in residencies. That's why they get a lot of training. Everybody agrees that doctors should be qualified. But it won't matter if doctors are qualified if they don't have the supplies that they need to actually do the work, to actually ensure that they can bring healing to people.

23:38And so, in the same way, it's a wonderful thing to want missionaries to be qualified. We don't want to send out missionaries who are unqualified either because of their character or because they haven't had the training that they need to succeed in the field. But I think the sad reality is that so many missionaries are not being. Sent out by churches who intend to be partners with them and make sure that they're well supplied for the work.

24:08Some of that is probably due to some inconsistent thinking in our own lives. So we think that missionaries should sacrifice to go to the field. And that's exactly right. In fact, anybody who goes into vocational ministry, whether as pastors or ministry workers or missionaries on the field, everyone who goes into vocational ministry should expect to sacrifice and to suffer. That's what God's Word says. But I think for a lot of us who are following Jesus, we have this almost double standard in our minds where we expect missionaries to sacrifice many things in their lives for the cause of Christ. But we ourselves are unwilling to sacrifice to make sure that they are well supplied for their work.

25:02So it's fine to believe that missionaries should sacrifice to go. I think that's the right mentality and attitude. But friends, we also need to look at ourselves in the same way. We need to sacrifice to make sure that the workers that we send out are well supplied so that they can bring the good news of the gospel to every nation on the earth. We need to make sure that we're viewing ourselves as partners who are sharing the responsibility and the joy of ministry.

25:31Now, one of the things that I really love about Paul is that he's a master teacher. And the things that master teachers do is they anticipate objections before they can be brought up as questions from students. So the natural objection, the natural question at this point is: okay, what if I sacrifice and I give generously, and then I don't have enough to support myself or my family? That's a good question, a legitimate question. It's a question that we're going to address later this year when we get back into the Messy Church series in 1 and 2 Corinthians. Look on the screen at 2 Corinthians 8.

26:14This is so helpful. Paul says, for I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. See, what we want to do is we want to make sure that all of the needs in the body of Christ, particularly the needs of those that we send out to go to the nations, are met.

26:52God promises to meet those needs, so we can rest in that, but God also promises to meet our needs. Look at what he writes in verse 19. And my God will supply what? Every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. You see, friends, God promises to take care of our needs. And that's not an empty promise because the inexhaustible riches of the glory of Jesus Christ are his. He owns, as the scripture says, the cattle on a thousand hills. There is no end to the resources that God has. So it's not an empty promise anyway. But just in case we need more reinforcement that God will not fail to provide for us, just think about the gospel message itself.

27:57The good news that God sent his only begotten Son to live a perfect life of obedience that we should have lived, to die a horrible death in our place that we should have died, and to rise again from the dead so that we could be forgiven and counted righteous and adopted into his family. Look at what Romans 8 says. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. Will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

28:37Point is this: if God is willing to give up his only begotten Son so that our need for forgiveness and reconciliation with him could be met, then of course he's going to make sure that his children don't go hungry. Of course he's going to make sure that your needs are met. That is the good news of the gospel: is that we have a loving Father who we are no longer at enmity with, but we are reconciled to because of the person and work of Jesus. And that leads Paul to this doxology, to this worship in verse 20, where he says, To our God and Father be glory forever and ever.

29:28Because that's where meditation on the gospel and the inexhaustible riches of Jesus Christ will lead you. When you think about all that he has and all that he's done and all that he's provided for you spiritually and physically and in every way, the only place that you can go, the only place to end up is with worship, is with glorifying God for all that he is and for all that he's done. And so from that high point, from that crescendo, Paul turns in these last few verses. To wrap up the letter, and I want you to see what he says here: he says, Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you, all the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

30:19Now, for us, that practice is not totally uncommon because when you meet with somebody and you have mutual friends or you know their family, when you're leaving your meeting, what are the things you usually say? Tell your mom, tell your dad, tell your family I said hello, right? But there's something more than that going on here because a lot of these people that he's referring to, they don't even know each other. They've never met each other, and more than that, there's no internet, there's no airplanes, there's no cars, there's no way for them, in all possibility, to meet.

31:00And yet, what you see in these last few verses is a tangible illustration of this gospel partnership that we're talking about. These people who almost certainly don't know each other, these people who almost certainly will never know each other, are sending greetings across hundreds of miles because, friends, they are all in a small, persecuted minority known as the Christians. They feel that kind of kinship, that faith. Family connection because they all know what it is to be trying to follow Jesus in a culture that does not agree with their worldview and does not agree with their way of life and wants to see them eradicated.

31:44We're not there yet in America, but I think what we're seeing is a changing in our culture where it is less and less acceptable to be a follower of Christ who actually lives out the teaching of the Word of God. And as that happens, the positive upside to it is that we are going to feel a deeper and deeper connection and kinship with each other because we're all that we have. When the culture doesn't agree with you, when you're mocked for your faith, what you have is your family, your spiritual family, the family of God, the church. And that's what you see here. You see this true gospel partnership that we need to work to cultivate here at New Life and in every church today.

32:34And so, as Paul leaves them in this letter, he says this: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. What is it going to take to actually put all of this that we've talked about today and that we've been talking about all summer long in the book of Philippians? What is it going to take for us to put those things into practice? We need the grace and the power of God. That's the only way.

33:09See, this book is being written by a godly man whose circumstances were terrible. He's been beaten. He's been flogged. He's been shipwrecked. He's been hungry and thirsty. He's been imprisoned multiple times. And here at the end of his life, he is sitting in prison awaiting trial to decide whether he's going to live or die. And that man is writing to us from a position of unwavering joy, from a position where he can say, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every circumstance. Friends, what we need, if we're going to be able to learn that secret and put it into practice, we need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

34:03And so I think that there's a good chance there are some of you in here today that when you review your life, when you look back over your life, you realize that the kind of contentment that Paul is speaking about, you've never really experienced that. You've had seasons, you've had moments of happiness because you got what you wanted. But a short time after You got what you wanted, that same old discontentment came back, and you were left asking the same question: what's next?

34:39How can I get to a place where I do experience contentment and joy? Will it be the next product? Will it be the next relationship? Will it be the next experience? But you have the sinking feeling that you already know the answer. Writing about 70 years ago, C.S. Lewis said this in Mere Christianity: If I find in myself a desire which no experience can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

35:18Lewis is exactly right. All of these desires that we have, many of them good desires, all of these desires that we have that are never fully satisfied in this world, all of them are signposts that are pointing us to God and to the world that we were created to live in. You were created for another world. A world that our sin, our rebellion, has broken. But a world that is coming when Jesus returns to make all. Things new, to restore all things, to wipe away every tear from every eye, all of the hurt and the disappointment and the discontentment, all of it will be gone when he comes back.

36:14And so, if you find yourself in that place this morning where, as you review your life, you think, I have just never experienced that kind of lasting contentment, it may be time for you to consider the person and work of Jesus, who alone promises and delivers on his promise to give you a lasting satisfaction that everything in this world will fail to give. And so, I encourage you to receive him by faith. For many others, many of us who are already following Jesus, you might be reflecting on the word this morning and you might say, I don't think I've learned the secret of contentment.

37:00And if that's you, let me just tell you, I am right there in the boat with you. I cannot read this passage and then say, Yep, I've got that figured out. In any and every circumstance, I am content. My weed eater is broken, and it's been broken for four weeks, despite the fact that I've worked on it for about three hours every Saturday for four weeks straight. I still can't fix it. I'm telling you, I was this close yesterday to snapping it over my leg.

37:27I'm sorry, those of you who are new. Because I just cannot believe it. A lot of us, whether it's those kinds of difficulties or whatever else in life, we look at this and we're like, I just haven't learned the secret. And I think for a lot of us, we think we're just going to wake up one day and we won't be discontent anymore. But friends, I think all of us have learned that that's not how sanctification works.

37:58The way that God makes us into holy people is He continually puts us in difficult, frustrating circumstances where we have to learn the secret of contentment by the very fact that discontentment is rising up in our hearts in those moments. That's God's way of teaching us. Every single trial is meant to be an opportunity where we can say, God, I believe that you are good and I believe that you have brought these circumstances, whether they're abounding or facing need, you've brought these circumstances in my life to teach me the secret of contentment. Give me the grace and the strength and the power that I need to be content.

38:43And so if you're a follower of Jesus already, then I just want to encourage you to take some time, review all of the circumstances in your life, all the stuff that's going well in your estimation, and all of the stuff that's not. And ask the question: what is God? Trying to teach me about the secret of contentment in this situation. We have to learn that secret. And we have to believe that God is going to supply our every need.

39:18Let's pray. God, would you teach us the secret of contentment? Would you help us to learn through all of our circumstances, whether we perceive them to be good or bad? Would you help us to learn it? Because we want the joy that comes with being content no matter what happens to us. And more than that, we want to paint an accurate picture of who you are and what you have done for us by the way that we respond to our circumstances. We pray that non-Christians could look at our lives and they could say, How is it that you have joy when you're going through that?

40:27We pray that you would help us in those moments. To point to you and tell them, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God, we pray because we can't do it on our own. Help us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.