PEACE IN RELATIONSHIP TO OUR CIRCUMSTANCES - PHIL. 4:10-19
I. Introduction
A. Soul of Tarsus must have had a wealthy family
1. His education was personally directed by the famed Gamaliel, a privilege afforded to only a select few
a. Such an education must have been very expensive
b. Paul was born with a silver spoon in his mouth
2. As a young man he had an exalted position among the leaders of the Jews which paid handsomely (Gal. 1:14)
B. when Jesus Christ transformed him on the Damascus Road there. was an abrupt change in his lifestyle.
1. He turned his back on those things that are the most important to some people... position, authority, finances
a. Few people who have wealth give it up easily
b. When the church at Antioch commissioned Paul to go preach the Gospel he left with no promise of support
c. He left Antioch with their prayers and little else other than his contentment in the Lord.
II. The Definition of Contentment -mental ease and quietude, freedom from dissatisfaction, anxiety or agitation
A. It is easy to define contentment but difficult to experience it.
1. The reason is of course, because we seek contentment in possessions.
a. We assume that we would be content if we had a different set of circumstances or a better place in life.
b. We crave a higher position with the resultant larger income thinking that contentment accompanies advancement.
c. People pursuing these ides discover contentment is an elusive thing, always just out of reach.
2 Contentment does not depend on what you have or where you are but who you are
a. To illustrate - A tub was large enough for Diogenes but the whole world was too small for Alexander
b. Contentment comes to those who find it within - not those who are looking without
III. The Development of Contentment (4:11) (4:12)
A. Paul uses two educational terms to describe his experience. Contentment is not a gift handed to us but a lesson in school of life.
B. I have LEARNED
1. Paul did not receive contentment through a lectured theory propounded by a college professor
2. This learning experience came about through the varying circumstances of life (II Cor. 11:24-30)
a. Note the changing circumstances of Paul's life (12)
b. This very letter written by the great apostle issues from a prison cell
c. It is clear that the fluctuating fortunes of life come directly from the hand of the loving Father
C. I am Instructed (12)
1. Paul had experienced the great extremes of life
a. He knew fullness and emptiness
b. He had experienced pain and pleasure
c. Paul had experienced life in extremes
d. He knew it in plenty and poverty, sickness and health, joy and sorrow, weakness and strength, evil report and good report, friends and enemies.
2. In all of these extremes he was instructed in the art of contentment
a. You may be sitting pretty at the moment - earning plenty, enjoying health
b. You will not be there for any great length of time because no state of life is stable
c. Fortunes fluctuate and circumstances change
d. Life is a variable experience, we must be prepared to grow with the change
3. Contentment does not come through conquering our circumstances but because we learn to live with them.
A man was justifiably proud of his lawn until one year a heavy crop of dandelions appeared. He tried everything he had ever heard of to get rid of them, but with success. At last he wrote to a school of agriculture, giving a list of the remedies he had tried, and ending with an appeal: "What shall I do now?" In due course he received this reply: "We suggest that you learn to love them".
IV. The Strength For Contentment (4:13)
A. All of us have faced situations which were to much for us and we failed
1. But no situation is too much for our Lord Jesus
a. If we had brought His power into our weakness we would have succeeded
b. The enabling force to live contentedly comes from a higher source than oneself.
c. Paul could live independent of circumstances be because he was willing to live dependent on Christ
B. It is a Practical Strength - I can do all things
1. This strength relates itself to the needs of the moment and is sufficient to prevail in any condition that confronts us
2. What Paul is saying is equivalent to a motto on the walls of the headquarters of Gen. Somernell during W.W. II. "We do the impossible immediately the miraculous takes a little longer".
3. A Christian should face challenging situations with the same undaunted enthusiasm as Gen. Somernell.
a We should remind ourselves that we are backed by all of the resources of the Almighty God.
b. Let's be bold in His strength and believe that we too are sufficient in His sufficiency
C. It is a Perpetual Strength - which strengthens me
1. It is properly translated by others as "The one who keeps on pouring His strength into me
a. Amplified - Through Him who infuses inner strength into me
b. This supply of strength is to be uninterrupted. It is meant to be a constant stream which flows into the believers experience to make him equal to anything that comes his way.
2 If I will refuse to get my eyes on the circumstances this strength is sufficient to move mountains
a. In the face of duty and opportunity we can either plead impotence or claim omnipotence.
b. The secret of living successfully is related to Jesus Christ.
c. His presence in us means His power for us.
3. Take this verse and reduce it to simplest message; I can - through Christ.
D It is a personal strength - strengthens me
1. Each believer can be assured that this power is available to Him.
2. Notice the text does not tell us what some deeper life teachers do. (i.e) that Christ does everything, I do nothing
3. Conversely the text says - I do it through His enabling
a. I am to act but He must enable me to act
b. I am to speak but He must enable to do so
c. I do the work but He must give the strength to do so
4. In victorious living God in the regenerated personality.
It Michelangelo somehow could move into this body of mine and control my mind and my hands, I could turn a block of marble into a beautiful sculpture.
If Leonardo da Vinci could move into my body to control me. I could paint a masterpiece.
If Beethoven could move into my body to control me, I could write a symphony.
If Bach could move into my body to control me, these hands could make melody burst forth from the organ.
If Dwight Eisenhower could move into my body to control me, I could move armies to victory.
If Denton Cooley could move into my body to control me, I could perform the most intricate and delicate heart surgery.
If Einstein could move into my body to control me, I could expound the laws of mass and energy.
For then these men with their gifts and knowledge could work through me as their instrument to accomplish that which they have the ability to do.
If Jesus Christ, who dwells within me, controls my mind, my lips, my hands, my feet, He can do anything through me that He has the power to do.
a. God does not ignore or supplant our personalities so that we become spiritual puppets with a higher power pulling our strings
b. If the Christian life were an automotive stimulus than all Christians would act alike and without variation.
c. Because a combination of human will and divine power are required we have variety in Christian conduct.
5. This truth is reveled throughout this epistle Phil. 1:6 - Phil 1:20-21 - Phil 2:13 - Phil 4:7 Phil 4:9 - Phil 4:13