Paul's Thank-you Note, Part 1

Introduction: Paul's Thank-you Note and its Context

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, February 14th, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now I would invite you to turn with me in your own Bibles to Paul's letter to the Philippians, the book of Philippians, chapter 4, and follow please as I read verses 10 through 20. Philippians, chapter 4, beginning the reading with verse 10. But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your thought for me, wherein you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity.

0:46 Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content. I know how to be abased. And I know also how to abound. In everything and in all things have I learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want.

1:13 I can do all things in him that strengthens me. Howbeit, you did well that you had fellowship with my affliction. And you yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my need.

1:42 Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account. But I have all things and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. And my God shall supply every need of yours, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

2:15 Now unto our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Let us once again seek the face of God, particularly pleading with him, that by the Spirit who moved the Apostle to pen these words, we may be instructed as we examine them this morning. Let us together seek God's face.

2:40 Our Father, we remember your own words spoken through John the Baptist, that a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. And we acknowledge that in the folly of the pride of our hearts, we so often approach your word as though our own natural levels of intelligence and our ability to read were in themselves sufficient to pave the way of understanding. But, O Lord, we acknowledge in your presence that unless you open our eyes,

3:24 we shall not behold wondrous things out of your law. And so we come, conscious of our darkness, conscious of our tendency to error, conscious of our native ignorance, and pray that by the Spirit's ministry, by and with the word, we may be given that illumination which we so desperately need. And then, O Lord, with the understanding of your word, may we feel its pressure upon our conscience. May we know something of its demands upon life.

4:05 May none of us leave having merely seen truth paraded before our eyes. But, O, that that truth will be formed into arrows that find their mark in the deepest recesses of our hearts. O Lord, speak to us. Speak, we pray, with clarity and with power as we turn to you.

4:28 As we turn to you, we pray, with clarity and with power, as we turn to you, we pray, with clarity and with power, as we turn to you, we pray, with clarity and with power, as we turn to you, confessing our need and crying to you for the help of heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now, with the final imperatives of chapter 4, verses 8 and 9 behind him, the Apostle has, in reality, completed that part of the letter in which he has given practical pastoral instruction to the disciples. to the disciples.

5:05 to the disciples. to the disciples. to the disciples. to the disciples.

5:06 to the disciples. to the disciples. to the disciples. to the disciples.

5:06 to the disciples. to the disciples. of God at Philippi. However, there does remain one major issue to which he must address himself, and which, if he does not take up, will indeed give the appearance of a spirit of ingratitude on the part of the great Apostle.

5:27 And that issue, of course, is the issue to which he addresses himself in the verses read in your hearing, the formal expression of thanks to God to the Philippians for the gift that was sent to him in the prison at Rome by the hand of this man, Epaphroditus. And I would remind you of those basic circumstances. Paul is in prison at Rome. He is uncertain as to the outcome of his trial.

5:59 He is hopeful and optimistic that he will be released and that he will even have the privilege of returning. to minister to the Philippians. But meanwhile, according to verse 18 of chapter 4, Epaphroditus, who is spoken of in chapter 2 and verse 25, as a servant of the church at Philippi, has come to Rome with these gifts from the church at Philippi. But now, apart from that passing reference in chapter 2 and verse 25 and in verse 23, Paul has said nothing about this bountiful gift sent to him by Epaphroditus,

6:44 thereby bringing him into a condition which he describes in chapter 4 in verse 18 as one in which he abounds and is filled and has all of his temporal needs met. You see, in the opening verses, the apostle begins with thanking God for the Philippians themselves. He says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. But now it remains for him to thank the Philippians for their gift to him.

7:19 And in the midst of doing that, the apostle sets before us by way of his own example some of the richest teaching in all of the word of God on the subject of Christian giving, Christian receiving, and Christian persecution, perspectives on material possessions and on external circumstances. It is in this very section over which we might put the title Paul's thanks for the gift of the Philippians. It is in that section that we have the well-known verses, the verses to which we often make reference as the people of God. I have learned in whatsoever state I am

8:03 therein to be content. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. My God shall supply all your need. Those verses come not in what we might call formal pastoral instruction, but in the outpourings of a grateful heart writing a P.S.

8:26 to a pastoral letter, a P.S. that we might call Paul's thank you note to the Philippians for their gracious gift. This morning we will concentrate our attention upon verses 10 through 13 in this lengthy paragraph, a section in which we have essentially two divisions of thought.

Paul's Tactful Declaration of His Joy (Philippians 4:10)

8:50 In verse 10 we have what I am calling Paul's tactful declaration of his joy, and then in verses 11 through 13 Paul's masterful qualification of his joy. First of all then, Paul's tactful declaration of his joy. But I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your thought for me, wherein you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity. Try to think with me back to that day when the apostle sitting in that place where he was imprisoned and we must not think of it as a little

9:34 three by six, or six by twelve jail cell. It was more like an ordinary home, but he was chained by the wrist to a Roman soldier. And perhaps the apostle was sitting and meditating, or perhaps composing one of his many letters, or perhaps even studying some of the parchments on which he had portions of the word of God. But while he is sitting in his room, chained to a Roman soldier, he hears, he hears the steady trump of the boots of a Roman soldier on the cobblestones of the path that lead, the path that leads to his room.

10:18 He hears the turning of the key in the door. He hears the squeak of the hinges. And through the door steps a Roman soldier, and as the apostle turns, he notices that the Roman soldier is accompanied by another man. And he looks for a moment and then to his wonderment he recognizes in the liniments of that countenance his dear friend who is sent from the church at Philippi.

10:49 Here is this man, Epaphroditus, who is sent to him. Paul leaps up from where he is sitting, embraces his dear brother, and after they exchange initial greetings, Epaphroditus takes his knapsack, or whatever he used to bring the gifts from Philippi off his back, and he begins to unpack them, and perhaps there were some clothes that had been made for Paul. And then he takes out a little sack in which there are coins containing those things that will be turned into the meeting of Paul's material needs. And looking back upon that event, upon that day when this dear man

11:34 Epaphroditus came from Philippi to his Roman prison, Paul says that he was made glad, or he was caused to rejoice in the Lord greatly. And he uses a passive verb to indicate that he was made glad. And he was made glad with a great measure of joy. Now he declares some very fascinating things about this joy.

12:03 First of all, notice, in his tactful declaration of his joy, the cause of his joy. The language of our text is, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your thought for me. And here the apostle uses a word found only here in the New Testament that is the word that you would use if you were to describe what is going to happen to those trees, on the other side of the parking lot, God willing, come spring. Trees that are living trees, even today as you look out that window.

12:46 But there are no signs of life upon them. Life is in them, but there is no flourishing, there is no blossoming, there is no putting forth of the signs of life. But about this time in the winter, all of us begin to get very anxious for the first little signs of the budding of those trees. And what a joy it will be to see the manifestation of life when the little nubby buds begin to be manifested on those trees, and then those buds will open up into full-fledged leaves, and the time will come when that entire parking lot will be ringed with lush, thick foliage of the trees. Well,

13:28 that's exactly the concept that Paul embodies in the word that he uses when he says, the cause of my joy is that in you Philippians now at length there has been a reviving or literally a blossoming forth of your thought and care for me. That's precisely the way this word is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures in Ezekiel 17 and verse 24. For approximately ten years the tree, of the Philippians' practical expressions of love and concern, had appeared

14:12 as the trees the other side of our parking lot. There was no blossoming forth of this expression of concern for the apostle in a tangible way. He told them, or he reminds them in verse 15, that years before the Philippians had indeed, in the beginning of his going forth, in his departure, from Macedonia, had expressed their concern for his temple needs by their giving, and they had sent their gifts when he was at Thessalonica. But now he tells them that the cause of his joy is that once again after a lengthy period of time, this

14:56 thought of him, this thought that finds practical expression in the meeting of need has once again blossomed forth. But then notice not only what he says about the cause of his joy, but the source or the sphere of his joy. Look at the text. But I rejoice in the Lord greatly.

15:21 He does not describe a bare rejoicing because their care for him has flourished, but he describes his joy as a joy in the Lord. In other words, his rejoicing was inseparably bound up with the realities of his and the Philippians' union with Jesus Christ. That little phrase, in Christ or in the Lord, points to the great scriptural truth of the union which exists between Jesus Christ and his people. And here we see the apostle experiencing the very thing he commands

16:06 with respect to the Philippians. In chapter 3 and verse 1, he said, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Chapter 4 and verse 4, rejoice in the Lord. Now he gives them an example of what it is, practically, to rejoice in the Lord. Now what does that

16:28 mean, where the rubber meets the road? Is that just a pious terminology? Well, I'm rejoicing in the Lord. What is the connection between the joy Paul experienced that day when the Roman soldier opened the door and came in accompanied by Epaphroditus and Epaphroditus unpacks the gifts from the saints of God at Philippi?

16:52 In what precise way was it joy in the Lord? May I suggest that the answer lies in this. When Epaphroditus opened up his knapsack and took out, if he did take out, some clothing for the Apostle Paul, what did the Apostle see in that clothing? What he saw in that clothing was this. He saw

17:18 the very grace of Christ, which had implanted in the hearts of the Philippians, hundreds of miles away, a genuine concern for the well-being of the Apostle. When the little bag of coins was placed upon the table, and Paul, pulled apart the string and poured out the coins and looked upon them, he saw in those coins nothing less than the very love of Jesus Christ mediated through the compassion and love of the Philippian believers. When he thought of how those clothes would meet his own

18:02 need and those coins would serve his own needs, he saw something of the compassionate and tender work of Christ as his own high priest, bearing his own needs before the Father at the right hand of God Almighty. And so when the Apostle says, I rejoice at this blossoming forth of your concern, he says, the source or the sphere of my joy was nothing less than this. It was joy in the Lord, because he says, I saw in all of these things the present living manifestation of the love,

18:45 the compassion, the power, the concern, the tenderness of my Savior. No wonder, he says, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, for I was made glad in the Lord in great measure. But there is not only something here about the cause of his joy, the blossoming forth of their concern, the source or sphere of it, it was joy in the Lord, but I've said it was a tactful expression of joy, and the tactful expression lies in this. Look at the text. He says

19:23 at the beginning, now at length, after so long a time, there has been a blossoming forth of your thought, and lest anyone would think, well, Paul, are you rebuking us for waiting so long to express our thought and concern? Paul tactfully says no. He says, you have revived your thought for me wherein you did indeed take thought, and he uses a form of the verb which more literally rendered would be this, you were indeed continually thinking about me, but you lacked the opportunity tangibly to express

20:07 that loving, thoughtful concern. So what did he do? He assures the Philippians that he has put the best construction upon the fact that about ten years has passed since they expressed in a tangible way the thought of their hearts, but he says, I never believed that the tree died. I believed it was a living tree, and given the right opportunity, it would once again blossom forth into tangible expressions of concern and love.

Applications from Paul's Tactful Joy

20:43 It was a matter of divine providence. The providence of God did not give you the opportunity to express your thought for me. Well, that basically is the meaning of the words, and I want to pause just briefly to make several applications. There are so many that one could make, but first of all, notice that in a very real way, Paul's tactful statement of his joy is an example of the very thing that he commands the Philippians to think about in verses 8 and 9.

21:20 When we were trying to describe the things that were honorable, that were just, and were lovely, it's this very kind of thing that we're talking about. How honorable, how justly, how lovely is the manner in which Paul expresses his joy? Notice the timing. If he began the letter by saying, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ to the saints at Philippi, thank you for your gift, why they would get the impression that the most, the thing that was uppermost in his mind was their coins and the clothing that they sent.

21:59 If in the midst of giving them sober pastoral exhortation to Christian unity, giving them exhortation to purity, and holiness of life, that they might shine as lights in the midst of the darkness, if he had inserted his word of thanks there, it would have shown poor taste. He was dealing with weighty issues. But if he closed the letter and never said anything, he would appear ungrateful. So he puts his thank you note at precisely the most strategic place.

22:32 The people know that Paul is above all grateful to God for what they are, as men and women in Christ. That he is concerned most of all for what they will become, as men and women in Christ. But as a true Christian gentleman, he is not boorish or insensitive. And so he concludes his letter with this expression of thanks. Furthermore, notice

23:00 the emphasis. Even when he's going to write a thank you note about material gifts that have been sent to him, he places Christ and his work central in his thanks. He said, I rejoiced, or I was made glad greatly in the Lord. My joy was no natural joy.

23:21 My joy was not qualitatively the same kind of joy that any destitute man would feel, whose destitution was negated by an abundance of gifts. And here the apostle shows how thoroughly Christian he was in his thinking. Even when he writes a thank you note, he said it was joy in the Lord. And then notice the way he's a beautiful example of love that thinks no evil.

23:51 It had been a long time since the Philippians had manifested their love in a practical way. He had to use the language of accuracy. Now at length, after so long a time, your thought for me has blossomed. Fourth, but love thinketh no evil. Paul

24:14 was not sitting there the day Epaphroditus came, a sour, bitter man stewing in the juice of self-pity,

24:25 saying, oh, Philippians, here I risk my life for them. I preach and get thrown into prison. I'm almost brought to the place where my own life is snuffed out. And what do they do for ten years? They have no

24:41 indication that he's thinking such sour thoughts.

24:46 Their past history was one of deep loving concern. And until there is such undeniable evidence as to indicate that that is changed, Paul assumes that that's still the attitude, even though it hasn't blossomed forth in a tangible way. What an example of a man who lived under the power of that love which thinks no evil. I'm amazed at how some Christians know so little of this.

25:23 Someone can prove love to them for ten years, but if something happens where over a period of one or two months it is not opportune to express that love in a tangible way, they are prepared to read in the worst and negate the entire record of ten years and stew in the sour bitter juice of self-pity and the imputation of false motives to others. And I wish I could say that none such ever enter the walls of Trinity Baptist Church,

26:08 but I cannot. And if you are one who in Paul's place would not have found it natural to say, hey, you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity, my friend, pray that God will immerse your heart in that love which thinks no evil. But we must hasten on, because we not only have in our text this morning, Paul's tactful declaration of his joy, but Paul's masterful qualification of his joy. And that we have in verses 11 through 13. Now notice

Paul's Masterful Qualification of His Joy: The Subject (Philippians 4:11a)

26:50 first of all the subject of his qualification. Often we'll say something and they say, now wait a minute, let me qualify what I'm going to say. In other words, I want to condition what I've said by some other perspectives, lest what I say be misunderstood. Now that's exactly what the apostle does.

27:08 He says, I rejoiced or I was made glad in the Lord greatly when your care for me blossomed forth. In the coming of Epaphroditus, but now he's going to give this masterful qualification of his joy. First thing is the subject of this qualification. Not that I speak in respect of want. Now that

27:34 word want is used one other place in the New Testament, and it's the word used of that poor widow described in Mark's Gospel chapter 12 in verse 44. She did cast in out of her want, her destitution all that she had. Now Paul says when I tell you that I was made happy in the Lord with great joy, I want to qualify what I have said. I was not made glad because or with reference to my state of destitution now being negated

28:18 by your gift.

28:21 And as I tried to think how I could illustrate this, the most vivid illustration that came to my mind was the giddy kind of joy that one sees if occasionally, and I don't know how anyone could ever do it, anything more than occasionally, watch a few minutes of some of these silly game shows on television.

28:42 And you know what happens. There's so much money that can be won if the person guesses the right answer, and then when they do and all the lights blink and they're going to get $7,000, they screech and scream and they jump and they clap their hands and there is a silly kind of a euphoric attitude that sparks and flashes for a few moments. Why? Because people think that these few thousand dollars will now be the means of negating all of the areas of their want or of their need. Now

29:16 Paul says, when I tell you that I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, I do not want you to think that my joy was due primarily to this matter of my destitute state being altered by your gift. Then he goes on after announcing the subject of this qualification, not that I speak in respect of want, to give in the second place the reason for the qualification and he states it succinctly in the first part of verse 11. The reason for the qualification succinctly stated. Look at it. For

Paul's Masterful Qualification of His Joy: The Reason (Philippians 4:11b-12)

29:54 not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content. I learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content. Now again, the word he uses for content is used only once in the New Testament right here. The same family of words is used in several other places and it's a word that literally means self-sufficient.

30:30 Now on the surface of things it may appear like a carnal boasting, but we'll see as the text unfolds it is not. He uses this word purposefully. He says, when I tell you I was made glad don't misunderstand me. My joy was not the result of the negation of my state of destitution for long before Epaphroditus came with your gift I learned a fundamental lesson at the feet of my master. I learned it. And he

31:04 uses the form of the verb which means it was a lesson learned in the past. It was well learned. And Paul, what was that lesson? He said, I learned whatever state I'm in therein to be content.

31:18 I was not morose. I was not morose, dejected and downcast because I had threadbare clothes upon my back. Because my own little money purse was empty. It was not a case of my joy being precipitated by the negation of my state of destitution. I do not speak

31:40 in respect of want. Why? Because I've learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content. When Epaphroditus came through the door, what did he find in that Roman prison?

31:58 Not a man who was brooding over his state of deprivation. Not a man who was questioning the goodness nor the love or the power of God.

32:13 I found a man of joy and of the Holy Ghost and of Christian contentment.

32:21 Because before he ever came, I learned whatever state I am in therein to be content. And now, having given the reason for this qualification in a succinct form, he then goes on to give the reason for that qualification in an amplified and an extended form in verse 12. And there are three sets of stark contrasts in the verse. Look at it.

32:53 I know how here's the first contrast. To be abased and I know how to abound. The contrast between being abased and abounding. Everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be, second contrast, filled and to be hungry.

33:18 Third contrast, both to abound, same word as we had earlier, and to be involved. Now look at the three sets of contrast. To be abased means to be humbled or brought low. And it's contrasted with abounding.

33:37 The very word he uses in verse 18, I have all things and abound. One is the height of having all one's temporal needs met. The other is the depths of being poor, perhaps being hungry, perhaps even being naked. And the apostle says he experienced all three in his second letter to the Corinthians. He says that

34:03 both poverty, hunger and nakedness were his experience in the will of God. Then he contrasts being filled with being hungry. And the word fulfilled is the standard word used in the New Testament for being satisfied when we've had enough food to meet our basic physical appetite for food. They all ate and were filled, described those who ate the bread that our Lord multiplied in the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. The word to be

34:35 hungry is the standard word for not having sufficient food to meet the basic need. It's the word used of our Lord that after he fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterwards and hungered. It's the word Paul uses for his own experience in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 11. And then the third contrasting couplet, to abound. Here we have that

35:01 same word is used earlier contrasted now with pressing destitution. It's the word used of the prodigal son in Luke 15 14. He began to be in want. Destitution that pressed in from every side.

35:19 Now, notice what the apostle is saying. With respect to these things, abasement and abounding. Being filled, being hungry, abounding, or being destitute. He said, I was taught the secret of contentment in the midst of those great contrasting realities.

35:44 And he uses a form of the verb which means, I was taught and I continue to retain the lesson. And the verb he uses is one again that is not found anywhere else but here in the New Testament. And that's why it's translated, I have learned, or better translated, I have been taught the secret. It's the word that pagans used in their mystery religions where only a certain few were initiated into the secrets. Pastor Clark made

36:15 reference to that. One of the marks of false religions is that you are taken in once you're really taken in, then you are taken in further by being initiated into the inner sanctum of the secrets, you see. Well, Paul uses that word not in any way to give a pagan connotation but to impress upon those that he's writing to that he has indeed been taught of God. He said earlier, I learned.

36:46 And you have an active form of the verb. Here you have the passive. I learned in whatever state I am in to be content. Now he says, I have been taught the secret.

36:57 I have been taught the secret. And in what situation was he taught the secret? Look at the text. He said in everything and in all things. In everything,

37:12 singular, and in all things, plural. I have been taught this secret. The secret of contentment in whatever state I am. Now what was his classroom? Well, it

37:26 wasn't sitting somewhere in an ideal situation, looking at a text on a wall. I have learned to be content. It was in the classroom of abasement and abounding, of being filled and being hungry, of abounding and being pressed with destitution and deprivation. In other words, there are times when his classroom was bright and sunny, cheerful walls and lovely pictures on the walls, and a smiling teacher instructing him in the ways of God. And there are other times

38:06 when his classroom had no windows, was dark and damp and dingy, and heaviness filled the air, and his teacher was a somber-looking teacher with a stern face and a harsh voice. But he said, in all of these things I have been taught the secret. I have learned by the grace of God, contentment. And then he points us in the fourth place to the ultimate source of enablement for this state of mind and heart.

Paul's Masterful Qualification of His Joy: The Ultimate Source of Enablement (Philippians 4:13)

38:42 It's as though someone says, Paul, what kind of a man are you? You must be made of different stuff than the stuff of which I am made for you to be able to say the joy you received when Epaphroditus came with his gift was not a joy primarily rooted in the negation of your poverty and destitution. Paul, what makes a man like you? Well, he tells us the ultimate source of that enablement in verse 13.

39:13 I can do all things in him that strengthens me. In other words, he says, I can do. I have a given ability to perform all things through him or in him that strengtheneth me. Now, the term through Christ crept in because along the way people probably use the parallel passage of 1 Timothy 1.12 in which

39:50 you have the same verb, but Christ is explicitly mentioned. But Paul did not need to mention Christ explicitly. They would know to whom he was making reference when he said I can do all things in him that strengthens me. In other words, he says, don't be amazed at me as though I had some innate power that makes me rise above my circumstances and find contentment.

40:19 I have had to learn this lesson. I have been taught this secret and the one who has taught me and given me the power is none other than my blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is boasting about his Savior. Now, when he said, I can do all things, this is not to be wrenched out of its context.

40:45 Paul could not there and then say to the Roman jailer, be dead, or say to his chain, fall off my arm. He's not making a claim to omnipotence. But what he is saying is that for all the demands made upon me in the will of God, I am made strong to embrace the will of God with contentment. That's what he's saying.

41:18 So when it is the will of God for me to abound, I don't have a false asceticism that says, oh well, a Christian should never abound. A Christian ought always to be living close to the bone. And I warn you about some of the emphases in evangelicalism today. In Mr. Sider's

41:36 book, Rich Christians in a Hungry World, it has some vital biblical truth, but it has some tragic imbalances right here. It would put any Christian who's abounding on a guilt trip. Paul did not go on a guilt trip when he abounded. He says in verse 18, I have all things and more. And he's rejoicing.

41:57 He's not on a guilt trip. He said, I've learned how to abound. When the will of God showers on me more than what I need, I'm content and I glorify God. But when two weeks later he strips it all away, I still rejoice in God because the things that really count have not changed.

42:19 I have learned to be content. Why? Because I can do. I am made competent. I

42:26 am given strength or ability to perform through him who strengthens. Me. And when he was destitute, he could rejoice and be content because it was Christ's power that met him in his destitution. And when the destitution was turned to bounty and plenty, the apostle again was found content and rejoicing in the God of his salvation.

Application 1: Contentment is a Learned Grace

42:57 Well, I've attempted to open up that passage. Now let me in the remaining moments seek to bring home three very simple but oh how necessary lines of application. Number one, and I pray God that some of you will hear me with the ears of the heart. And I have pleaded with God that you would because some of you need desperately to hear this word this morning.

43:20 Gird up the loins of your mind and hear me. Listen, listen, this text says, number one, contentment regardless of our external circumstances is a grace which must be learned.

43:38 Contentment regardless of our external circumstances is a grace which must be learned.

43:50 Look at the text. Paul says, I have learned. Verse 11. He goes on further to say, I have been taught.

44:04 I learned. I have been taught. This did not come down in a package on the Damascus road.

44:16 It was learned. And where was it learned? In the very crucible of abounding one day and being destitute the next. It was learned in the midst of those three contrasting set of circumstances.

44:34 Sometimes he was learning contentment. In the crucible of disruption, disappointment, humiliation, deprivation, persecution, betrayal. Other times in the midst of serenity, abounding, security, abundance, exaltation. But he says, I learned and I was taught the secret.

45:00 And so with you and me, dear child of God, contentment regardless of our external circumstances is a grace. Which must be learned. And God is so ordering our circumstances as to give us an adequate classroom and teacher to learn that very lesson. Now I'm going to get very pointed.

45:25 Some of you sitting here this morning say, I can never be content as long as I'm in a state of singleness. God made me to find my true fulfillment in being joined to a woman and being joined to a man. And though I would not blaspheme God and say he is cruel and he is unwise by allowing me to go on in a state of singleness, neither can I say that I have come to a deep seated resting point in Christ.

46:08 You are discontent. A discontent short of blasphemy. But you are discontent in your singleness. My dear child of God, man or woman,

46:24 pray that the Lord will teach you with the apostle whatsoever state I am in. A state of singleness. Fully conscious of all of my emotional and psychological and physical needs that would normally find fulfillment in marriage while in no way denying what I am as a woman or a man. Is it possible for me to say in this state I am content? Yes.

47:00 Because you can do all things in him who strengthens you. And the demands of your singleness are demands upon the grace of Christ and he is adequate for them. There are others of you in a state of childlessness.

47:23 And oh how you long to have a child or to have another child. And God has withheld the fulfillment of that longing. And though there is a reluctant submission, a kind of bending of the neck with reluctance, there is no real contentment. My dear childless couple,

47:47 you can say, I have learned. I have been taught the secret.

47:54 Not for anything in your self, but for the grace that is in him who strengthens his people. There are others of you in the midst of the frustration of too many children. That's right. The presence of quote, unplanned children and young mothers who say, I cannot be content in this situation from the time my weary feet hit the floor in the morning to the time I place my weary body in bed at night.

48:28 Mummy this, mummy that, mummy this, mummy the other. Pile of washing, pile of dishes, piles of demands. I can't be content. I'll grin and bear it till the kids are all off to school.

48:41 Then hopefully I can begin to be a happy Christian. Dear frustrated mother of a batch of little ones, listen to the text. I have learned. I have been taught the secret. I

48:57 can do all things through him who strengthens me. There's some of you in your job situation frustration with your boss unreasonable, irascible he's constantly harassing you and you're convinced it has something to do at times even with your Christian testimony and so there's discontent about your work situation, discontent with where you live and your home and your apartment and all of the rest. And you say if only that could be changed then I'd rejoice. Oh you need to say with Paul fully facing all of the actual needs my joy in the Lord must indeed be joy in the

49:41 Lord and in the unchangeable realities of my union with him. And Christian this kind of contentment must be learned and it is not learned in abstraction from circumstances that press us down to the depths on the one hand and other times raise us to the heights on the other hand. Now most of us most of us perhaps are more prone to discontent with the will of God when we're abased. Some of you have a little bit of a monk in you and you find yourself discontent when you abound.

Application 2: Grace for Contentment is Only in Christ

50:24 Paul could say I have learned in whatsoever state to be content. But then the second line of application is this and I've already not only alluded to this but I've underscored it but I want to bring it into sharp focus. The grace for such contentment is to be found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can do all things in him.

50:51 In him. In him that continually strengthens me. Oh my dear non-Christian friend listen to me. Some of you sitting here this morning who are not Christians.

51:04 Oh you may be in name. You may have had a little water put on your forehead and given your name in a church building somewhere and you call yourself a Christian. No no. No no. Listen.

51:14 Listen. If you have never come to the sight of what you are as a sinner and the sight of God's grace to sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose again on behalf of sinners and in the consciousness of your guilt and vileness thrown yourself upon the mercy of God. In Christ. Listen to me.

51:36 It's most likely that your life at some crucial point is marked by a crippling restlessness and discontent. You say oh if I can only attain this goal. If I can only realize that ambition. If I can only attain that relationship then my soul will find its center point and be at rest. No no.

52:00 The Bible says the wicked are like the sea. In its restless.

52:07 Constantly restless. Casting up its waves upon the shore. Continually restless. Heaving as it were itself upon the shores of all the oceans of the earth. God says

52:21 that's what you will be as long as you are out of Christ. Until you are brought into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. You will not be able to say I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content. Dear unconverted friend you will find no true contentment outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. But oh child

52:52 of God how you and I need to realize this again and again and again. There is something beautiful about a contented Christian.

53:04 And you know me. You who visit this place frequently. There are members that I don't talk in saccharine terms. But I don't know how else to describe it but to use the word beautiful. There is something

53:16 beautiful about a contented Christian. No matter what comes there is that sense of rest. Not the immunization to reality and pain of the stoic who says I'll grin and bear it. Stiff upper lip. No, no.

53:35 The person who when he's brought into a state of destitution can cry out in the sense of the pain and the loss and the grief. But who at the same time can say I have learned to be content. Christ gives me grace to embrace whatever his will brings to my life. The grace for such contentment is to be found only in the Lord Jesus.

Application 3: Failure to Attain Contentment is Worldliness

54:09 And then I close with this point of application. Failure to attain such contentment in Christ is a form of blatant worldliness.

54:24 Failure to attain such contentment in Christ is a form of blatant worldliness. What is worldliness? It's being like this age. It's joy, it's contentment is dependent upon its external circumstance.

54:44 Let those circumstances be touched and the contentment is shattered. That's worldliness. The child of God is the one who in the midst of a marriage that has deep serious problems. A marriage in which there are deep serious problems yet while praying for the resolution of the problems while doing all that is biblically necessary to attack the problems.

55:23 It's possible to have contentment in Christ in the midst of the difficult job situation. In the midst of crushing physical weakness and pain and affliction. We could list a host of things. You see the world knows a little measure of surface delight and contentment when all the pieces are all just neatly dovetailed and everything's going along smoothly.

55:53 But let a little piece get out of line and suddenly everything's fractured. And it's a shame to see people who've been professedly in a state of grace for years who are so much like the world.

56:09 Let God bring a little abasement upon them and they're shattered. And they want everyone to join their pity party. Let God touch them in one area or another and instead of embracing it as God's classroom in which they learn the sufficiency of the power of Christ, they become like the world. Well little would we think that a thank you note for a gift could contain such profound heart theology. But there it is dear

Call to Honesty and Earnest Seeking

56:40 people. Paul's declaration, tactful declaration of his joy. I rejoiced or was made glad in the Lord greatly. Glad that their care for him blossomed after so long a time. But

56:58 now he's careful to defy that statement of his joy to assure them that his joy was not rooted in the fact that his deprivation was negated by their gift. For long before the gift came he had been taught the secret of contentment in Christ. He had learned by the power of Christ to do all things by the strength which Christ supplied. Now what do you think when you hear stuff like that?

57:34 Now you get honest with me. Are you sitting there this morning saying when in the world is he going to get off this business? He preaches stuff that is so far behind. My friend if I've been honest with this book or not have I spent hours tracking down the meaning of Greek words and vocabulary and grammar to play games?

57:56 Now you get honest with God man, woman. Is this what the passage teaches? Then don't you dishonor God by saying that's too far. Yes it is but it is not too far beyond the grace of Christ in you and towards you if you're a child of God.

58:25 It will not come to you in the way of a sluggard. It will not come to you while you play games with gray areas of moral and ethical issues. It will not come to you when you're spending more time in Time magazine than in your Bible. More time in front of your TV and instead of on your knees it didn't come to Paul that way it came in the agony of earnest seeking of God and that's where it will come to you when you get desperate to want it bad enough and seek it with all your heart you will find in Christ all that is necessary for you to say with Paul

59:07 I have learned. Come to God with your stubborn slow heart and tell him you have a stubborn and a slow heart come to him with your discontented heart and say Lord my heart is discontent Lord down underneath I'm afraid if I'm honest Lord I resent the fact that I'm still single I resent the fact you took my husband took my wife I resent the fact that I'm always sick. I resent the fact I have this person for a husband that person for a wife. Tell God what he already knows.

59:44 And wrestle with him to root it out of your heart with him so to meet you by the grace and power of Christ that you will be able to say I have learned I have been taught the secret I can do all things in him that strengthens me. May God grant that Paul's testimony will be ours and that we may show forth the beauty of Christian contentment that we see in the life of that man of God. Let us pray Oh Lord

Prayer for Forgiveness and Contentment

60:28 we are ashamed of the wickedness the worldliness of our carnal discontent. Our chafing with respect to the classrooms in which you've placed us. We stand we sit in your presence ashamed and we cry that you would forgive us. Holy Father forgive us. Cleanse

61:09 us in the blood of your son.

61:13 We pray that each one of us who names the name of Christ will be monuments to the grace of Christ which makes his people content in whatever state they are. Oh make us a people who manifest the grace of our Lord Jesus in this very matter of contentment whatever our lot may be and then our hearts go out to those who are a mass of restlessness and discontent because they are strangers to your grace

61:56 trying to fill that aching void of the soul with things that simply won't fit. Oh Lord may the proclamation of the grace of your son be used to draw them to the knowledge of himself. We commit to you your word. We pray oh God we earnestly pray that that word may not return unto you void but may it prosper in the thing where unto you have sent it even the salvation of men and the sanctification of your people. Bless it

62:36 to our hearts. Seal it by the spirit. Grant that as we further sanctify this day to your praise and to our prophet that we may know the help of your Holy Spirit receive our thanks as we draw near and plead these mercies in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.