Note: Below is the transcript of my sermon on contentment that I preached at Church on Mill on May 3, 2026. You can also watch or listen to the sermon in the video above.
Introduction
Good morning, everyone! If I haven’t met you yet, my name is Neal Hardin. I’ve been a member of Church on Mill for almost 5 years. You’ll often see me either teaching connection classes on Sunday mornings or serving in the college ministry.
I also think that I’m the only man who’s preached in our Philippians series who’s not an elder, staff member, pastoral resident, or a former staff member or pastoral resident. So, I am deeply humbled to be standing here today and bring you God’s Word. I hope that our passage today will be as much of an encouragement to you as it has been to me.
If this is your first time at Church on Mill, welcome! Whether you are a Christian or a non-Christian, our passage today—or at least one of the verses we are going to be talking about (Philippians 4:13) is one that you’ve probably heard or seen before.
Maybe you’ve seen certain athletes with “Phil 4:13” on their gear. Tim Tebow, for instance, had “Phil 4:13” on his eye black when he played football, or maybe you’ve seen “Phil 4:13” or “I can do all things” on Steph Curry’s shoes.
Philippians 4:13 is all over the place. As I was preparing for this sermon, I discovered that one of my coffee mugs at home has Philippians 4:13 written on the inside of it. I found it ironic for a coffee mug to say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” while drinking a beverage that I am hoping will give me strength for the day ahead.
After John 3:16, Philippians 4:13 is often ranked the #2 most quoted verse in the Bible. However, even though Philippians 4:13 is one of the most quoted Bible verses, it is also one of the least understood verses in the Bible, based on how people tend to quote it.
In some applications, people will just quote “I can do all things” and not even mention Jesus. It becomes a statement of self-empowerment or self-actualization. I can do this workout. I can do this feat of strength. I can win this competition.
In a more Christian-sounding application, we’ll probably quote the whole verse “I can do all things through Christ (or through him) who strengthens me.” But then we’ll make it about something like, “God, help me to get through this meeting at work.” Or “God, help me to finish my homework or do well on this test.” And then maybe we’ll think, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Now, these are all good prayers to pray, but Paul actually had a different point in mind when he made this statement. He wasn’t thinking about, “God, give me the strength to get through this meeting with Mark and Barnabas. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
No, he was talking about the strength to be content in his material circumstances, whether he was poor, or whether he was rich, whether he had a lot, or whether he had a little—he could do all things through Christ who strengthens him.
This is a message that we need to hear as a church. We live in a deeply materialistic culture that constantly stirs up our desires for MORE and BETTER. More income, more house, more cars, better cars, better shoes, a better water filtration system—it can be anything!
How many of you have watched a commercial and said, “Well, I didn’t know I had a need for that, but now I do!” The culture is consistently working to undermine our contentment and to steer us to misplace our contentment in material things.
But in our passage today, Paul is saying, and by implication encouraging the Philippian church, to not find contentment in our material circumstances but to find our contentment and the strength to be content in Christ and Christ alone.
Again, what we should take away from our passage today is that contentment in our earthly circumstances can only be found in Christ.
Having said all that, let’s dive into our passage today in Philippians 4:10-13.
If you don’t have a Bible, there should be a black chair Bible underneath you or in front of you that you can use. If you don’t have a Bible, you are welcome to keep that Bible. That is our gift to you. If you are using that black Bible, we are on page 934.
Just to give you a roadmap of where we are going today, I’m going to be talking about 3 things pertaining to our passage:
- The Circumstances of Paul’s Contentment (v.10)
- The Challenges to Paul’s Contentment (v.11-12)
- The Crux of Paul’s Contentment (v.13)
Let’s begin by reading our passage: Philippians 4:10-13.
The Circumstances of Paul’s Contentment
(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. (11) Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. (12) 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. (13) I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:10-13
If you are just joining us for our series through the book of Philippians, let me give you some context for why this letter was written in the first place, because without that, it’s a bit difficult to understand our passage today.
Paul had had a long-standing relationship with the church at Philippi. Paul founded the church about 10 years earlier, and we can see the details of that in Acts 16.
But based on what the rest of the book of Philippians tells us, we know that, for some time, the Philippian church has financially supported Paul’s ministry.
Kevin will get into more of those details in our passage next week, but we also see evidence of this in other parts of Philippians. Turn back just a couple pages and look at Philippians 1:3-7 with me so we can refresh our memories of what Paul says.
Philippians’ Longstanding Support
Starting in verse 3, Paul says, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
That “partnership” that Paul is talking about there is very likely including, if not referencing, the financial partnership that we are reading about today in chapter 4. They had been financial partners with Paul in his ministry for quite some time.
Paul goes on to call the Philippians in verse 7 “partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel,” showing that through their financial support, they were in the thick of it with Paul.
We have seen such partnerships throughout church history. William Carey was a famous Baptist missionary to India from Britain. He’s often called the “father of modern missions,” and much of his writing was very influential on Christian missionary work.
He’s also famous for a line that is often quoted when talking about missionary work. Carey described the mission to India with the analogy of a descent into a deep mine, and said to those who would be supporting him, “I will go down, if you will hold the ropes.”
To Carey, holding the ropes implied an active partnership of care that included prayer, encouragement, organizational support, and, yes, financial support, and many other things.
The Philippians had a similar kind of relationship with Paul. They were helping to “hold the ropes” for Paul in his missionary work. And their history of financial support had played a role in that.
I’m often encouraged to hear about the work that is being done by the missionaries we support at Church on Mill, such as the Hoshiwara Family in Thailand, the Krause Family in Italy, or the ministry 20schemes in Scotland.
We, as a church, are holding the ropes for them. And it’s important not only that we financially support them as a church, but that we pray for them, encourage them, show them hospitality when they visit, and show other tangible support as we are able or as the Lord puts on our hearts.
A Pause in Philippian Support
Flip back to chapter 4.
As we’ve just been saying, the Philippians had been supporting Paul for some time, but at some point, as we read in 4:10, the Philippians had paused their support. We aren’t exactly told why they had stopped supporting Paul, but verse 10 seems to indicate that they lacked the opportunity to do so. Paul says, “You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.”
So the pause in support wasn’t due to a lack of love and care on the Philippians’ part. Circumstantially, they just weren’t able to send another gift. Perhaps it was due to a lack of resources on their end. Or maybe it was Paul’s own circumstances of constantly traveling and moving around, or being in prison, or something like that, which made it difficult for their gifts to reach him. We just aren’t sure.
But regardless of why there had been a gap in the Philippians’ support, we see in chapter 4, verse 10, that a gift from the Philippian church was finally able to reach Paul. This is why Paul says in verse 10, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.”
The word that is translated “revived” in the original language had the connotation of a plant blooming again. So just as you think of how a flower goes dormant at night, and then blooms again when the sun comes out, so the Philippians’ financial support for Paul went dormant for a time, but was now blooming again or being revived.
Cultural Background of Giving
Now, as we start digging more into verses 10-13, it’s important for us to notice some details that we might otherwise overlook.
The first thing I would draw your attention to is the fact that Paul waited until the very end of the letter to directly acknowledge the gift the Philippians sent him. There are a couple of likely references to it earlier in the letter, but Paul waited until the end to directly address this topic.
The second thing I would point out is the fact that Paul doesn’t actually give a direct “thank you” to the Philippians. You can look for one, but it’s not there, at least, not in the way we would expect.
Both of these things would probably be considered a faux pas or impolite in our own culture. If we had sent significant financial support to someone, and we had to wait until the end of their response letter for them to not only directly acknowledge our gift, but even then not get a thank you for it, that would probably bother some people today.
But these two things actually reflect different social customs that Paul had to navigate during his day.
In Paul’s day, if someone gave a financial gift to you, saying “thank you” wouldn’t have been seen as just a common courtesy. Saying “thank you” would have actually created a formal sense of social or financial indebtedness from Paul to the Philippians, such that Paul would either need to pay them back in some way, or acknowledge them as a social superior, much as a client does with a patron that sponsors them. In other words, saying “thank you” would attach social or financial strings to their gift that Paul did not want to create (and the Philippians probably didn’t either).
Doing so would have also undermined his main point in this passage, which is that his contentment in his material circumstances came from Christ, not the gifts he was receiving.
In Paul’s culture, among friends and equals—which is how Paul would have understood the Philippian church as his brothers and sisters in Christ—saying “thank you” was far less common because people didn’t want to create that sense of obligation or reciprocity. That would be the opposite of what they thought friendship was supposed to be.
So instead, Paul kind of gives an indirect thank you in this letter. By doing things like offering praise or encouragement, telling them how their gift would advance the gospel, and giving God the glory, Paul gives them an indirect “thank you” while also not creating a formal sense of obligation between them.
But more important than social customs, these things also reflect Paul’s own gospel priorities. By not creating that formal sense of obligation, both Paul and the Philippian church would be able to focus on seeing their gift in light of the gospel work it was enabling, not the kind of relationship they had with Paul.
These gospel priorities also probably factor into why Paul doesn’t address their gift until the very end of the letter.
Paul has spent the majority of the book talking about how much joy he has in his circumstances, how much joy he has for the Philippian church itself, and wants to encourage the Philippian church, giving them instructions, reminding them to rejoice in the Lord always, to be anxious for nothing.
And now, here again in chapter 4 verse 10, Paul is rejoicing in the Lord “greatly” that their dormant partnership has been revived.
Had Paul addressed the gift up front in the letter, this could have conveyed that the gift was the primary reason for Paul writing the letter. But Paul actually wants to convey just the opposite. He doesn’t want the gift to go unacknowledged, but Paul’s main source of joy and his main reason for writing the letter is actually the gospel work that he sees God doing in his own circumstances, as well as in the circumstances of the Philippians.
And so, even when addressing the gift itself, Paul frames their gift in light of the gospel and the good work God is doing. He doesn’t make it about the gift itself, and that is truly what allows Paul’s contentment to be in Christ, not in his financial support or his circumstances.
The Challenges to Paul’s Contentment
Now that we have more context for the why behind Paul’s response and his circumstances, let’s look in more detail at his actual response where he describes the challenges that he has faced to his contentment.
Look with me again at verses 11-12.
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 circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. Philippians 4:11-12
So, after we saw Paul in verse 10 frame his response to the Philippians’ gift as one of rejoicing, now in verse 11, we see Paul framing his response to the Philippians’ gift as a lack of necessity as he says, “Not that I am speaking of being in need.” In other words, he’s saying, “I don’t really need your gift because I’ve learned to be content with a lot more and a lot less.”
Again, Paul’s response here is so countercultural to our own. I work for a nonprofit, and as such, we have donors who support our ministry. But if I went to our head of development and fundraising and asked him, “Hey I got a new strategy for you to try out. Why don’t we tell our donors, ‘Thank you for the gift. We’ll put it to good use, but we don’t really need it because we’ve learned to be content with whatever.’” How do you think that conversation would go? I would probably be laughed out of the room.
But for Paul, this is his way of trying to maintain his relationship with the Philippians and avoid the social or financial obligations that might have been communicated with a simple “thank you.”
More than that, though, Paul uses this as a way to set up one of our main applications from our passage today: the fact that contentment can be learned. Contentment is something that can be learned. It is a point that Paul makes twice in our passage.
Learning Contentment
It can be tempting to think that contentment is something that is simply given to us rather than learned. And this is true of many godly qualities. When we pray for contentment, patience, love, or whatever it might be, we sometimes seem to have this expectation that God is going to just download this information into our brains. And then, slowly, over time, we get more and more downloads from the Holy Spirit on whatever quality of godliness we think we lack. But I would say this is not actually the primary way we learn these things.
Now, don’t hear me say that God never does this. Sometimes, God does just give us a supernatural love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control that we can’t explain. And ultimately, all godliness is a fruit of the Spirit, and all glory for the ways in which we grow goes to God.
However, very frequently, God, as a loving Father, doesn’t just give us a fish. He teaches us to fish. He doesn’t just give us the ability to love, but teaches us how to love. He doesn’t just give us peace, but will likely allow you to go through circumstances that challenge the peace that you have and expose where you are actually drawing your peace from.
In fact, this concept is kind of an old Christian joke when it comes to patience. Your friend might say, “I’m praying that God would give me more patience.” And you respond, “Ah, my condolences.”
Why might that be the response? Because we know that if we are truly asking for patience, God is likely going to give us opportunities to be patient and to be in circumstances where our patience is being tested.
You might be praying daily, “Lord, give me patience with my kids or with my spouse or with my coworker or with my friend.” But we may not realize that they themselves are God’s way of answering our prayers. By trying your patience day in and day out, God is giving you opportunity after opportunity to grow in patience.
Again, I don’t want to dismiss the idea that the Holy Spirit can supernaturally give us patience, but the way that God normally teaches us patience and the way we grow in patience is by being put in circumstances where our patience is tested, and we have to make the choice to not be irritable, to not be angry, and to not be impatient.
The point is, even as we are consciously dependent on the Holy Spirit for everything, don’t absolve yourself of responsibility in your conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit.
These same principles apply to contentment. God may very well just give you a supernatural contentment, but even the apostle Paul said it was something he had to learn.
As I mentioned earlier, Paul makes this point twice in our passage today.
“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 circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”
Twice, Paul says that contentment was something he had to learn.
Now, your English translations wouldn’t show this, but Paul is actually using two different words for “learn” in the original language.
The first instance is a word that means what we would typically think of when we hear the word “learn”: to grow in knowledge through teaching or experience.
But this second instance of “learn” is a far more interesting one. In the original language of Greek, what we translate in English as “to learn the secret of” is actually only one word in the Greek. And it’s a word that literally means “to be initiated into,” like we might think of being initiated into a secret religious order—the kinds of religious orders that don’t tell you what they believe up front, but you have to be initiated into the order to learn its secrets.
So Paul is kind of saying, “I have been initiated into facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I have learned their secrets.”
So it’s a very interesting choice of words, but Paul is very likely using this word in an ironic way. It’s the only time this word is used in the New Testament, but he’s using a word that would normally highlight something very exclusive and secretive in order to draw our attention to two things:
- The fact that God uses ordinary circumstances to help us grow in contentment, as we’ve just been discussing. It’s not some secret knowledge or revelation that Paul received from God. Rather, Paul had to learn it through the ordinary experiences of life, just like we all do.
- The fact that contentment is found for all Christians in Christ. It’s not exclusive to some subset of Christians. Paul is telling the Philippian church that contentment is found in Christ, whom every Christian has been united to.
So this naturally raises the question: How did God teach Paul contentment in his circumstances? How did Paul learn contentment when it came to his material and financial circumstances?
Look back at verses 11-12. Paul talks about two ways:
- I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound
- I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger
- He has faced abundance and need
When we boil all of that down, Paul is saying that God has used two primary means of growing his contentment: through having a lot, and through having very little. Paul says that he has learned contentment in his material circumstances by having lived through the full spectrum of circumstances of having a lot and having nothing.
In other words, God taught Paul contentment through his experience.
And so, with this, it’s worth pointing out that having abundance and having lack actually present unique challenges to our contentment. So we’re going to spend some time dwelling on that.
Finding Contentment in Abundance
Finding contentment in abundance is probably a less familiar idea to us than finding contentment in need. But since we live in one of the wealthiest countries on earth, it is all the more important that we understand that abundance comes with its own challenges to contentment.
In the book of Hebrews, we are told,
“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
And Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6,
“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” (1 Timothy 6:6-10)
Money, though not a bad thing in itself, is a terrible master. Even for those who have a lot, if your contentment is not in Christ, then the temptation will always be to want more stuff, or to want different stuff, to want better stuff.
The fact of the matter is that we all have a God-shaped hole in our hearts. And even if you have everything that the world has to offer, it won’t fill that hole. As the Christian mathematician Blaise Pascal once said, “The infinite abyss [of our hearts] can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.”[1]
Material abundance can never fully satisfy us.
Now, don’t hear me say all this and take away from it that it is wrong to be rich. Far from that, when you use your wealth to bless others, it brings glory to God.
A perfect example of this is the anonymous donor who gave $2 million towards our building project for this church. I don’t have $2 million. I would like $2 million. But if $2 million fell into my lap, I probably wouldn’t have used it for that, if I’m being honest. Maybe that’s why I don’t have $2 million. Who can say?
But either way, this rich person, whoever they are, used their wealth to bless this church tremendously. So we shouldn’t think less or more of someone who has more, just as we shouldn’t think more or less of someone who has less. As the book of James says, we are to show no partiality based on wealth.
So, beyond money not being able to satisfy our deepest longings, how else does abundance challenge our contentment? The book of Proverbs helps provide an answer to that.
“Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:8b-9)
As this proverb highlights, the biggest challenge to our contentment in abundance is that we tend to find our contentment in the abundance itself and forget our dependence on the Lord. Without that pressing need, it’s easy to find yourself praying less about finances or not acknowledging our dependence on the Lord as often. Financial need, though certainly challenging, can often be a reminder to us of the other ways in which we need the Lord.
Finding Contentment in Need
But as that proverb highlights, just as there are challenges to our contentment in abundance, there are also challenges to contentment that comes from need.
Need can drive people to do some desperate things. I’ve been reading the book Les Misérables with some friends this semester, and it has certainly highlighted how poverty can sometimes twist and warp people and our desires and steal our joy and contentment, just like riches can.
When we set our hope on, “If I only had just a little bit more, then I could be content,” that will result in a never-ending cycle of discontentment, because as soon as you get that “little bit more,” that might satisfy you for a short period of time, but you will eventually want “a little bit more” again. As the book of Ecclesiastes says,
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 5:10)
In saying all this, I want to be sensitive to those who are genuinely needy. If you do have genuine needs, that’s nothing to be ashamed of, and we would encourage you to seek out help. Let the body of Christ be there for you to help meet those needs.
At the same time, even for those who are in genuine need, the call to remain content in Christ is the same. I know that can be hard to hear, but being in need does not give us a free pass to being discontent.
I understand this might sound harsh at first, but the reason I say it is because of what Paul says in this passage. When Paul is using the word “need” in verses 11-12, Paul parallels the word “need” with “hunger” and “being brought low” or “being humbled,” a phrase that should take us back to chapter 2, recalling how Jesus humbled himself by taking on human form and dying on a cross.
Paul is not talking about “need” in a flippant or casual sense, like we sometimes do today, when we say “I need something,” when we really mean, “I want something.”
But even when we do have genuine needs, which is what Paul was talking about here, we are still called to be content in Christ, just as Paul said he had learned to be content in any and every circumstance.
Now, to avoid misunderstanding, one point that we need to make when talking about contentment and need is what we mean by contentment. Some people will confuse contentment with passivity and put contentment at odds with trying to meet our needs, as if somehow being content means that we shouldn’t seek to meet our needs.
But this is actually a distortion of contentment. Contentment doesn’t mean that we just sit on our hands, be passive, and do nothing. Yes, there are times when God says, “Be still and know that I am God,” but that is still actively seeking contentment in Christ, not doing nothing.
But in addition to that, God may call you to change your circumstances in some way while also learning to be content in Christ regardless of your current circumstances.
- For example, we can still pursue changing to a different job while also learning contentment in our current job.
- We can still work hard to get out of debt or improve our financial situation, while also learning to be content with what God has provided right now.
And so, we can still pursue ways to meet our needs while also learning to be content in Christ alone in the midst of need. That’s a very difficult tightrope for us to walk as sinful people, but it is our calling nonetheless.
As a church with people of various income levels and levels of need, it’s important for us to know the struggles of contentment that we all face.
Whether we are rich, or whether we are poor, or whether we are somewhere in between, we all face the temptation to put our contentment in material goods that will never satisfy. That is why Paul says in “whatever situation he is” and “in any and every circumstance,” he has learned to be content. It is something that God has taught him through experience, and it is something he has learned by having much and having little.
But what allows Paul to do this? What is the crux of his contentment? What allows him to be content in need and abundance? Our final verse gives us that answer.
The Crux of Contentment
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
Paul can find contentment in any and every circumstance because it is Jesus who gives him strength, who supplies his every need, who sustains his very life.
Contrary to how we typically hear this verse used today, it is not one of self-empowerment. In fact, self-empowered contentment would have aligned well with the culture of Paul’s day, too. In his time, the word “content” could also mean something along the lines of being self-sufficient. But Paul is turning this idea radically on its head.
Rather than seeking contentment by turning our eyes upon ourselves or the things of this world, contentment can only be found by turning our eyes upon Jesus. Contentment can never be found in our earthly circumstances. It can only be found in a heavenly king. That was what Paul had to learn, and the same needs to be true for us, brothers and sisters.
There are going to be situations that come in life that will test our contentment, whether it be at work, at school, or at home. So many things in life can fall short of our expectations, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions. Many of these things that we want are often good. But when our circumstances deviate from what we think they should be, that is when our source of contentment is exposed.
For those of you with whom I’ve talked over the last few years, you know that I’ve struggled to find contentment with my job. Despite loving many aspects of what I get to do, it has also been very challenging. Putting aside the details what maybe could have happened or should have happened with my situation, the Lord has used these challenges time and again to expose the fact that my contentment is not in Christ as much as it should be.
It’s hard to be content. It’s hard to be content when you maybe aren’t making as much money as you think you should be, or as you want, or as you need. It’s hard to be content when you aren’t finding success in your life goals or ambitions. It’s hard to be content when your health is jeopardized or taken away. It’s hard to be content when you feel rejected by a friend. It’s hard to be content in singleness or in marriage. It’s hard to be content when you are constantly struggling with the same sin over and over again.
There are nearly an infinite number of reasons why we could be discontent, and only one reason why we need to be content: Jesus. When we can be content in Christ alone, he gives us the strength to be content in all circumstances. When we can be content in Christ alone, he gives us infinitely more reasons to have true joy and happiness, both in this life, and in the life to come.
So how do we find that contentment in Christ? I’m sure some of you are thinking of reading the Bible, prayer, and fellowship, and yes, all of those things are a crucial part of our contentment. But Paul has been giving us another answer throughout the entire book of Philippians: we gain contentment in Christ by rejoicing in the gospel. We gain contentment in Christ by rejoicing in the gospel. This is the root of Paul’s own contentment, and it is what we see him model for us all throughout Philippians.
- At the beginning of chapter 1, Paul rejoices at the work of the gospel in the Philippian church.
- And then Paul rejoices at the work of the gospel in his own imprisonment and how the entire imperial guard knows that his imprisonment is for Christ.
- He even rejoices in the work of the gospel among those who are preaching Christ out of envy for Paul.
- He rejoices in the work of the gospel, whether it comes about by his life or death.
- “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” (1:21)
- He rejoices in the work of the gospel in how the Philippians are suffering well for their faith and how they have been united in the gospel by their humility in serving one another, just as Christ did for us.
- He rejoices in the work of the gospel in the lives of Timothy and Epaphroditus and their faithful service.
- What Paul does not rejoice in or find contentment is the things that he could take pride in. Rather, he
- “… count[s] everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”(3:8)
- Even among two women in the Philippian church who are at odds, Paul urges them to reconcile, rejoicing in the gospel work they have previously done with him, that their names are written in the book of life, telling the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord, always. Again, I will say, rejoice.”
- And now, at last, he is rejoicing in the gospel work that the Philippians’ financial gift will allow him to accomplish.
We gain contentment in Christ by rejoicing in the gospel.
Closing
So, if you are a believer in Christ today, my question to you is: where are you finding your contentment? Are you finding it in your circumstances? Are you finding it in the things of this earth? Are you finding it in money or material comfort or in the hope of having that one day?
The infinite abyss of our hearts can only be filled by an infinite God. True contentment can only be found in Christ and Christ alone. And the way we find contentment in Christ is to rejoice in the work of the gospel that we see in our lives and that we see in the lives of others.
This week, when you are tempted to feel discontent… pause and ask: “Am I looking for contentment in Christ—or in my circumstances?”
For those in here who may not be a Christian, these questions are just as relevant for you. Where are you finding your contentment?
Since it is not in Christ, is it in money, fame, power, sex, relationships, education, drugs, the recognition of others—there are so many things out there. Have any of them actually made you truly content?
Maybe you think they have. Certainly, God’s grace does allow us to enjoy the good things he has made. But to enjoy those things apart from the one who made them will eventually prove to be hollow time and again. If you don’t believe me, read the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. King Solomon had everything under the sun that this world had to offer. But apart from God, it was all vanity. What pleasure or contentment he may have derived from those things eventually disappeared like smoke or mist.
So, it’s not a matter of if, but when you find yourself discontent with what this world has to offer, my encouragement to you will be to believe in the gospel and in the God who gives true contentment through Jesus Christ. As Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”
If you haven’t placed your faith in Christ, come talk to me or any church member here. We would love to walk with you in that.
Let us pray.
[1] Blaise Pascal. Pensées (p. 186). General Press. Kindle Edition.