Fruit Of Contentment (pt-2)

Philippians 4:14-20 and the Theme of Contentment

But I'll start reading the scriptures as, after folks get to Philippians chapter 4. I'd like to continue on this evening, beginning reading in Philippians 4 and verse 14, after where we left off this morning.

Philippians 4 .14, where Paul wrote this church and said, Notwithstanding ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction. Naive Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but you only.

For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desired a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all and abound, I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.

For my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever. And we can all say, Amen. Amen. Those are the verses that we'll be looking at this evening.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we do come before your throne thanking you once again for the throne that we come to, as your word says, the throne of grace. It is a place that we can come to obtain mercy and then find grace to help in time of need.

And we live in a day and age where we are in a time of need. As our brother asked the question even beforehand, how do we combat these things? How do we look at the things in life and not complain and be content?

And we're thankful for the grace of God that teaches us to live so and to live right. We pray that you take your word and open it to us this evening. May it be a blessing to us to have been in this place together and sharing in fellowship and looking at the word and talking one to another.

Thank you for the songs that we were able to sing already that encourage our hearts and point us to the Savior. And thank you for your great grace. And may Jesus Christ be magnified. We ask it in his name.

Amen. The issue that I wanted to remember to get on tape is that after the message this morning, someone came to me, and I so appreciated this, said, Brother Dave, great message. I just want to let you know, just for a point of clarification, that on one of your points there was just a little bit of a mistake.

And I said, OK, this is very good. When I made the quotation, and it's a tough one to do when it's not in your notes and it's off the top of your head, but when I made the quotation that Jesus, the Lord Jesus, speaking to the Roman soldiers, said to them, be content with your wages, it wasn't Jesus, it was John the Baptist.

So I stand corrected. And Bruce, you should have said something while I was preaching. You should have let me know. But John the Baptist, I thought I'd get that straight. And that way if those two tapes go together on one CD, at least people will have that correction.

Contentment as a Life Marked by Confidence, Peace, Growth, and Joy

OK, here we are. Philippians chapter 4. And I said we wanted to look at the fruit of contentment, if I can entitle this message. Or how does contentment show itself in the believer's life? How can we identify a truly contented person who has this satisfaction on the inside?

How does it manifest itself from the inside to the outside on that person's life? And, of course, by listening to the message this morning, we know that this type of person would have a confidence in God.

They would be a person who's not grumbling and complaining. They would be a person who is not anxious and fretful and worrying. And like Paul said in this book, he says, Be careful for nothing in this chapter, verse 6, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

This type, the contented person, would be the person that is, as we said this morning also, one who's committed to grow. One who knows that they're not to be stagnant, that they're to press on in the faith and to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.

And also they are a person that when everything is stripped away, like we heard this morning, they still have that joy that's unspeakable and full of glory. There's an inner joy in their life. But in particular, I want to look and I like to look at the context tonight of this chapter, the remaining part of it, and I want us to see that there is really one big area that shows up in the life of a person who is content.

And we're going to kind of see it in the Philippians and we're going to see it in the Apostle Paul. But the point is that we are going to see that contentment truly manifests itself or shows itself in unselfishness in a person's life.

If a person is content, they are going to be unselfish. They are going to be totally preoccupied with the well-being and the benefit of others. And we'll see that as we look in here. They're going to be more concerned about others than they are going to be about themselves.

So people who live for themselves then would be people who truly, when it comes right down to it, if you examine their lives, a person who lives for themselves, a person who is selfish, truly is not content.

That's pretty evident when you see people who are living for themselves and not caring about other people. They're not happy because they're never satisfied and therefore they are never content. But when it comes to the folks that are content, their concern is going to be for others.

The Philippian church was a contented church, and we are going to see what they had done. I want to give you an example of somebody who Paul, as he instructed him, it helped him to have this mindset to be thinking about others.

In chapter 2, we have Paul's desire for Timothy to come to this church and to help out and to minister there. In chapter 2, in verse 19, Paul says these words, I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus, or Timothy, shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state.

For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. And what Paul is saying here, there's no one who is similar in mind like he was. There was no one who felt the same way toward the Philippians that he felt.

And how did Paul feel toward the Philippians? Well, he loved them. He was fondly affectionate of them. He cared for them, and he ministered to them. God had used him to go in there and begin the church.

And he says this here, in particular, verse 21,. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. He said there are others who are selfish, and they have carnal pursuits, but Timothy is somebody who is different.

Timothy is somebody who is thinking about other people. And Paul, back in chapter 4, in verse 14, when he speaks of himself as a relationship to them and them to him, there is this great care one for another, and there is these examples or these manifestations of unselfishness.

In verse 14, Paul said that they had done well in communicating or sharing with him in his affliction. And if you consider that word, when they had done something well, that word well in the Greek is kalos, and it is something that is beautiful, beautiful in its character, something that is noble, something that is right, and something that is lovely.

So they did something that was right, and it was lovely, and it was beautiful. You could probably think of a whole lot of things that a person could do for somebody else, and it would be termed that, but what they did well for him, something that was beautiful in its character, was that they gave to him.

They shared with him. They did not hold on to their possessions, or whatever it was that they gave to Paul, they didn't hold on to it, but they were selfless and unselfish, and because they were content with what they had, and they loved him, and they gave to him.

They had done very well in the military. Most all folks that are in the military, they get what is a medal on their uniform, which is called a good conduct medal. I worked at a place called Pioneer Flour Mills in San Antonio, Texas, and they had, in the customer service department, they had a bulletin board, and they had an attaboy section.

And the attaboy section of that bulletin board would go somebody's name for someone who had helped that department out. And it was really kind of cool, because your name went on there, and then they would call you down in the department, and you wouldn't know it.

And one time they called me down there, because I had fixed something on their systems, and I don't remember to this day what it was, but my name was up on the attaboy part of the bulletin board, because I had done a good job for them, and what they did was they had a spread.

They called you about lunchtime, and they had food, and cake, and all that, and it was really kind of nice. Pat you on the back, because I had done well, or anybody whose name was on there had done well.

That's what Paul is doing to the Philippian church. He's patting them on the back and saying, attaboy. You did a good job. You did well. And what they did was they shared with Paul in his affliction, and in his pain, and in his trouble.

You see, we remember that Paul is in prison, and he's in need. And at times, he is suffering, and they helped out, and they entered in, as it says in verse 14, it says that they shared with him, or communicated with him, with my affliction, Paul says.

They shared with his affliction. It was as if the affliction that Paul had, they felt it themselves, and they entered in. It was their affliction. And because they cared for him, they wanted to do something to relieve his suffering and to meet his need.

And Paul gives them a lot of praise. Paul not only appreciated this most recent gift, but he appreciated all the other gifts that they had sent too. We see how he mentions this in verses 15 and 16. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated or shared with me as concerning giving and receiving, but you only, for even in Thessalonica, you sent once and again unto my necessities.

The Philippians had repeated their act of love and kindness to Paul. Now, Philippi is in this region called Macedonia. And when Paul left Macedonia, he went to Achaia, another region where Corinth was.

And the Philippians sent a gift to him while he was there. And you can read this in 2 Corinthians, those of you taking note, 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 9. But when he was there, he didn't want to burden the Corinthians.

Because while he ministered there, and because he didn't want to burden them, while he was ministering there, some of the brethren from Macedonia, or Philippi, had brought the gift and supplied his need.

In Acts 18, verse 5 and following, when Paul was in Corinth, Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, and Paul was able to teach there for a year and a half. But before this time, he had been making tents with Priscilla and Aquila, and they had sent him a gift.

The Philippians had sent him a gift. Now in the book of Philippians, in this book, chapter 4, and in verse 16, it tells that even before Paul had completely left Macedonia, he went to Thessalonica after he left Philippi, and they sent him gifts there more than one time.

So these folks really cared for him. They were committed to supporting his ministry by giving of their substance to meet his needs. They loved the apostle Paul. I wonder why. Any idea why they loved the apostle Paul?

Well, they appreciated his ministry, as I said even this morning, because God had used him to bring to them the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which had saved their souls, which had brought them to faith.

God had visited them. God saves Lydia, and God saves the Philippian jailer, and I believe there was a young woman that was used and abused there, and she was saved also, and the church had begun through his powerful ministry, under his preaching.

And they showed their love by supporting him. They gave as much as they could, and whenever they had the opportunity. Paul was dependent upon what he could earn for himself when he made tents, but there was times still when he was without, and he was in need.

And then he was not only the things that he could provide for himself, the Lord giving him jobs, making these tents, but also he was dependent upon what he received from other people. The Philippians knew this.

Paul had lived among them. They knew how he lived among them, and they understood that there were times that he had need, and they wanted to do whatever they could to help him. Again, God had used him to come to their city and be the messenger of the gospel which saved them, the gospel that brought forgiveness of sins and peace with God, resulting in their lives and inner satisfaction, or the subject matter, true contentment.

They wanted to see this message go to other cities. Not only did they want Paul taken care of, but they also wanted to see this message go to other cities so that they could benefit from Paul's powerful ministry.

And isn't that true? There are times in our lives when someone especially ministers to us. Maybe some of you have thought this way when it comes to Pastor Mike. There's been times when you've been dry, or you've been going through just a difficult time, and the preaching has been powerful, and you know that he's been studying, or maybe he's called you on the phone, maybe he's visited, and you just really appreciate what it is that he's doing as far as his ministry as pastor here at BBC.

And then when it comes time where the word goes out that we're going to put together a special offering for Pastor Mike, it's not tough to give, is it? You just want to because you love him and you appreciate his ministry.

I think that's what's happening here. They saw his need, and they wanted to take care of him. Now in verse 17, I alluded to this this morning, we have a little bit of a phrase here and something I just want to take a peek at just to see this dilemma that Paul is in.

After telling them that they had done a good job up in verse 14, down in verse 17, and that good job, of course, is in sending the gift, and after rehearsing all the kindness that they had shown him in verses 15 and 16, Paul gets to this point in verse 17 where he says, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.

And I want to park here a little bit and just kind of look at this and see what it means so that we might be encouraged by this. Why was Paul rejoicing in the Lord? Why was Paul so thankful? Why was Paul so happy?

Why did he recognize their act as a job well done? Well, I want to submit to you that it wasn't because he wanted the gifts for himself, the support. He was just grubbing, you know, wanting these things.

It wasn't that. Or it wasn't that he wanted the money or the goods for his account. It was because he wanted the spiritual profit or this. He says here, I desire fruit that may abound to your account or that there may be profit for your account.

This Greek word is kapos, and it means fruit that is plucked, but it has a meaning of banking terms, this word here. And it means a benefit or an interest or a dividend that is paid. And what he's talking about is a spiritual interest that is compounding to their account.

Proverbs 19 and verse 17 speaks to the fact that the Lord does bless those that give, and there has something to do with the Lord looking at that and what God does. Proverbs 19 and verse 17, the Word of God says, He that has pity upon the poor lends to the Lord, and that which he has given will he pay him again.

That God is going to take care of those, and there is this idea of this paying back. And I'm not talking about, you know, that we do this with that motivation, but this is just a spiritual principle. That if we provide for others and if we give, that God sees that, and it is this, as we're going to see later, it is something that is acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.

And God blesses those who have a liberal heart, as it says in Proverbs. I think it speaks many times in there that the liberal soul shall be made fat. Not fat as far as body-wise, but it's that there is this blessing that comes to them.

And Paul is not happy because he desired the gift and he was made more comfortable after receiving the gift. He's rejoicing because the Philippians are laying up treasures in heaven. There it is, Matthew chapter 6, where we're to lay up treasures in heaven.

He wasn't concerned with receiving. And he has this thought here, and he puts it very clearly, not because I desire the gift. And it's not because he doesn't want the gift. He knows he needs the gift, but that is not his focus.

The focus that he has, you see, is because he's content and he knows that what he has is from the Lord and God is providing in his life. And it is not the gift that brings him the contentment. Here, there's this kind of switch in the verse here.

He's looking at them and the benefit that they receive, what it is that is going to go to their account. He knew that they, after obeying the Lord in the area of giving, he knew that they would be blessed beyond measure.

We must ask ourselves, are we a people or an individual that are always wanting to be on the receiving end? There is something in the Scripture where it says it is more blessed to give than to receive.

And in this case here, Paul is looking at this and he's considering their lives and he's considering what they have done, and he knows that they're getting the blessing from this. He knows that their account is accruing and compounding the interest.

It's a spiritual interest that is compounding. I wonder if we enjoy seeing others being blessed. Are we content to see others accrue eternal benefits? As the Philippians gave, they were making an investment.

They were making continual deposits in the bank of heaven, so to speak. And those deposits would multiply with compounding interest. I'll read you a couple of verses. I was thinking of just this one, and I'm pretty sure, I'm going to go back and look at it, because I'm pretty sure this is one that the Lord Jesus quoted.

I'm going to be careful tonight. In Luke 6, and in verse 38, where our Lord Jesus said, "...give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom.

For with the same measure that ye meet withal, it shall be measured to you again.". And another verse that I'd like to look at is in 2 Corinthians 9. If you'd like to turn there, that's close to Philippians.

You could hold your place in Philippians. But look with me in 2 Corinthians 9. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are two good chapters that deal with giving. If you're ever wanting to study the subject of giving and how to give, we're going to touch on that also again this evening.

But those two chapters are great. But in 2 Corinthians 9, we're not going to look at all of it. We're just going to look at a couple of verses right now. Where Paul wrote the church in verse 6, and he says, "...but this I say, he which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly.".

And he which sows, and when he's talking about this sowing, it is giving. It is giving of those material things that you have unto the Lord and for the work of the Lord. He says, "...he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.". Some principles we see here is this law of spiritual action and reaction.

If you give a little, then you'll be blessed a little. But if you give a lot and you sow bountifully, you shall also reap bountifully in your life. And he says, if you purpose in your heart to give, and that's a way that we're to give, we ought to purpose in our heart to give it, and when we purpose to do it, we should do it and carry through on it.

He says, "...so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, not like I have to do this, for God loves a cheerful giver.". And I believe that word cheerful in the Greek is hilarious. Someone who is just so excited and they're beside themselves.

Hilarious giver. I wonder if you ever thought when the plate is going by, if anybody could accuse you of being hilarious. You know, just so glad that you can give. We should be beside ourselves when it comes to giving because as we're going to see, it is a tremendous spiritual act of worship.

It is something that is contributing to the Lord's work. This is what excited the Apostle Paul back in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 17. What excited him was that what he had longed to see in the churches, this attitude was a fruit of contentment in the Apostle Paul's life in that he was focusing on the well-being of others, and he didn't really focus a lot on what he had received, but what they were going to receive.

That there was going to be this spiritual interest to their account. And he was glad about that. He was thrilled that when those he had led to the Lord began to live out their faith and to seek God's kingdom first and to make deposits in the bank of heaven, that they truly would be blessed.

Biblical Principles of Giving: Heart, Opportunity, Partnership, and Consistency

Now, in this chapter, Paul speaks to, and remember I had said that basically the overarching principle this evening or the fruit of contentment is that the person who is content is unselfish and they will be focused and preoccupied with the well-being of other people.

And that is demonstrated, of course, here in this chapter and at the end of this chapter in the idea of this giving to the Apostle Paul. And what I want to do is spend some time speaking about the giving aspect and principles of giving that we see here because I believe that will help us to see that if we want to put feet to this message of what it means to be content, if we truly want to be content people, we want and should desire to be people who are preoccupied with the well-being of others and we want to be those who give.

So we'll look at a couple of these principles here. In this chapter 4 in verse 10, we see that first our giving must be from the heart. And in chapter 4, in verse 10, Paul said, I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me, notice those words there, your care of me has flourished again wherein you were also careful but you lacked opportunity.

There's this care that they had from him. They gave out of a true love and concern for the Apostle Paul. They didn't give to get. You know the curse of the health and wealth prosperity gospel. And you know what I'm speaking of.

Those that teach it a whole lot differently, opposite opposed to the scriptures, they say that if you give, God is going to give tenfold or a hundredfold or thirtyfold or whatever and they give for the purpose of getting more back.

That's why they give. It is a selfish attitude. It is wrong and that is not what the Philippian church did. We're going to see something a little bit later that we're going to see to the point that they gave to where it hurt.

And that has something to do with giving. These folks gave to help the Apostle Paul who was in need. And giving must be from the heart and we give to those in need because we're concerned about them and because our hearts are touched with their need and so we give.

Secondly, we see also in verse 10, when he says that they lack the opportunity to give, and I'm just using that phrase because he uses it elsewhere. I believe in 2 Corinthians 9 it talks about that when we have the opportunity that we ought to give or our giving should be done when we have the opportunity to give.

And what I mean by that, when it is possible for us to give and when we see a need, don't wait and let the need slip by. We should give when we see the need. When the need has arisen and it's right in front of us, we should give not letting someone else step in, but taking the opportunity as led of the Lord to meet that need and show our true love and care and compassion for those folks.

If the Lord's leading us to do it, then we should follow through and do it. Thirdly, we ought to give to support those who we are serving. This allows us to become partners with them in their ministry.

Notice in verse 14 again, when the Philippians gave to him or they shared with the Apostle Paul in his affliction and he commended them and said that they had done something beautiful, something that they had done very well, it says he communicated or shared with his affliction, they entered into his life with him.

They had to have known about his need. They had to know where he was and what he did not have. And they somehow, maybe through correspondence or whatever, they found out about where he was at and when they gave and supported him, they, as it were, entered into that ministry with him.

And I know Brother Bob Dunn has brought this out in the Sunday School classes on missions and supporting missions and praying for missions. There is this idea when we support Bob and Judy Bowman or we support the Williams and the Smiths at the PTI, the Pastoral Training Institute in India, that we are partaking with them in the ministry and in a way we are going to reap with them also as we're praying and as we're supporting.

They are someplace where we cannot be, but our hearts are with them wherever they are and we're supporting that ministry. And when the final day comes, that giving that we did, that service to the Lord in promoting the Gospel is something that we will be judged upon whether we're doing this or not.

And when we did it, do we do it with the right heart, with the right intent, or did we just write off the check because that just kind of eases our conscience as far as supporting missions? Or is it something that we truly believe that we have a mandate from God to go into all the world and make disciples, to teach the nations, and to baptize them in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, for people to be saved and for the message to go forth.

And we are accountable to that. We are to uphold that great commission. And when we give like that, maybe we can't go, but we can support those who are going and enter into that ministry and reap from that also the blessings now and the commendation from our Lord later.

Well, to move on, our giving also ought to be consistent. And that comes out to us in verses 15 and 16. Our giving is to be consistent. And by that, we see that here, in that the Philippians gave to the Apostle Paul more than once.

It was a continual practice in their lives. They didn't just give one time, like I said, but they gave over and over again to meet his needs. And I believe, and we've talked about this at elders' meetings, that if we're going to take on a missionary, if we're going to start supporting someone, it is the right thing for us to continue to do so.

If we commit to somebody and say, we're going to supply you with so many dollars or whatever the gift is every month, then we as a church ought to be there and be praying for them consistently and supporting them in any way possible that we can.

And we see this here in the Philippians, that they did this. And he says that they sent once and again to meet his need. And sometimes it's going to take an effort on our part to find out what the needs might be when it comes to missionaries or anybody who it is that we're ministering to.

We can't just sit back ostrich with the head in the sand and say somebody else is going to take care of it. I'm not going to see it. Even if I can't see it, it's not my responsibility. But what we ought to be doing is like the Philippians.

And I think it has been evident in the church since my family and I have come to this church that we have seen people who have provided for the needs of other people and those other people were completely taken off guard because of it.

They just didn't know that it was coming because those folks wanted to provide that need and they found out about it and they took care of that need in a consistent manner until the need was over. So our giving should be consistent.

When Paul wrote the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 16, verses 1 and 2, you'll remember there he said that they ought to, when they gather in the morning, that they should have already taken the offering and having it ready every Lord's Day.

They should be ready and giving in a consistent manner. Fifthly, our giving is to be generous. Our giving ought to be generous. We see this in verse 18. Paul said he was full and abounding because of their gift to him.

He, I believe it says in the New American Standard, was amply supplied. Amply supplied. He was overwhelmed by their generosity. And I believe that that is how we ought to give. The Lord has saved us. And the Lord has provided for us everything that we need spiritually and forgiveness of sins and brought us into the church and adopted us into His family never to kick us out.

We're not on trial as adopted children. We're in the family of God forever. We're in the hand of our Lord and no one can pluck us out as it says in John 10. We ought to be so grateful to the Lord and what He has done.

And because of the love that we have, we should support the work of the Lord. We should be giving. And some of you may be new believers and you haven't really considered giving. But when it comes to giving, there's so many different principles and you could preach a lot of messages on it.

But I know my wife and I, what we do is rather than write all of the bills out and see what's left over and give that to the Lord, write the Lord's, the giving to the Lord, with that check or put that money aside first.

I'm going to purpose to give this much and put it aside and honor the Lord by giving Him as I use the Old Testament phraseology of the first fruits. Give it to Him. And this is my personal conviction.

I believe that we ought to give at least 10%. At least 10%. I mean, we keep 90 and give the Lord 10%. There was a Mr. LaTerno, I believe. I don't know if he's related to the LaTernos that we know. A man in Texas had a technology school, I believe.

And he got to the point in his life where before the Lord, he purposed that he would keep 10%, give the Lord 90%. And God blessed him in his school, in his business, and in his life. And he did not go without.

That would be a pretty... I'm not saying, oh, Brother Dave is really... People after this morning's message say, boy, you're really laying on us heavy, Brother Dave, this morning. Now you're telling us we've got to give away 90 and we only keep 10%.

No, you do what you purpose in your heart before the Lord to give, but give. We should give over and above, I believe, when it comes to benevolent offerings and freewill offerings and love gifts, missionary support, designated offerings.

Whenever we hear of the need, we should, if we have the ability to do so, be there. And the Philippians were. They were generous. They did not hold back. And Paul says in this verse that he received in full, that he abounded.

He received in abundance. And all of this because this group of generous believers gave in generous measures. Sixthly, our giving is to be an act of worship. And this is something that I think many folks may not even think about.

In verse 18, Paul puts he puts it this way at the end of that verse. He says, I have all and abounded in full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.

He uses this Old Testament sacrificial expressions, which means that if the sacrifice was a sweet aroma, and if it was well-pleasing to the Lord, then it was acceptable to God in the Old Testament. If it was a sweet-smelling savor, you remember when the two priests' sons, I believe it was, burned the strange fire, the incense, and God consumed them because of it.

They worshipped them correctly. It was unpleasing to the Lord. It was unacceptable because it wasn't God's way. But when it came to this giving, we have this anthropomorphic thing of the Lord here. We know God is a spirit.

The Father does not have a nose, so to speak, like we do, and can smell. But the wording is that way, alluding to the Old Testament, that if something that they had done was well-pleasing to the Lord, he would accept it like this sacrifice that was a sweet aroma.

And it was acceptable to the Lord. And Paul is giving them high praise as he is acknowledging their gift, not only as an act of sympathy toward him, not only as an act of great love and concern and care for him, as one of their friends in need.