Contentment In Christ

Contentment in Christ and the Burden of Misplaced Satisfaction

We can turn in the Bibles to Philippians chapter 4, Luke 2 verses 10 -13, the text for this morning, Philippians 4, 10 -13, where the Apostle Paul acknowledges the Philippians' renewed concern for him and the receipt of the gift that a man named Epaphroditus had brought to him on their behalf, that provision of visible support for his physical needs while he was there in prison.

So read with me these four verses, Philippians 4, 10 -13. 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.

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 in hunger, abundance in need.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Let's pray once more. Now, Heavenly Father, our God, we ask that you would open our eyes and our hearts to the wonderful truths of your Holy Word. I pray that we would here find comfort and consolation, that here we would find rebuke and instruction and repentance and the forgiveness that we have in Jesus, in whose name we pray and come to you.

Amen. Have you ever noticed, as I have a habit of noticing, on the highways, those overloaded pickup trucks, usually it's a half-ton truck designed by the engineers to carry about a half a ton, and it looks like one of those great big earth movers which can scoop up hundreds of tons at a time, filled this thing, and the driver said, well, yes, we can carry this load.

And here they are going down the freeway, have you seen this? Where the back end is squished down with the load and the tires are squeezed out, it looks like they're almost flat, and the suspension must be compressed in the back, and as you pass them quickly, they get out of the way for whatever might happen, as I do.

You notice that the front wheels are almost lifted off so that the brakes have no chance because the tires have no purchase on the ground, and perhaps steering would be nothing more than guesswork. Have you ever come across those?

I get away from them as fast as I can. I notice them, when I see them, I go almost anywhere, I'll get off the highway to be away from them, they are disasters waiting to happen. Now, why is that? Well, it's because that little truck is being forced to do something way beyond what it was designed for, far beyond its actual capacity.

Too often, this is something we do in relationships. And this has to do with contentment. And I was very blessed to hear Pastor Olin speaking from the 10th Commandment about covetousness, about lack of contentment, and this coordination between Philippians 4, 10 through 13, and going through Catechism Question 85 on the 10th Commandment was not at all coordinated, so I will leave that to the goodness and the coordination and the sovereignty of God to have worked that out, but there is some coincidence between the two.

This is what we do in our relationships, we overload one person with something that they were not designed by God to do, and in God's design, not capable of doing, a load that they cannot bear, and if we give them this load that they are squished down, the suspension is flattened, the wheels aren't working, the steering is no good, nothing is working right because we've overloaded one of the parties, usually a husband or wife, but it could be almost anyone else in close relationships.

With something they were never meant and are completely unable to bear or carry. The Lord speak of here, I speak of your contentment. I speak of the object of your contentment. We all do this, we vest in a person the duty to carry a load that they cannot, and we place on them this huge burden to be our focus, our point of contact for our contentment.

Can ruin relationships the way that little bit, that weight can ruin that little truck in my illustration, is more than you can bear, is more than anyone can bear, really, more than you were meant to bear.

More than in God's design you were meant to bear or are able to carry. Your husband or your wife, your pastor or your friend, your teacher or your boss, none of us can bear the weight of being that object, the object of your contentment.

Does my singing to you a little bit of an odd way to start a message on Philippians chapter four, verses 10 through 13? The great Puritan, Jeremiah Burroughs, wrote his book, The Ritual of Contentment, based upon this, where he speaks of your duty to be content with what God has given you, as commonly spoke from the Catechism and from the Tenth Commandment.

And it is a duty to be content, but this morning I want us to look at this passage, and most especially the idea of contentment in the context from which it comes to us from Philippians. I want you to see that when you place your contentment in a person, in any person other than Jesus Christ, our Lord, other than He, who alone was meant by God to be that object of satisfaction and contentment, those two words can be interchanged throughout this message, satisfaction and contentment, but when you place that burden upon a mere person, you're like that truck going down the road.

If you're not the truck, you're the scooper with the hundreds of tons of extra dirt that overloaded that truck. Even something that's not able to bear, was never designed to bear. I believe, when we look at these verses, that this idea of contentment comes forth in this relationship.

It's a relational thing that Paul is bringing between himself and the Philippians. I want us to understand what Paul says about his own contentment, and I want us to think about it in terms of our own relationships.

He says it's very harmful, it's often fatal to relationships when one party seeks in the other what only Christ can provide, what only He is able to provide, what only He was meant to provide, which is His contentment.

As we go through these verses, I want you to find freedom for discouraged husbands and insecure wives. I want you to remove that burden from them, and place it where it belongs, which is upon Christ, which is what Paul did with the Philippians.

As we go through this, I pray that you will see this. You perhaps are one who is given, maybe unwittingly you have done this, you have accepted this load that you just cannot carry. You see, because Jesus Christ is the one who is supremely satisfying, your contentment must be in Him and this is what the 85th question in the Catechism is about, this is what the 10th commandment is about, this is why Paul brings it up to the Colossians and says covetousness, which is idolatry, lack of contentment, idolatry in self, Christ is the one who is supremely satisfying, Christ is the one in whom you must vest all your contentment, and this is a great safeguard for our relationships, it's not a cure for those who have gone this wrong way by being overloaded.

Contentment, according to Burroughs, who I mentioned a few moments ago, is that inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, the whole soul, judgment, thoughts, will, affections, and everything satisfied and quiet because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now as I read that to you, as we prepare ourselves to look at this text and take it in context, is there anyone you can think of who is able to satisfy that consistently, without fail, every moment, in every situation you come upon, but of course not.

Only Christ, only by faith in Jesus Christ can this be known or had, and we need to remove that burden from those upon whom we've placed it, or if you're one upon whom it is replaced, you need to take it and give it back and put it where it belongs, which is Christ.

Paul’s Thankful Joy in the Philippians’ Renewed Concern

Now commentators differ on why these verses are here and what they actually mean. Now one man calls them the thankless thanks, as if the Apostle Paul is saying to the Philippians, thank you for all your support, all the while that he's saying, by the way, I didn't really mean it, but thanks.

Thanks for all these gifts, thanks for all the money, thanks for our path for guidance, who we met in chapter two, we'll meet again in the next few verses we're going next week. He was their messenger, and thanks for him risking his life, he almost died, to bring me this gift.

Appreciate it all, but you know what? I didn't really need it at all, but I appreciate it, but it wasn't enough, and it just kind of goes round and round like that. Thankless thanks is one great idea, or one of the big ideas, of why these verses are here, but I think that makes Paul cynical at best, maybe a liar at worst, if he's saying thank you for something I didn't need, and it also goes against much of what we've learned before in this preaching series through Philippians.

He says in chapter one, verse three, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. He says in chapter two, verse 12, therefore, my beloved, note the word, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now also my absence.

In chapter four, verse one, which we handled a few weeks ago, he says, therefore, my brothers, my joy and crown whom I love and long for, my pride and joy, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. This does not sound to me, and Lord willing, just reading those few verses, it won't sound to you like a man under inspiration of God, no less, who said thanks for something I need nothing to do with.

These are not just flowery prose, but the heart of the apostle that was specially attached to these Philippians, the thankless thanks has to be unaccepted by us. We cannot allow that to come in. In verse 18, he calls this gift, and we'll get to this next week, Lord willing, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

It's hardly the dismissive language of some of those things. Thanks for something that I didn't really need. So with that, having set aside the thankless thanks idea, and Lord willing, I've set that aside for you, if you've ever heard that, what are these verses here for?

And the great question we can ask any time we approach the scripture is why is it here? Why did the spirit of God have this author give us these words in this way? How did this lead me to this pickup truck forced to do that for which it was never intended?

Well, certainly these verses do acknowledge the receipt of the gift delivered by this man of Aphroditus, which caused Paul to write in the first place well, there's more here. Here's what I think is happening.

And here's how this relates to our relationships, to your relationship to your husband and to your wife. And as you look to your own conscience, say, what have I put on this other one? And it doesn't have to be a husband and wife in any relationship that they were not meant to be in.

You see, Paul knew that they must have been in deep anguish when they were unable to help him for a time. Did you pick that up in the reading? Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity. We'll come across that, we'll come to that again in a few moments.

Paul seems to have known that they were deeply disturbed by the fact that they had to stop their support from him for a while. And it's possible, it's very likely, in fact, that the messenger of Aphroditus told Paul all of this fear that they had.

The Philippians, it seems to me in these verses here, were afraid that the interruption in their support might have caused Paul to have an interruption in his love for them. In these verses, Paul is assuring them that that is not the case.

How could that not be the case? Because he's learned to be content in another. He's learned to be content in one who never fails, and that's Jesus Christ. In these verses, Paul assures them, no, my love for you has not stopped.

It was not based upon the gift, this flow of support, as appreciated as it was. And again, you read that sacrificial language. Then we will come to God willing next week. So it was very appreciated. It was his fragrant offering to God.

It was wholly acceptable to God the Father himself. But Paul assures them that this interruption in their supply to him did not interrupt his supply of his love for them. Why? Because his contentment, he has learned to be content.

And not just content like a stoic who can handle all things because he's tough. Content because of Jesus Christ. Content because of the person of your Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Because Christ is supremely satisfying, your contentment has to be in him and him alone.

Verse 10, now, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me. In other words, did you hear that? You were indeed concerned. I know you didn't stop loving me any less than I stopped loving you.

You were concerned, even during this time, that the support had to stop for a while for whatever reason. We're not even giving a hint what that was, but we do know that it happened. And we'll be satisfied with that, will we not?

Content, to use the word that we're preaching, so much. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Did you notice here, what caused Paul to rejoice? To rejoice greatly? A rejoicing in the Lord?

This is a specific and unique Christian way of rejoicing. Rejoicing in the Lord, accepting what has come as something that in the Lord they gave to him. This fragrant offering. What caused him to rejoice?

The gift? Oh, if I were in class again as a teacher, I'd make the kids raise their hand. Was it the gift? And then everybody raised their hand. I'd just say, no, no, no. Not the gift, you weren't listening.

No, not the gift. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length, what? You have revived your concern for me. You've revived your concern for me. It's not the gift, it's the concern. And concern is this word we've come across so many times in this book of Philippians, froneo.

Your mind, your thinking. Once again, you were able to set your mind more actively upon my needs and restore this flow of support to me. But it's not the support, it's not the money, it's not the gift, it's not even the books or the cloak and those sort of things that he asked for.

And then that's in another letter. He rejoiced greatly in the Lord that their concern for him had once again found an active avenue to which to bring achievement. No, not the gift. Appreciated as that was, the concern.

This is distinctly Christian to rejoice in the Lord. And when you rejoice in the Lord, remember like verse four, four. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. When you rejoice in the Lord, you are testifying that whatever caused your heart to swell is because of a work of God that you are recognizing.

Brethren, the good things that we do for each other are causes of great rejoicing. Insofar as they are in the Lord. And you can make that testimony, and that's a strong testimony. It's an important thing to say.

We don't just bandy that word about. Anyone can pull it in here. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly. As we should. The so-called little things. If they were motivated by Christian love, they are cause for great rejoicing.

It is right, it is good to say thank you. It is good to give gratitude to the human purveyor. But it's a matter of rejoicing to be able to give the thanks to God for having motivated this person to do so.

Paul rejoices in Christ and because of Christ in the resumption of their support. But remember, not the support itself. Appreciated as that surely was, but because of their thoughts, because their minds are once more attuned to him.

They don't know why they lost the opportunity to support him. I offer no theories, no speculations. What Paul affirms to them is he did not take the lag in their support as a sign that they had stopped caring for him.

Now as we think of contentment in this relational way that I believe Paul meant it here, as he assuages their concern, I think it was very likely, but we don't have explicit evidence of this, that Epaphroditus, when he brought the gift, said they were so concerned, Paul, that you would think that they stopped loving you or that you would stop loving them because of this.

And this is what motivated him to write this way. As we think of it in that term. As we think of who we place our contentment in, who do we expect to give us this satisfaction? As we think of it this way, and we take it away from that one upon whom we've dumped it, like that huge loader putting all that load on a small truck not meant to carry it.

As we think of those terms and take it back and give it up to where it belongs, which is Christ Jesus. Can you see the freedom that this gives you in your relationships? Do you see how that frees up that husband or that wife or that teacher or that pastor or that friend or that brother or sister to be for you who God made him or her to be?

Because they're no longer loaded with something that they cannot possibly accomplish for you. They will never satisfy. The psalmist says, do not put your trust in men. Do not put your hope in a man because they change.

And I'm paraphrasing, of course. We're inconsistent. We have to be told to look out not only for our own needs, but the needs of others. Why do we have to be commanded that? Because if we're not commanded, we won't.

And therefore, why would you put this hope for contentment, for satisfaction in another? Free them up. If you have done that, look to your conscience and ask yourself if you have placed yourself in the sort of concern that the Philippians did with Paul.

In other words, you have put satisfaction in something other than Christ. And therefore, you're afraid of the satisfaction, of this contentment, this back and forth flow of love to be squashed. Free this person up.

You can even repent of it for having raised them up unduly and inappropriately. You can say to that husband or that wife, I was looking for my contentment, my ultimate satisfaction in you. But it should only be in Christ.

And I repent, I am sorry for having done that. This is what happened here. This is why Paul was such heartfelt, emotional, loving language. He says, no, no, no, no, no. It wasn't in gifts. It was in Christ Jesus that I love you.

It is because of the church that Christ Jesus helped me to establish here, and the conversion that he brought upon their souls, and the help you have given me because of the love you have made a concern.

Hey, they read something into things. They looked at their circumstance, whatever it was that caused the flow of support to be stopped for a while. And what did they read into this in terms of Paul? They read into it their own failings.

They did something like this. Well, now, if I was receiving money, if I was receiving support, if I was receiving letters, if I was getting, you can fill in the blank here, and it stopped, what would I think?

Therefore, that's what Paul must have been thinking. And this is what I think he's answering here in these verses. How easy it is for us to read into things. How easy it is to take a conjecture, and we should not conjecture.

Conjecture causes nothing but trouble. My counseling office would be much less crowded. My schedule would be freed up remarkably if there were no conjectures. We take our conjectures and we turn them into what?

Conclusive evidence. And the sharpest, most logical mind becomes adept at manufacturing evidence from threads. You get a wisp of a breeze that becomes a hurricane and exhibits things that prove what? My case.

And this is what the Philippians did. And this is what you so often do. I point to you and myself. We say, if I was in that situation, this is what I would have done. This is how I would feel. Therefore, he, she must also.

Paul to the Philippians really says, no. No, that's not the case. I rejoice greatly in the Lord. He calls them my brothers whom I love and long for. My pride and my joy and proud, excuse me. My beloved.

So this is what Paul's addressing here. His love for them was in the Lord. Not so much in them, though he loved them personally, but that love comes from being in the Lord. His love for them was because they were together in Christ, not for anything they provided him.

And all this he affirms when he says, you were concerned, but had no opportunity. One might think in terms of 1 Corinthians 13. This is what it means that love bears all things. Love believes all things.

Love hopes all things. Love endures all things. One might say, love thinks the best of others. And one might say, inevitably, love does not read into others' actions things that I cannot prove. Those little wisps of thoughts become this little breeze that turn into these mighty hurricanes and cause such destruction.

He says, you've revived your concern for me. You've revived your concern for me. The concern didn't go away. It sort of hibernated for a while. And again, he's saying, don't read into that. I didn't read into that.

So if I didn't read into the slowdown in your support for me, don't you read into what that would mean in my love for you. You see, he's saying, I know your concern didn't go away. It was just put on hold for a while.

It was just in suspense. The word revived is used only in this one place in the New Testament. It's a really beautiful word. It's a botanical word. It has to do with a plant that blossoms again, that was dormant and blossoms.

I'm starting to think of how to illustrate this to you. How to bring this to your mind so you can actually picture it. I was thinking of the foothills. I can't see them right now. But our foothills, what color are they most of the year?

They're brown. That grass is brown almost all year. And then it just takes a smattering of rain. And perhaps even that little bit of rain we had last night and this morning is gonna be enough. And tomorrow, that grass is gonna be green.

It's gonna look completely different. But what is it? It's grass. What was it when it was brown? It was grass, but now it's flourishing again. Paul uses this word to say something like this. Your love didn't go away.

Your love was dormant for a while. I understand that you had no opportunity. But that love now flourishing, that love like a century plant having a beautiful blossom that comes every 10 or 15 years is the same love while it was dormant.

What Paul's saying, and brethren, how often do we need to say this to each other? And how often do we wickedly hold it back from each other? I know you still love. I always knew you still love. Paul didn't hold us against them.

Paul could have driven them into the ground. He could have given them all kinds of guilt trips. He could have rebuked them mightily in the Lord. All sorts of things that could have happened, but he says, no, your love, while this flow of support had slowed down or stopped, I know you didn't have opportunity, but that love remained, and I know it was there.

And so I rejoice greatly that you again have opportunity. I rejoice greatly in the Lord Jesus Christ that you again availed yourself of the opportunity he gave you and set your mind back on me. So let's go on.

Learning Contentment in Every Circumstance

Verse 11 and 12. And this is the part that gets this thankless thanks idea going, and I think we've already discussed that enough. Not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I've 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've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance, and need. You see, Jesus Christ is supremely satisfying.

Therefore, you could be content in him in every situation. Christ is the one who is completely and supremely contenting, and he is the one who will never fail you. And this is what the apostle Paul is saying here.

He doesn't say specifically in these two verses I just read, but throughout these verses, 10 through 13, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is preeminent. He comes to the fore in all of this. Christ is the one who is supremely satisfying.

Christ is the one through whom he learned to be content, and Christ is the one because of whom he always was content. So nothing like, thanks for all the stuff that I didn't really need. He's telling them by assuring them that having learned the secret of contentment, he's taking the pressure off the relationship.

He's taking the pressure off the relationship by showing that he's content in all things. He's learned his secret from Christ. It never had to do with this other stuff that we've been talking about. Do you see how this can free us up?

Do you see how this can free up your husband, your wife? This teeny little pickup truck, screaming in terror as the hundreds of tons in that big bucket from the air cooler is beginning to fall down upon you.

They can't carry it alone. They can't carry it. They weren't meant to carry it. It's Christ, and it's in him, if contentment is found, your relationships are freed up to blossom forth once again. Verse 11 is worth a moment's thought, anyway.

He's learned to be content. The exact word, content, is only here, and then once in Proverbs. It means to be in a happy state of mind, to be content, to be satisfied. And the question we might ask here is how did he learn this?

He says, I have learned. Did he learn this as an axiom? And then he brought the axiom to mind when the situation arose, and said, oh, that's right. Remember, my teacher taught me this postulate, and here's where it must apply.

So I learned this, now I'm gonna work it out. Or was it when he encountered hardships and prosperity that he learned the satisfaction of Christ? See, you can understand in your mind what it means that Christ is your sufficiency, that Christ is your satisfaction.

But it is in the cauldron of life where that lesson is impressed upon the soul. In 2 Corinthians 12, verses seven through nine, Paul writes of this messenger of Satan that kept him from being too arrogant, that kept him from being proud, this thorn in the flesh.

Nobody knows quite what it was, but it was a thorn in the flesh, a harassment of the enemy that kept him from excessive pride. And three times he asks Jesus to take it away, and what does Jesus say? He says, my grace is sufficient.

Same word. My grace is content for you, or contentment for you, we can even say. For my power is made perfect in weakness. My power is made perfect in your weakness. As Christ Jesus working through you, working in you and through you, the Lord said, without me you can do nothing.

And in that same statement, that's from John 15, he says, as you, the branches are in him, the true vine, you can't produce fruit. So my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.

Christ Jesus, that sufficient one, that contenting one, his power working through his power. Think of that. Made perfect in the weakness of those in whom he works that power. And the word for sufficient sometimes called content, much the same meaning as what we have in Philippians 4 .11.

Paul learned from Christ Jesus' own lips that he, Jesus, was his sufficiency, that he, Jesus, was the object of his contentment. Many of you have learned what it's like when someone invests in you a load that only the Lord can bear.

We load on that little truck designed to carry by the time this terrible load, and so nothing is working right, and our relationships falter. And there's nothing but anger and disappointment. There's disappointment on the side of the one who invested in that other, what shouldn't be there, and then anger because of the tensions that are constantly brought up.

Because I can't do these things for you, I cannot be that for you. Much as I love my wife, I cannot be her contentment. In the way Christ Jesus is. For can she for me, or can you for him, or for her? You can't do that.

Jesus can do it. Jesus is it. You weren't made to be able to do that. Jesus was sent to do that for you, to be that object, to be the one who provides that for him or for her. No mere mortal can be your ultimate contentment or satisfaction.

Every pastor I know has seen the ruin that comes when a husband is the wife's object of contentment or vice versa. Now think again what Paul's telling the Philippians. His contentment is in Christ. Whether he's in prison or whether he's in free, it is Jesus who satisfies him.

They were worried that when their support went down the drain, so did their relationship with Paul. His answer rings for us all. He says, no, I am content wherever I am and however I am because it is not the how or the where or even the who that brings me satisfaction or contentment.

It is Jesus who is all that to me. That's your answer and that's my answer. And he goes on. This one, this Jesus who is our ultimate satisfaction, who gives us contentment that no mere mortal can give us.

He says, I think Paul says of him, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Jesus' strength satisfies your needs. As he said to Paul, my power is made perfect in weakness. Not just an academic statement.

A power through Paul's weakness that Jesus Christ worked in him throughout his life and showed him this contentment that Jesus always did. No matter what situation he's in, he says I can do all things through him, through Christ who strengthens me.

And that is the secret he learned of contentment. It is Jesus Christ. It is Christ who when you take away these things, and it's a scary thing to do, is I no longer look to him to provide me these things.

Where will I ever get them? She is not to be that perfect and complete satisfaction. I take it away from her and it's floating out there like some physical thing. Where will I ever find it? Oh dear ones, it's scary.

But faith, faith in God, faith in God's word repentance for having unduly burdened this other will allow you to take it back. Give it where it belongs. Boldly approach the throne of grace and there find help in time of need.

Cast your cares upon him because he cares for you. Cast this back to him and say, Jesus, this was given by me to someone else. This is yours. Here's my repentance for having taken from you and put on someone else where it belongs only to you.

This is freedom. This will free you up. This will free them up. This will allow that relationship to once again flourish because it is Christ who is your strength. I have learned that I can do all things through him who strengthened me.

Christ will strengthen you in this because he is sufficient, because he is contenting. In 2nd Corinthians 2 .16, Paul cries out. He says, who is sufficient for these things? And the answer comes very quickly that he was commissioned by God to testify about Jesus Christ and it's Christ who is sufficient for these things.

Do you remember what Martin Luther said to his mentor Von Stoppitz? Von Stoppitz said, when you take away all these crutches, these physical representations of the faith that keep people going, when you take all that away, what are you going to give them?

And he says, Christ. I will give them Jesus Christ. A man only needs Jesus Christ. I don't know if that's how he actually said it, but the old 1950s version of Martin Luther in that movie, that's the way he said it.

So I like it that way and I get to preach. I've got the microphone. I get to say it my way. Christ. A man only needs Jesus Christ. All we have to do is give you Jesus Christ because he is the sufficient one and he is the contenting one.

As much as you love your wife or your husband, they cannot be that. This is part of the lesson of the Philippians. That Paul's contentment, they didn't realize it, was in Christ, in Christ alone. And I think this is a convicting thing for them, to see Paul's answer, to say, no, it was never that.

It's because of Christ and we need to find that answer for ourselves. We need to see where we have unduly overburdened someone. It's Christ who strengthens. I can do all things through him who strengthens me constantly, actively.

As you look to him, he, the sufficient one, the contenting one, will do so. And this is not just words, again. This played out in Paul's life. In 2 Timothy 4, verses 16 through 18, Paul writes this. He says, at my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me.

May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. What do those words mean? Are they just fantasy words? Is it a Peter Pan-style happy thought that frees you from gravity and lets your soul take wing?

No, it's the real, literal presence, really and literally imparting a real and literal power to endure in the gospel, even in trial, because contentment is in him. Because Jesus Christ, the empowering one, is your satisfying one.

That's the secret that Paul learned. This is the secret that relieved the Philippians from the burden of being for Paul what only Jesus can be, what only Jesus is, complete and contenting satisfaction.

This Lord Jesus calls out to you and says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Rest. Jesus Christ will give you rest from trying to pull this load that your little engine is not meant to be.

You're way out of your league. May not be your fault. You may be the one who placed it on him or her. But it's Christ whose shoulders can bear this. It is Christ who can do this. And it is Christ who calls you to rest.

Contentment as a Command and the Freedom of Christ

Be content. This word is only used a few times in the scripture, and only a couple times is it ever given as an actual command. At least in the New Testament. John the Baptist told the soldiers, be content, be satisfied with your wages.

And in Hebrews 13, five, and I will read Hebrews 13, one through six, to close this message out, is where we're most, best known command to be content. What does he say here? He says, let brotherly love continue.