Oakbrook Evangelical Free Church

Introduction:

If your friends or family were to use one word or a song that would describe you what would that word or song be?

PowerPoint: The Secret of Contentment

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(strongly recommend for listening along with sermon MP3)

Would they…would you describe yourself as “content”

Are you content? Would you like to know the secret of contentment?

this is what we’ve been learning…

1. The Path to Peace – Peace comes from

Phil 4:9 “the God of peace will be with you.”

~ Peace comes from God’s presence in our lives. Peace is not something we can produce within us. It is a gift from God. Something He gives us beyond understanding.

Philippians 4:6-7 “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
“If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonder- ful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” NLT

~ Peace comes from learning to stop being overloaded with our concerns because we are carrying them by ourselves and from turning them over to God in prayer.

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers (and sisters), whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” ESV

~ Peace comes from learning to discipline our thinking by focusing on the good and positive things and subtracting from our thinking the negative.

From album Planting My Own Garden-VIII

How to be happy: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry, live simply, expect little, give much, sign often, pray always, forget self, think of others and their feelings, fill you heart with love, scatter sunshine. These are tried link in the golden chain of contentment.

Now this week it’s related, you couldn’t fail to see how it is related, but it’s almost an analysis or an amplification of this peace of mind, this joy of heart that can be ours – and Paul encapsulates it within the thought of contentment, what it is to be content in our lives down here on earth. So we’re looking at the secret of contentment from verses 10 to 13.

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 and hunger, abundance and need. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” ESV

I. Contentment 101

One day Lord Condleton overheard one of his employees remarking: ‘Oh, if I only had five pounds I would be perfectly content’. Pondering her statement he decided that he would like to see someone who was perfectly content, so he went to the woman and said that he had overheard what she’d said, and he wanted to do something about it. So he proceeded to reach into his pocket and lift out a five pound note and gave it to her, for which she thanked him very gratefully. Condleton left the room and for a moment he paused at the door unknown to her, and as soon as the woman thought he had gone she began to complain: ‘Why on earth didn’t I ask for 10 pounds?’.

If there is an attitude that characterizes our day it is the attitude or spirit of discontent, never being satisfied. We live in a messed up world in which we can never have enough money, never have enough possessions or power or prestige or the perfect relationship or the looks we want or lose the weight we want and we will never ever be free from difficulties.

~ Contentment is not being free from struggles and difficulties. If that is what contentment is then contentment cannot be found.

Under house arrest, looked at the world through the window of a room to which he was confined with a guard at his side. His is the classic definition of being on a fixed income…has only the donations that his friends send him. And he has been waiting or the Philippian church to send him a financial gift they promised 10 years earlier.

Paul says that contentment is possible and they he has learned the secret of contentment.

I have learned the secret of being content…

Not something that comes naturally. Naturally we

Compare ourselves with others

We want more than we have

We complain

Not something he learned in school. Paul learned contentment gradually through the school of life.

He learned it during those special three years in just after he became a Christian seeking God’s face and God’s wisdom retooling the lessons he learned growing up and in his expensive secular educa

He learned it in Jerusalem when he was falsely accused and arrested.

He learned it in Lystra and Derby and Antioch an Ephesus where he was almost beaten to death by an angry mob.

And Paul is still learning it in prison in Rome. Paul did not learn to complain or wean or to be pampered or pitied

DEFINITION: What is contentment? Jeremiah Burroughs in his book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment said,

Contentment is that sweet and inward quiet that comes from submitting to and delighting in God’s wise and fatherly care not matter what the situation.

Contentment is a state of satisfaction that is anchored to our confidence in God that results in a joyful celebration of life.

II. Possessions Do Not Define You

The context is about money! They’ve given him a gift and he is thankful but he wants them to know that he has not been in need.

Luke 12:15 “And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”” ESV

1 Timothy 6:6-8 “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, “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.” ESV

Now listen to me: The first secret of contentment is that it is found in a firm, unshakable dependence on the providential care of God in your life! Being in God’s will and believing you are in God’s will and resting in that confidence!

F.B. Meyers “All is of God and God is good. Every wind blows from his love, every storm pushes us nearer to the harbor of his security, every cup that comes by the hand of Judas is mixed by our loving Father and no one can throw you into a pit unless God permits it.

Make it your habit of thinking and feeling that God is in control and quiet your heart with an unshakable confidence in the providential care of God.

Choices breed dissatisfaction!

Author Bill Bryson noticed many changes when he returned to America after spending 20 years overseas. One observation he made involved the amount of choices available to the American consumer:

Abundance of choice not only makes every transaction take ten times as long as it ought to, but in a strange way actually breeds dissatisfaction. The more there is, the more people crave, and the more they crave, the more they, well, crave more. You have a sense sometimes of being among millions and millions of people needing more and more of everything, constantly, infinitely, unquenchably.

Bill Bryson, I’m A Stranger Here Myself

If you want to be content and happy do not look for more possessions.

Paul came from a wealthy, upper class family,

Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield is a former heavyweight-boxing champion of the world. During his boxing career he earned a staggering $205 million in prize money, $92 million alone in his last five fights. Holyfield lives in a 54,000 square foot mansion in Fayetteville, Georgia. Holyfield is an avid collector of cars and has a stable of thoroughbred horses worth millions. His estate is situated on hundreds of acres, where he has built a regulation-size baseball diamond and miles of horse trails and motorcycle trails. He has also opened a restaurant in the city of Atlanta bearing his name.

Though Holyfield has accomplished so much in his illustrious career and will be remembered as one of the great champions of all time, he continued to fight after losing his boxing crown. Why? In an interview with Christian author Gary Thomas, he confessed, “I continue to fight because I’m bored.” Chris Bennett, “The Secret of Satisfaction,”

Stop focusing on stuff!

Make it your choice to consciously rest in the stillness and stability of God’s faithful care to meet your needs. Whatever you do not have you do not need. And if you need it your father in heaven knows you need it and will supply it at the right time.

III. Circumstances Should Not Control You

Listen to what Paul says again,

Philippians 4:11-13 “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” NIV

2 Corinthians 11:23-29 “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; “on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; “in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. “And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?” ESV

Clinging to the Past

Napoleon Dynamite is the story of an awkward but loveable outsider (named Napoleon Dynamite) struggling through the ups and downs of high school life. Napoleon lives with his grandmother and brother Kip. Kip is a driven, misguided misfit, looking for direction in life.

When Napoleon and Kip’s grandmother is hospitalized, smarmy Uncle Rico comes to live with them. Uncle Rico hates his life, and his dreams remain anchored in the glory days of high school football. To him, 1982 represents the salad days of life. Uncle Rico and Kip find common ground in a longing for the past.

In this scene, Uncle Rico sits on the front steps with Kip, eating a tough microwaved steak. Seeing Napoleon coming down the road on a bike, Uncle Rico stands up, grabs Kip’s steak, and launches it at Napoleon, hitting him squarely between the eyes. Clearly pleased with his arm and his accuracy, Uncle Rico begins to think out loud with Kip about the glory days.

“How much you wanna bet I could throw a football over those mountains? If the coach had put me in fourth quarter, we would have been state champions, no doubt about it. You better believe things would have been different. I’d have gone pro, making millions of dollars, living in a big old mansion somewhere, soaking it up in a hot tub with my soul mate.”

At this point, Uncle Rico pauses and seems wistful over what might have been. He continues, “Hey, Kip, you know a lot about cyberspace. You ever come across anything about time travel?”

Kip responds, “Easy. I’ve already looked into it for myself.”

Filled with hope that a return to the good old days might be possible, Uncle Rico responds, “Right on.”

Eventually, Kip breaks away from Uncle Rico and his backward-focused life. Embracing the real possibilities of today, Kip begins a new life, while Uncle Rico returns to his trailer in the desert still dreaming of what might have been.

Family life cycles…

Stop focusing on your circumstances…

Contentment does not come because we have conquered our circumstances or because we have learned to change our circumstances but because we have learned how to live in our circumstances. Take each day as a gift from God resting in the providence and promises of God.

IV. Christ’s Presence Will Enable You

Philippians 4:12-13 “I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” ESV

Here is what Paul has been leading up to all along…

If you want to be happy and content do not look for more possessions and do not fret, or resist or chafe at your circumstances…

Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” NIV

Philippians 3:10 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,” NIV

Philippians 4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” NIV

Cast Away is the story of Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) a top engineer for FedEx. While flying over the South Pacific, a violent storm damages the company jet causing it to slam into the ocean. Noland survives the crash, but everyone else aboard is killed. Clinging to a yellow life raft, he rides out the raging storm and washes up on a small deserted island. For the next four years he struggles to survive before escaping the island and returning to civilization.

The day after Noland first sets foot on the island, the only concern greater than his fear is his desperate need for water. He is dangerously thirsty. After he discovers coconuts falling from the trees, Noland frantically attempts to open one. He repeatedly throws a coconut against a boulder, but the hard shell is unmarked. Using all his strength, he pounds the coconut with a rock but without success. He tries to drill a hole into one and then flies into a fury when he still cannot access the juice locked inside the fibrous seed.

Eventually he employs a sharp rock as an axe and is able to cut into and remove the outer husk. Left with the hard shell, he finally breaks it open only to watch as most of the milky juice spills out on the ground. Noland lifts up a fragment of the shell and drains the few remaining drops of liquid into his mouth.

How like our spiritual thirst, as we desperately seek to find satisfaction. Jesus promises to fulfill our longings and declares, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”

Do you see the secret of contentment?

Not yet a believer or believer…if you are not satisfied with Christ you will never be satisfied with anything!

The first secret of contentment is to rest in the stillness and

Stability of God’s care.

The second secret of contentment is that no matter what your

circumstances God is there!

I can do al things through Christ …I can do anything God asks me to do, be anywhere God wants me to be through Christ who enables me every day.

He is the source and supply of contentment. Where is joy, where is peace, where is contentment? It is in Christ

Is there a restlessness in your heart?

Is there a sadness in your heart?

Do you long for peace and joy and contentment?

It is only found in a saved life in Christ

And it is only found in a life centered in Christ.

Look upon the emptiness of your heart and life and turn to Christ.

Albert Camus – Seeker

During several summers in the 1950s, Howard Mumma, a Methodist pastor, served as a guest minister at the American Church in Paris. After Sunday service one day, he noticed a man in a dark suit surrounded by admirers. Albert Camus [the author] had been coming to church, first to hear Marcel Dupré playing the organ, and later to hear Mumma’s sermons.

Mumma became friends with the existentialist Camus, who by then was famous for his novels The Plague and The Stranger and for essays such as “The Myth of Sisyphus.” The two men met to discuss questions of religious belief that Camus raised. Mumma, now 92, kept the conversations confidential for over 40 years before deciding to share them. In one conversation, Camus told Mumma:

The reason I have been coming to church is because I am seeking. I’m almost on a pilgrimage—seeking something to fill the void that I am experiencing—and no one else knows. Certainly the public and the readers of my novels, while they see that void, are not finding the answers in what they are reading. But deep down you are right—I am searching for something that the world is not giving me….

In a sense we are all products of a mundane world, a world without spirit. The world in which we live and the lives which we live are decidedly empty….Since I have been coming to church, I have been thinking a great deal about the idea of a transcendent, something that is other than this world. It is something that you do not hear much about today, but I am finding it.

One of the basic teachings that I learned from Sartre is that man is alone. We are solitary centers of the universe. Perhaps we ourselves are the only ones who have ever asked the great questions of life. Perhaps, since Nazism, we are also the ones who have loved and lost and who are, therefore, fearful of life. That is what led us to sense that there is a great idea or powerful influence—but there is something that can bring meaning to my life. I certainly don’t have it, but it is there. On Sunday mornings, I hear that the answer is God.

You have made it very clear to me, Howard, that we are not the only ones in this world. There is something that is invisible. We may not hear the voice, but there is some way in which we can become aware that we are not the only ones in the world and that there is help for all of us.

Herman Melville made an impact on the world with his novel Moby Dick. His great-great grandnephew has made an impact on the world with music. Richard Melville Hall, known as Moby, has seen great success in the music world. His 1999 album, Play, went platinum; his single, Go, was named one of the “200 Essential Rock Recordings” by Rolling Stone magazine.

While successful, Moby has been controversial not only for his music but also for his faith. MTV says Moby is “infamous for his devout, radical Christian beliefs, as well as his environmental and vegan activism.”

In an interview with Darren Philip, Moby describes the universal need for God: One of my favorite quotes is, “Those who are sick are in need of a doctor.” And the sad thing is we’re all sick. It’s part and parcel of the human condition, and it’s especially part and parcel of living in the United States in the 21st century. We’re all sick. We’re all deeply unhappy, disconnected, unwell people. We need each other, and we need God. And if God made the universe and if God made us and if God made the world, it just makes sense to invite God into our lives and ask him, “You made me—what should I be doing?”

Darren Philip, “Moby: Faith, Salvation, and Everything in Between,”

The Secret of Contentment

Introduction:

If your friends or family were to use one word or a song that would describe you what would that word or song be?

Would they…would you describe yourself as “content”

Are you content? Would you like to know the secret of contentment?

this is what we’ve been learning…

1. The Path to Peace – Peace comes from

Phil 4:9 “the God of peace will be with you.”

~ Peace comes from God’s presence in our lives. Peace is not something we can produce within us. It is a gift from God. Something He gives us beyond understanding.

Philippians 4:6-7 “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
“If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonder- ful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” NLT

~ Peace comes from learning to stop being overloaded with our concerns because we are carrying them by ourselves and from turning them over to God in prayer.

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers (and sisters), whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” ESV

~ Peace comes from learning to discipline our thinking by focusing on the good and positive things and subtracting from our thinking the negative.

From album Planting My Own Garden-VIII

How to be happy: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry, live simply, expect little, give much, sign often, pray always, forget self, think of others and their feelings, fill you heart with love, scatter sunshine. These are tried link in the golden chain of contentment.

Now this week it’s related, you couldn’t fail to see how it is related, but it’s almost an analysis or an amplification of this peace of mind, this joy of heart that can be ours – and Paul encapsulates it within the thought of contentment, what it is to be content in our lives down here on earth. So we’re looking at the secret of contentment from verses 10 to 13.

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 and hunger, abundance and need. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” ESV

I. Contentment 101

One day Lord Condleton overheard one of his employees remarking: ‘Oh, if I only had five pounds I would be perfectly content’. Pondering her statement he decided that he would like to see someone who was perfectly content, so he went to the woman and said that he had overheard what she’d said, and he wanted to do something about it. So he proceeded to reach into his pocket and lift out a five pound note and gave it to her, for which she thanked him very gratefully. Condleton left the room and for a moment he paused at the door unknown to her, and as soon as the woman thought he had gone she began to complain: ‘Why on earth didn’t I ask for 10 pounds?’.

If there is an attitude that characterizes our day it is the attitude or spirit of discontent, never being satisfied. We live in a messed up world in which we can never have enough money, never have enough possessions or power or prestige or the perfect relationship or the looks we want or lose the weight we want and we will never ever be free from difficulties.

~ Contentment is not being free from struggles and difficulties. If that is what contentment is then contentment cannot be found.

Under house arrest, looked at the world through the window of a room to which he was confined with a guard at his side. His is the classic definition of being on a fixed income…has only the donations that his friends send him. And he has been waiting or the Philippian church to send him a financial gift they promised 10 years earlier.

Paul says that contentment is possible and they he has learned the secret of contentment.

I have learned the secret of being content…

Not something that comes naturally. Naturally we

Compare ourselves with others

We want more than we have

We complain

Not something he learned in school. Paul learned contentment gradually through the school of life.

He learned it during those special three years in just after he became a Christian seeking God’s face and God’s wisdom retooling the lessons he learned growing up and in his expensive secular educa

He learned it in Jerusalem when he was falsely accused and arrested.

He learned it in Lystra and Derby and Antioch an Ephesus where he was almost beaten to death by an angry mob.

And Paul is still learning it in prison in Rome. Paul did not learn to complain or wean or to be pampered or pitied

DEFINITION: What is contentment? Jeremiah Burroughs in his book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment said,

Contentment is that sweet and inward quiet that comes from submitting to and delighting in God’s wise and fatherly care not matter what the situation.

Contentment is a state of satisfaction that is anchored to our confidence in God that results in a joyful celebration of life.

II. Possessions Do Not Define You

The context is about money! They’ve given him a gift and he is thankful but he wants them to know that he has not been in need.

Luke 12:15 “And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”” ESV

1 Timothy 6:6-8 “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, “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.” ESV

Now listen to me: The first secret of contentment is that it is found in a firm, unshakable dependence on the providential care of God in your life! Being in God’s will and believing you are in God’s will and resting in that confidence!

F.B. Meyers “All is of God and God is good. Every wind blows from his love, every storm pushes us nearer to the harbor of his security, every cup that comes by the hand of Judas is mixed by our loving Father and no one can throw you into a pit unless God permits it.

Make it your habit of thinking and feeling that God is in control and quiet your heart with an unshakable confidence in the providential care of God.

Choices breed dissatisfaction!

Author Bill Bryson noticed many changes when he returned to America after spending 20 years overseas. One observation he made involved the amount of choices available to the American consumer:

Abundance of choice not only makes every transaction take ten times as long as it ought to, but in a strange way actually breeds dissatisfaction. The more there is, the more people crave, and the more they crave, the more they, well, crave more. You have a sense sometimes of being among millions and millions of people needing more and more of everything, constantly, infinitely, unquenchably.

Bill Bryson, I’m A Stranger Here Myself

If you want to be content and happy do not look for more possessions.

Paul came from a wealthy, upper class family,

Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield is a former heavyweight-boxing champion of the world. During his boxing career he earned a staggering $205 million in prize money, $92 million alone in his last five fights. Holyfield lives in a 54,000 square foot mansion in Fayetteville, Georgia. Holyfield is an avid collector of cars and has a stable of thoroughbred horses worth millions. His estate is situated on hundreds of acres, where he has built a regulation-size baseball diamond and miles of horse trails and motorcycle trails. He has also opened a restaurant in the city of Atlanta bearing his name.

Though Holyfield has accomplished so much in his illustrious career and will be remembered as one of the great champions of all time, he continued to fight after losing his boxing crown. Why? In an interview with Christian author Gary Thomas, he confessed, “I continue to fight because I’m bored.” Chris Bennett, “The Secret of Satisfaction,”

Stop focusing on stuff!

Make it your choice to consciously rest in the stillness and stability of God’s faithful care to meet your needs. Whatever you do not have you do not need. And if you need it your father in heaven knows you need it and will supply it at the right time.

III. Circumstances Should Not Control You

Listen to what Paul says again,

Philippians 4:11-13 “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” NIV

2 Corinthians 11:23-29 “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; “on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; “in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. “And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?” ESV

Clinging to the Past

Napoleon Dynamite is the story of an awkward but loveable outsider (named Napoleon Dynamite) struggling through the ups and downs of high school life. Napoleon lives with his grandmother and brother Kip. Kip is a driven, misguided misfit, looking for direction in life.

When Napoleon and Kip’s grandmother is hospitalized, smarmy Uncle Rico comes to live with them. Uncle Rico hates his life, and his dreams remain anchored in the glory days of high school football. To him, 1982 represents the salad days of life. Uncle Rico and Kip find common ground in a longing for the past.

In this scene, Uncle Rico sits on the front steps with Kip, eating a tough microwaved steak. Seeing Napoleon coming down the road on a bike, Uncle Rico stands up, grabs Kip’s steak, and launches it at Napoleon, hitting him squarely between the eyes. Clearly pleased with his arm and his accuracy, Uncle Rico begins to think out loud with Kip about the glory days.

“How much you wanna bet I could throw a football over those mountains? If the coach had put me in fourth quarter, we would have been state champions, no doubt about it. You better believe things would have been different. I’d have gone pro, making millions of dollars, living in a big old mansion somewhere, soaking it up in a hot tub with my soul mate.”

At this point, Uncle Rico pauses and seems wistful over what might have been. He continues, “Hey, Kip, you know a lot about cyberspace. You ever come across anything about time travel?”

Kip responds, “Easy. I’ve already looked into it for myself.”

Filled with hope that a return to the good old days might be possible, Uncle Rico responds, “Right on.”

Eventually, Kip breaks away from Uncle Rico and his backward-focused life. Embracing the real possibilities of today, Kip begins a new life, while Uncle Rico returns to his trailer in the desert still dreaming of what might have been.

Family life cycles…

Stop focusing on your circumstances…

Contentment does not come because we have conquered our circumstances or because we have learned to change our circumstances but because we have learned how to live in our circumstances. Take each day as a gift from God resting in the providence and promises of God.

IV. Christ’s Presence Will Enable You

Philippians 4:12-13 “I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” ESV

Here is what Paul has been leading up to all along…

If you want to be happy and content do not look for more possessions and do not fret, or resist or chafe at your circumstances…

Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” NIV

Philippians 3:10 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,” NIV

Philippians 4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” NIV

Cast Away is the story of Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) a top engineer for FedEx. While flying over the South Pacific, a violent storm damages the company jet causing it to slam into the ocean. Noland survives the crash, but everyone else aboard is killed. Clinging to a yellow life raft, he rides out the raging storm and washes up on a small deserted island. For the next four years he struggles to survive before escaping the island and returning to civilization.

The day after Noland first sets foot on the island, the only concern greater than his fear is his desperate need for water. He is dangerously thirsty. After he discovers coconuts falling from the trees, Noland frantically attempts to open one. He repeatedly throws a coconut against a boulder, but the hard shell is unmarked. Using all his strength, he pounds the coconut with a rock but without success. He tries to drill a hole into one and then flies into a fury when he still cannot access the juice locked inside the fibrous seed.

Eventually he employs a sharp rock as an axe and is able to cut into and remove the outer husk. Left with the hard shell, he finally breaks it open only to watch as most of the milky juice spills out on the ground. Noland lifts up a fragment of the shell and drains the few remaining drops of liquid into his mouth.

How like our spiritual thirst, as we desperately seek to find satisfaction. Jesus promises to fulfill our longings and declares, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”

Do you see the secret of contentment?

Not yet a believer or believer…if you are not satisfied with Christ you will never be satisfied with anything!

The first secret of contentment is to rest in the stillness and

Stability of God’s care.

The second secret of contentment is that no matter what your

circumstances God is there!

I can do al things through Christ …I can do anything God asks me to do, be anywhere God wants me to be through Christ who enables me every day.

He is the source and supply of contentment. Where is joy, where is peace, where is contentment? It is in Christ

Is there a restlessness in your heart?

Is there a sadness in your heart?

Do you long for peace and joy and contentment?

It is only found in a saved life in Christ

And it is only found in a life centered in Christ.

Look upon the emptiness of your heart and life and turn to Christ.

Albert Camus – Seeker

During several summers in the 1950s, Howard Mumma, a Methodist pastor, served as a guest minister at the American Church in Paris. After Sunday service one day, he noticed a man in a dark suit surrounded by admirers. Albert Camus [the author] had been coming to church, first to hear Marcel Dupré playing the organ, and later to hear Mumma’s sermons.

Mumma became friends with the existentialist Camus, who by then was famous for his novels The Plague and The Stranger and for essays such as “The Myth of Sisyphus.” The two men met to discuss questions of religious belief that Camus raised. Mumma, now 92, kept the conversations confidential for over 40 years before deciding to share them. In one conversation, Camus told Mumma:

The reason I have been coming to church is because I am seeking. I’m almost on a pilgrimage—seeking something to fill the void that I am experiencing—and no one else knows. Certainly the public and the readers of my novels, while they see that void, are not finding the answers in what they are reading. But deep down you are right—I am searching for something that the world is not giving me….

In a sense we are all products of a mundane world, a world without spirit. The world in which we live and the lives which we live are decidedly empty….Since I have been coming to church, I have been thinking a great deal about the idea of a transcendent, something that is other than this world. It is something that you do not hear much about today, but I am finding it.

One of the basic teachings that I learned from Sartre is that man is alone. We are solitary centers of the universe. Perhaps we ourselves are the only ones who have ever asked the great questions of life. Perhaps, since Nazism, we are also the ones who have loved and lost and who are, therefore, fearful of life. That is what led us to sense that there is a great idea or powerful influence—but there is something that can bring meaning to my life. I certainly don’t have it, but it is there. On Sunday mornings, I hear that the answer is God.

You have made it very clear to me, Howard, that we are not the only ones in this world. There is something that is invisible. We may not hear the voice, but there is some way in which we can become aware that we are not the only ones in the world and that there is help for all of us.

Herman Melville made an impact on the world with his novel Moby Dick. His great-great grandnephew has made an impact on the world with music. Richard Melville Hall, known as Moby, has seen great success in the music world. His 1999 album, Play, went platinum; his single, Go, was named one of the “200 Essential Rock Recordings” by Rolling Stone magazine.

While successful, Moby has been controversial not only for his music but also for his faith. MTV says Moby is “infamous for his devout, radical Christian beliefs, as well as his environmental and vegan activism.”

In an interview with Darren Philip, Moby describes the universal need for God: One of my favorite quotes is, “Those who are sick are in need of a doctor.” And the sad thing is we’re all sick. It’s part and parcel of the human condition, and it’s especially part and parcel of living in the United States in the 21st century. We’re all sick. We’re all deeply unhappy, disconnected, unwell people. We need each other, and we need God. And if God made the universe and if God made us and if God made the world, it just makes sense to invite God into our lives and ask him, “You made me—what should I be doing?”

Darren Philip, “Moby: Faith, Salvation, and Everything in Between,”