How Much is Enough: Philippians 4:10-13 Neil Ryan

Date: October 30, 2005
Passage: Philippians 4:10-13
Message: How Much is Enough?
Series in Philippians [14]

Here's a tough question for you..
How Much is Enough?
Eg.
Superannuation
Exercise
Work Choices Legislation advertising by the Govt!
Noise do you put up with from neighbour's party at 3am
Technology - from car to computer to vacuum cleaner - 'for a bit more you get more'
Cup of tea - used to be 'weak or strong' - now 64 varieties!

Forgiveness -
Remember Peter?
Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?

These days we would say to Jesus,
Lord, how many times do I have to be nice to the tele- market people before I can say what I really want to say?

How much is enough!!

Remember when the Israelites hit some hard times on journey to Promise land. God gave them all the food they needed. One condition.

The Manna that fell from heaven would only last for a day. God would supply all that they needed for each day.
They were to come out each morning and gather it up and not keep any over for the next day.

How much was enough?
There were still those who tried to gather up more than enough and by the time the next morning came they discovered the food was full of maggots!! [Exodus 16:20]

How much is enough in a 'must have' society?

Read Philippians 4:10-13
I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for 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.

...I have learned the secret of being content
Now this is not the kind of thing you can learn from reading a book.
It's not something you can learn from one sermon but we need to get a handle of just what it was that Paul learned about contentment.

1. Contentment is GRACIOUS
Read v10
Contentment is learning that things don't always work out the way we think they should.

Paul was in prison and it seems that in recent times the care from the Christians in Philippi had dropped off.
Paul tells us in v15 that after he left Philippi -

... not one Church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only. For even when I was in Thessalonica you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.

But lately he had not heard from them.
The support was not there.
The interest seemed to have waned.

Paul never sought to manipulate them, he didn't use guilt to squeeze something out of them..in fact he graciously excuses their neglect.

...you were concerned but had no opportunity to show it.

It's easy to become bitter or cynical because other people don't meet our reasonable expectations.
There is a deep sense in all of us that somebody 'owes' us.
We can feel disappointed, let down, disillusioned and those things create a climate / attitude of DIS-CONTENT.

2. Contentment is HUMBLE
Read v11
Paul was more grateful for their renewed interest than he was for the gift.
I wonder if the Christians knew that.
They probably thought the gift was the important thing!

I am not saying this because I am in need.
Interesting response. Thankyou for the gift but I don't really need it. That's one way to keep your mission support up!!

But it gets to the heart of the problem of contentment.
What do we think we NEED?
What are the 'must have's' of our world?

Problem with growing up in a consumerist society is not so much the thing itself but the VALUE we place on it.
We have become conditioned to the fact that whatever we see becomes a NEED.
We are a generation with a hightened awareness of what we 'could and should have'!

But our society is struggling with a greater 'need' than just wanting more things.
It is the 'need' of happiness.

I read with interest an article in the Advertiser on Friday regarding American author and speaker, Dr. John Demartini.
'For many people the dogged pursuit of happiness is actually making people sad. And that's because their idea of what will make them happy is grounded in fantasy.'
You see our Western World is in a dilemma.
We live in the grip of what some have called 'Affluenza'
Affluenza = 'The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from trying to keep up with the Joneses. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the dogged pursuit of the Australian dream' [Clive Hamilton in his book Affluenza]

Yet we have also embracing a more post modern, new age, irrational, mystical and spiritual approach to life that wants to address the deep issues of our soul.

The Western psyche is caught between two worlds.
We want what we want but we know it's not what we need!
We can't bring ourselves to seriously address the biggest issue of the heart.
How much is enough?
How can I be content?
How can I know true and genuine peace?

In his book, Who Needs God?, Rabbi Harold Kushner tells the story of a Stanford Sophomore, a pre-med student, whose parents gave him a summer trip to the Far East as
a reward for doing so well in school.

While there, he met a guru and after explaining his
life at Stanford, the guru shook his head sadly and told him, 'You are poisoning your soul with this success oriented way of life. Give it up; come join us in an atmosphere where
we all share and love each other.'

The student accepted his offer. He wrote to his
parents explaining that he was dropping out of school to live in an ashram. Six months later, his parents received the following letter.

'Dear Mom and Dad,
I know you weren't happy with the decision I made last summer, but for the first time in my life, I am at peace. Here there is no competing, no hustling, no trying to get ahead of anyone else. In fact, this way of life is so much in harmony with the inner essence of my soul that in only six months I've become the number two disciple, and I think I can be number one by June!'

3. Contentment is ROBUST
Read v12

We sometimes think that contentment is a passive thing.
Kind of settled resignation.
Learning to live with what we haven't got!

But it's much more than that.
It's learning to recognise what we HAVE got!
It's just as critical to be content when we have plenty as it is when we have little.

Some think of contentment as a Christianised form of stoicism.
Eastern mystics, who slept on a bed of nails, who walked over a bed of hot coals and felt nothing.. they so suppressed their thought process about it?
Contentment that Paul speaks of is not a mind numbing, reality denying process that makes faith like some kind of spiritual anaesthetic for life!

Contentment is not devoid of pain.
Jesus was content to do His father's will but in the garden he sweat great drops of blood.
On the cross his body was racked in pain and in his final moments as he bore the sin of the world he cried out,
My God My God why have you forsaken me?

Paul still knew the frustration of being shut away in prison when he wanted to be free to preach the gospel in many places.
There were a lot of things about Paul's life that he had to wrestle with.

Contentment is not a matter of denying those things that still need to change about us.
Paul himself said earlier in Philippians 3:12-14
.not that I have already attained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me...on thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on..

Whole idea of Christian growth is built on the idea of a holy kind of discontentment. There has to be a creative discontentment with that which is less than it ought to be in our lives.

Same thing that drives a sports-person to improve.
A scientist to keep discovering.
A student to keep learning.

Two quotes sum up just what contentment is and how important it is.

'True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.' [Source unknown]

Diogenes = Cynic Philosopher of 4th C.
Disciple of Antisthenes.
Antisthenes at first refused to admit him into his house and even struck him with a stick. Diogenes calmly bore the rebuke and said, "Strike me, Antisthenes, but you will never find a stick sufficiently hard to remove me from your presence, while you speak anything worth hearing."

He went on to so renounce world's riches and values that he eventually lived in a tub!
Alexander of course is famous because he was reported to have wept because he had no more worlds to conquer!

'True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.'
Gilbert K. Chesterton

That's it!
Paul had learned that by the grace of God he could get out of any situation all there was in it!
Read Philippians 1:12ff

4. Contentment is MOTIVATIONAL
Read v13
Contented people 'can do' people!
Paul was not one of these people who said,
'When I get out of prison, I'm going to make the most of my freedom.'
He says,
'What I can do, is make the most of my imprisonment!'

Dis-contented people are so preoccupied with having their needs met that they don't know how to be 'can do' people.
There is more often a reason why they can't do!

I can do everything..
Just a word of qualification. Keep this in its context.
There are some things I can't do and will never be able to do!
Eg.
Sing by myself in public. I sing like Pavarotti in the shower but that doesn't translate in Church!

I can't do everything but I can do everything God sets before me!
I remember the first time ever spoke in public was at Youth Service Edwardstown Baptist Church.
As I walked up stairs to pulpit this verse going over and over in my head!

35 years later my great motivation to preach is that God has said,
This is something you can do in my strength!
What is God saying this morning?
Contentment is GRACIOUS
Contentment is HUMBLE
Contentment is ROBUST
Contentment is MOTIVATIONAL