Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: My subject today is contentment. You've heard of the Ten Commandments.
Speaker 2: You heard of them, You've broken them. You've heard of
Speaker 2: the ten Commandments. This is not the ten Commandments. My
Speaker 2: sermon today is called the content mint Commandments. I want
Speaker 2: to speak on the subject of contentment and what it
Speaker 2: takes to live in a place of contentment. And I
Speaker 2: was so mad at Abby's softball, t ball, whatever you
Speaker 2: call it, the one where they don't keep score. She
Speaker 2: takes all the fun out of it for me. I
Speaker 2: was so mad at her game. Yesterday. There was this
Speaker 2: eighteen month old and that baby just had me furious
Speaker 2: because he was so good and so happy. And it
Speaker 2: caused me to contrast how my children behaved at age
Speaker 2: eighteen months. And I looked at my oldest son and
Speaker 2: then my middle child, and I said, do you see
Speaker 2: that baby that is the opposite.
Speaker 1: I asked the.
Speaker 2: Mom, I said, is he always like this? And she
Speaker 2: said yeah, And I said, I hate you for it.
Speaker 2: She said, he's just always content. And I told Elijah
Speaker 2: and Graham, I said, you were the opposite of always content,
Speaker 2: whatever the opposite was. If you would have been like that,
Speaker 2: Holly and I would have had twelve disciples. We would
Speaker 2: have just kept populating the earth. One of you is
Speaker 2: equal to twelve of those. And the reason I wanted
Speaker 2: to choose Philippians for is because there's one verse I
Speaker 2: want you to.
Speaker 1: Listen for it.
Speaker 2: It describes Paul toward the end of his journey in
Speaker 2: serving Christ. He describes a state of contentment that on
Speaker 2: the surface seems natural to him because he's Paul after all.
Speaker 2: To somebody say he's Paul after all. But I would
Speaker 2: suggest to you that Paul is describing a kind of
Speaker 2: contentment here that is not a disposition you are born with,
Speaker 2: but a decision that you make. Because when I think
Speaker 2: about Paul, I don't think about somebody who just low
Speaker 2: key laid back and waited to see how things turned out.
Speaker 2: This is the dude who was not content just to
Speaker 2: preach to the Jews. He had to take the Gospel
Speaker 2: to the Gentiles mess everything up, wasn't circumcising them. Had
Speaker 2: to confront Peter because Peter was kind of prejudiced, but
Speaker 2: didn't want to act prejudice unless he was around his
Speaker 2: prejudice friends. He was never content just to maintain the
Speaker 2: status quo. And yet the most famous verse about contentment
Speaker 2: in the whole Bible came out of his mouth. And
Speaker 2: that was interesting to me, almost like he's describing contentment
Speaker 2: not as a disposition, but a skill that can be learned.
Speaker 2: How many of you would love to learn to be
Speaker 2: more content in your life? If your hands up, you're
Speaker 2: over thirty five, because still then you just want more stuff,
Speaker 2: more stuff, more stuff, more stuff, more stuff, more stuff.
Speaker 2: And then you realize you've been drinking ocean water all
Speaker 2: your life and it only made you more thirsty. And
Speaker 2: the greatest skill in life is not accumulation, but contentment.
Speaker 2: And Paul's going to.
Speaker 1: Illustrate that here in the fourth chapter of the Book.
Speaker 2: Of Philippians, which is a letter to a church that
Speaker 2: he found it. Now, we don't know exactly where Paul
Speaker 2: was when he wrote this letter. We know that he
Speaker 2: was in prison somewhere. I don't even know if it's
Speaker 2: important that we know where he was physically as much
Speaker 2: as we study where he was emotionally and spiritually. And
Speaker 2: so here's what he says some of the last words
Speaker 2: of this letter to a church that he fathered a
Speaker 2: decade earlier. He says, I rejoiced greatly in the Lord
Speaker 2: that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed,
Speaker 2: you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying this because I'm in need, for
Speaker 2: I have learned to be content.
Speaker 1: I wasn't born this way.
Speaker 2: I was born screaming my head off, but I have learned.
Speaker 1: It took me a little while.
Speaker 2: I had to have God say yes to some things
Speaker 2: that weren't best for me, so I could learned the
Speaker 2: hard way to trust him that what He's given.
Speaker 1: Me is enough. But I have learned by now. I'm
Speaker 1: an old man. I bear on my body the marks
Speaker 1: of the Lord Jesus, and I have learned to be content.
Speaker 2: Whatever the circumstances, slow, Wi Fi, shipwrecks, you name it,
Speaker 2: I've been through it, and I have learned to be content.
Speaker 2: I know what it is to be in need, and
Speaker 2: I know what it is to have plenty. I know
Speaker 2: what it is to be in a Hundai. I know
Speaker 2: what it is to be in a Mayback. I've learned, though,
Speaker 2: that it is not my situation that.
Speaker 1: Regulates my satisfaction.
Speaker 2: So I have learned. Watch there's a phrase again. I
Speaker 2: have learned you notice a theme here. I had to
Speaker 2: go to school. I have learned the secret of being
Speaker 2: content in any and every situation, whether well fed or
Speaker 2: whole thirty, whether living in plenty or in want. I
Speaker 2: can do all this through Him who gives me strength.
Speaker 2: Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover,
Speaker 2: as you Philippians know, in the early days of your Queen,
Speaker 2: and it's with the Gospel. When I set out for Macedonia,
Speaker 2: not one church shared with me in the matter of
Speaker 2: giving and receiving except you only for even when I
Speaker 2: was in Thessalonika, you sent me aid more than once
Speaker 2: when I was in need. Not that I desire your gifts.
Speaker 2: Touch somebody, say I'm good. That needs to be your
Speaker 2: opening line. If you are single and dating people, before
Speaker 2: you get deep into the conversation, look at them and
Speaker 2: say I was good before you got here. So if
Speaker 2: this works out, I'm good. If it doesn't, I'm good.
Speaker 2: Look at your neighbor one more time and say I
Speaker 2: was already good before they seated me next to you.
Speaker 2: I was already good. What I desire is that more
Speaker 2: be credited to your account. I receive full payment and
Speaker 2: have more than enough. I am amply supplied now that
Speaker 2: I have received from epaphroditis the gifts you sent. They're
Speaker 2: fragrant offering and acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my
Speaker 2: God will meet all your needs. How did the passage
Speaker 2: that started out talking about Paul's imprisonment in talking about
Speaker 2: their needs? We're going to find out today the contentment commandments.
Speaker 2: I think the misunderstanding that a lot of people have
Speaker 2: about the nature of God in our relationship with him
Speaker 2: is that he is a god of restrictions. I've come
Speaker 2: to see him more and more as I study the
Speaker 2: written word and the way that his spirit moves, and
Speaker 2: just observe general creation, that he is a god of
Speaker 2: endless permission.
Speaker 1: Even the rules or.
Speaker 2: Regulations that he gives to his children are designed to
Speaker 2: bring us into maximum freedom.
Speaker 1: When the children of Israel.
Speaker 2: Were coming out of Egypt, which was a land of bondage,
Speaker 2: or as Exodus twenty calls at the House of Bondage.
Speaker 1: One of the first things that.
Speaker 2: God did after leading them through the Red Sea, drowning
Speaker 2: Pharaoh behind them, and getting them out of Egypt, was
Speaker 2: to begin the process of getting Egypt out of them,
Speaker 2: because that's the hard part. It's the hard part, not
Speaker 2: to bring you into freedom, but to teach you how
Speaker 2: to live in it. For many of us, true freedom
Speaker 2: doesn't feel familiar, and we would rather stay in something
Speaker 2: that enslaves us, that is predictable, rather than embrace something
Speaker 2: that is new and good and true and pure. So
Speaker 2: we will go back to familiar addictions, We will go
Speaker 2: back to familiar mindsets, We will go back to familiar
Speaker 2: toxic emotional states because it feels normal to us, and
Speaker 2: we will choose normal over new. When God took up
Speaker 2: on Mount Sinai to give him those ten commandments that
Speaker 2: we referenced a moment ago, it was in an effort
Speaker 2: to teach his.
Speaker 1: People how to live in freedom.
Speaker 2: Look at your neighbors, say God wants you free, I mean.
Speaker 1: Really really free, Tell him really really free. Free from
Speaker 1: what people.
Speaker 2: Think about you, free from the need.
Speaker 1: To have more stuff, free.
Speaker 2: From the free from the need to be appreciated by others,
Speaker 2: because your dials of validation are internalized, and the Holy
Speaker 2: Spirit is your judge and arbitter and vindicator. God wants
Speaker 2: you free, be free, be free. So by the time
Speaker 2: you get into all the thou shalts and thou shalt nots,
Speaker 2: what you're really hearing is a God who wants his
Speaker 2: people to be free. And it seems to me that
Speaker 2: the Bible is a master course in living in freedom.
Speaker 2: Starts with those ten commandments, but then by the time
Speaker 2: you get over to Paul, he's teaching true freedom in christ.
Speaker 1: Isn't it interesting.
Speaker 2: That God used somebody who was in chains to teach
Speaker 2: his people about freedom. Paul is writing a theological discourse
Speaker 2: on freedom from a prison cell.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God will.
Speaker 2: Call you to exemplify or demonstrate something that is directly
Speaker 2: contradictory to what you feel, that is directly contradictory to
Speaker 2: what your life is manifesting in that season. So when
Speaker 2: you come to the Book of Philippians, you might expect.
Speaker 1: A treatise on justice. For Paul has.
Speaker 2: Been the victim of a great injustice, sentenced to trial
Speaker 2: before Caesar, treated by the way as a common criminal
Speaker 2: when he was indeed a Roman citizen.
Speaker 1: But what you find when you come to the Book
Speaker 1: of Philippians is not Paul advocating for.
Speaker 2: His rights as much as he is speaking of his freedom.
Speaker 2: And it's kind of interesting because it seems like Paul
Speaker 2: in chains is more free than a lot of us.
Speaker 1: We'll make our own decisions and live our own lives.
Speaker 2: What's interesting, though, is by this point in the Book
Speaker 2: of Philippians Philippians chapter four, Paul has pretty much said
Speaker 2: everything he wants to say to this church he founded
Speaker 2: a decade ago. He's expressing several freedoms. You can look
Speaker 2: at these sometimes when you're not busy. I know you're busy,
Speaker 2: but if you get a chance, go look at chapter one.
Speaker 2: He'll tell you about his freedom from fear. This is
Speaker 2: one of the greatest freedoms that God desires to grant
Speaker 2: to his children, freedom from fear. In fact, for him,
Speaker 2: it's gotten so severe by this point he said, I
Speaker 2: don't care whether I die or live. Is he suicidal? No,
Speaker 2: he's free. He's free. He really believes this stuff. So
Speaker 2: by this point he's like, kill me. I'll see Christ.
Speaker 2: There will be a parade when I get to Heaven
Speaker 2: of all of the people that I let to Christ
Speaker 2: while I was on the earth. So it's kind of
Speaker 2: cool because I'd like the party with Jesus. Take me out,
Speaker 2: But if you leave me here, I'll keep working so
Speaker 2: the party will be bigger when I get there.
Speaker 1: What would it mean to be free?
Speaker 2: He uses a construct called weather or it's like.
Speaker 1: Saying it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: It's like he's got his priorities so fixed that he
Speaker 2: is free from fear.
Speaker 1: Then if you want to look at chapter.
Speaker 2: Two, you'll see how he's free from his flesh. Oh,
Speaker 2: I'd love to be free from my flesh. I would
Speaker 2: love to be free from my feelings. I would love
Speaker 2: to be free from this manadgment system of my moods
Speaker 2: that dictates to me how my day is gonna go.
Speaker 2: Paul said, I don't have anything to prove at this
Speaker 2: stage of my life. I'm not showing off, I'm not
Speaker 2: showing out. I'm just showing up and doing the will
Speaker 2: of God. And that's all I gotta do. Because I'm free.
Speaker 2: Throw your hands back, say I'm free. Can only go
Speaker 2: so far, I understand, crowded auditorium. Freedom from fear, freedom
Speaker 2: from flesh, freedom from pride to imitate the humility of Christ.
Speaker 2: And then something interesting happens. He's done with this letter.
Speaker 2: He had to straighten out some people who are fighting.
Speaker 1: In the church. He calls them out by name.
Speaker 2: How would you like to get in the Bible that way?
Speaker 2: And then he says, oh, yes. And it's not in
Speaker 2: the English translation. The translators didn't think it beneficial to
Speaker 2: include it.
Speaker 1: But it's almost a PS. Isn't that weird?
Speaker 2: Because the passage I read you features two of Paul's
Speaker 2: most famous verses in all of the Bible. You remember them.
Speaker 2: Philippians four thirteen. That's the weight room verse. I can
Speaker 2: do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Every Christian
Speaker 2: high school. The squad rack. That's the verse with an
Speaker 2: eagle in a bodybuilder. And then there's that one in
Speaker 2: nineteen that you were supposed to shout over, but you
Speaker 2: were sleepy.
Speaker 3: It said, and my God shall supply all your needs,
Speaker 3: financial ones, spiritual ones, invisible ones, tangible ones, all.
Speaker 2: Your needs according to his glory stretches in Christ. And
Speaker 2: those two verses, which are two of his top five
Speaker 2: most quoted verses, were in the PS section of his
Speaker 2: letter to the Philippians almost called this message the power
Speaker 2: of a PS.
Speaker 1: Because it really.
Speaker 2: Represents watch this a PS is a prospective shift.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: And he says this.
Speaker 2: He says, oh yeah, by the way, thanks for the gift.
Speaker 2: Apparently they had sent a paphroditis. If you're looking for
Speaker 2: a baby name, might I suggest a paphroditis.
Speaker 1: It means handsome.
Speaker 2: They sent this handsome messenger with a gift for Paul
Speaker 2: to help him perhaps with this mounting legal defense. If
Speaker 2: he's writing it from Rome, he's got to keep paying
Speaker 2: the bills because he's on house arrest and he's waiting
Speaker 2: for his trial. And if that's indeed, the situation is
Speaker 2: going to be very expensive.
Speaker 1: He already has a lot of travel bills.
Speaker 2: This is a church that he founded, and they send
Speaker 2: him a gift, and Paul says, oh yeah, by the way,
Speaker 2: now that I straightened you out on freedom from fear,
Speaker 2: Now that I straightened you out on freedom from what's
Speaker 2: the other one, freedom from fear flesh? And now that
Speaker 2: I got your pride out of the way, and now
Speaker 2: that Yode and Synike have been.
Speaker 1: Called out in my letter.
Speaker 2: Oh, by the way, now that I told you to
Speaker 2: rejoice in the Lord, I Verse ten rejoiced greatly in
Speaker 2: the Lord. Are you ready for the first contentment commandment?
Speaker 1: Are you ready? You want to write these down and preach.
Speaker 2: Them back to your spouse, because your spouse is impossibly
Speaker 2: miserable sometimes. And the first one is this, thou shalt
Speaker 2: remember to rejoice. Thou shalt remember to rejoice. That staff
Speaker 2: member who took the offering at Valentine said he was forgetful.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you heard him. He said, I
Speaker 2: tend to be forgetful. I forget my keys, I forget
Speaker 2: my wallet. That's not the worst thing you can forget, Zach.
Speaker 2: The worst thing you can forget is what he's done
Speaker 2: for you, and how he's blessed you, and how he's
Speaker 2: kept you. Y'all look kind of forgetful today. Sometimes you
Speaker 2: come to church and you remember to brush your teeth,
Speaker 2: but you forget to bring your praise.
Speaker 1: You forget to stir.
Speaker 2: Up your spirit. And that's what the worship leaders do.
Speaker 2: The team does it. They say, come on, let's lift
Speaker 2: our hands. They're reminding you that God is worthy of
Speaker 2: your surrender. Real maturity, real contentment, comes when nobody has
Speaker 2: to remind you to rejoice. I didn't tell him this
Speaker 2: last night, but y'all are deeper. He just told them,
Speaker 2: rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, rejoice.
Speaker 1: Why'd you say it again?
Speaker 2: Because it's crazy how quick you forget. It's interesting how
Speaker 2: selective your memory is. But a selective memory can actually
Speaker 2: work to your advantage if you remember in order to rejoice.
Speaker 2: So when you evaluate any given day or any given
Speaker 2: period of time in your life, when you evaluate a year,
Speaker 2: if you come to the end of one year in
Speaker 2: the beginning of the next, you will make.
Speaker 1: A movie in your mind of how this year went.
Speaker 2: Some scenes you will delete, some scenes.
Speaker 1: You will enhance.
Speaker 2: God has given you editing software in your spirit to choose, Jeremiah,
Speaker 2: what you call to your mind and what you recall
Speaker 2: to your mind determines the revelation that you will have,
Speaker 2: and the faith that you can walk in, and the
Speaker 2: contentment that you will enjoy.
Speaker 1: Where are my rejoicers? You understand the power of this.
Speaker 2: In Hollyod what they call it final cut. It means
Speaker 2: you can shoot the scenes, but somebody has to decide
Speaker 2: which ones go on the big screen. And I want
Speaker 2: to tell you God has given you final.
Speaker 1: Cut over your life.
Speaker 4: When you open your mouth and bless the Lord at
Speaker 4: all times. I'm not blessing him in site of the battles.
Speaker 4: I'm blessing him because of the battles. That's what gave
Speaker 4: me Grooven assurance of his spirit.
Speaker 1: Lock it down, Lock it down.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Paul said, thanks for the gift. Almost forgot
Speaker 2: thanks for the gift. I want you to watch because
Speaker 2: Paul is awesome at theology, but he is terrible at
Speaker 2: thank you notes. His mom raised him right in a
Speaker 2: lot of ways.
Speaker 1: You know, tribe of.
Speaker 2: Benjamin, Pharisee, of Pharisee, send him off to study with Gamalia,
Speaker 2: all that, But the boy he needs some help on
Speaker 2: this thank you note. Now, let's just let's just. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's a human, right, He's not Jesus Christ. And I
Speaker 2: know it's the Bible, but come on, Paul, listen to this.
Speaker 2: How would you like to receive this thank you note?
Speaker 2: I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last.
Speaker 1: You send me a little something. Now, school is school, school,
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, it's just he said.
Speaker 2: Indeed you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to
Speaker 2: show it.
Speaker 1: See what he did, There was a period of silence.
Speaker 2: Where the people who should have been helping Paul weren't
Speaker 2: helping Paul, and he could have interpreted that in one
Speaker 2: of two ways. They don't care about me. Nobody cares
Speaker 2: about me. Nobody is there for me, and I loan
Speaker 2: them money, and now I need some money. You know
Speaker 2: these little things you tell yourself, the interpretation, the assumption.
Speaker 2: How do you interpret silence? How do you interpret the times?
Speaker 2: Here's the key to contentment. It's the second key. You've
Speaker 2: got to refuse to resent. Wow. I don't know whether
Speaker 2: Paul was in prison in Cesarea or whether he was
Speaker 2: in prison in Rome, but I can tell you what
Speaker 2: prison he refused to live in the prison of resentment.
Speaker 2: And there is no prison like the prison of resentment.
Speaker 2: There are no windows, only bars when you lock yourself
Speaker 2: into your situation. I'm looking at some of you right now,
Speaker 2: and I know enough about you to know that you
Speaker 2: could have resented your situation.
Speaker 1: That's the good thing about being the pastor of the
Speaker 1: church and not some little guest speaker. I know what
Speaker 1: some of you.
Speaker 2: Could interpret your situation to mean. Or Paul said, I
Speaker 2: choose to assume that you wanted to help me but
Speaker 2: you couldn't. That's a decision, and it is a key
Speaker 2: to contentment. If you don't resist and refuse resentment on
Speaker 2: every level, you will be locked inside a prison of
Speaker 2: your mind's own design.
Speaker 1: And look, this isn't just people.
Speaker 2: Sometimes in life you're making decisions about how to view
Speaker 2: the support you were not given at a young age.
Speaker 2: There are two ways to view it. You can live
Speaker 2: in resentment or you can live in contentment.
Speaker 1: Those are your choices.
Speaker 2: You can say to yourself, you know, it wasn't right
Speaker 2: that I didn't have, and it wasn't cool that I
Speaker 2: didn't get and I could be so much further along.
Speaker 2: But that is a prison called resentment.
Speaker 1: God wants his children free. You can look at your
Speaker 1: brothers like Joseph and say, it doesn't matter why you
Speaker 1: threw me in the pit.
Speaker 2: God got me to Egypt anyway, and now I'm here.
Speaker 5: To save your life because I'm free.
Speaker 2: The only one really free was the one who was
Speaker 2: in prison. He sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives.
Speaker 1: That's what Jesus said. What does that mean?
Speaker 2: I will not live another day in my life resenting
Speaker 2: what they did, what they said, what they didn't do.
Speaker 1: Who I'm not what I can't be is over. I
Speaker 1: refuse to live in resentment.
Speaker 2: When Christ died for sent me free, I'm.
Speaker 1: Done with this prison.
Speaker 2: Okay, thou shalt what's the first one? Thou shalt remember
Speaker 2: to rejoice, refuse to resent, and you're going to love
Speaker 2: this one. Thou shalt appreciate all seasons. A little technical
Speaker 2: nuance when he says you renewed your concern for me,
Speaker 2: it doesn't give the image that is behind the language.
Speaker 2: The point a Greek is an expression here that says
Speaker 2: you cause your concern to bloom or blossom again. Wow.
Speaker 1: So what Paul is doing. He's saying there are seasons
Speaker 1: to life.
Speaker 2: And I made it through winter, and I'm grateful that
Speaker 2: spring is finally here. Is how important this is to
Speaker 2: discern the seasons of your life if you are going
Speaker 2: to live in a state of contentment. I had to
Speaker 2: learn this early as a pastor, because there are certain
Speaker 2: seasons that Jesus could preach and attendance would be down
Speaker 2: in church.
Speaker 1: Church attendance is seasonal. First year, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: The first year I thought the church was falling apart,
Speaker 2: but it was really just summer vacation. We love your pastor,
Speaker 2: but we're going to Disney World and we will be back.
Speaker 2: It'll come back around. This is what Paul learned. But
Speaker 2: you have to live through enough seasons, especially some losing
Speaker 2: seasons in sports.
Speaker 1: They call it a rebuilding year. Is code for we.
Speaker 2: Suck right now, but we're trying to do something about it.
Speaker 2: And some seasons, let me put it in a profound way,
Speaker 2: some seasons just suck. When you know it's just a season.
Speaker 2: When you know that, yes, right now, the nights are
Speaker 2: long and the days are sure. Right now, I'm lonely
Speaker 2: and I feel barren. But touch somebody say, it's.
Speaker 1: Just a season. It's just a season. It's just a season.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The worst thing you can do is to get stuck
Speaker 1: in a season in your mind.
Speaker 2: That God is trying to bring you out of in
Speaker 2: your life.
Speaker 1: So Paul says, it was a long winter. Perhaps Paul wondered,
Speaker 1: do they care about me? Do they remember what I
Speaker 1: did for them? Do they have any loyalty whatsoever?
Speaker 2: But he chooses to see it as a season and
Speaker 2: do everything. There is a season, a time to be born,
Speaker 2: a time to die, a time to live, a time
Speaker 2: to plant, a.
Speaker 1: Time to uproot. A time to destroy.
Speaker 2: There is a time that the ground must be fallow
Speaker 2: so that it can be fertile again and sustain.
Speaker 1: What it produces. It's a season thing. It's a season thing.
Speaker 1: I know how to have plenty and I know how
Speaker 1: to be pruned both our growth.
Speaker 2: And the key is to be as content in one
Speaker 2: season as the other. I often wonder does stuff really
Speaker 2: make you more content or does it just make you
Speaker 2: more insatiable.
Speaker 1: The quieter it gets, the more accurate the teaching.
Speaker 2: It's kind of weird because it's easier sometimes to be
Speaker 2: content when you don't have something that you want.
Speaker 1: And you think you're going to.
Speaker 2: Get it one day, because in that season, you can
Speaker 2: tell yourself, I'll be content when. But what about when
Speaker 2: you got it and the contentment didn't come with the package.
Speaker 2: Just thinking with you here, I think the key is
Speaker 2: you've got to if you're going to survive the seasons
Speaker 2: of winter while waiting on spring to come and live
Speaker 2: in contentment. I think you got to keep Here's number four,
Speaker 2: thou shalt keep a secret. Stash Well says, I got
Speaker 2: your gift. Finally, Thanks for the gift. It's about time.
Speaker 2: No God, it's Okay, it's just I know you didn't
Speaker 2: have a chance. I know there was something that was
Speaker 2: keeping you from it. I choose to believe the best
Speaker 2: about you. Verse eleven.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying this because I'm in need.
Speaker 2: This thing, you know, just gets worse and worse and worse.
Speaker 1: I got your gift, it took a while. I didn't
Speaker 1: really need it.
Speaker 2: I think what he's saying is I had my own
Speaker 2: to live off of, and I wasn't waiting for you
Speaker 2: to give me something.
Speaker 1: This is the best thing you can do.
Speaker 2: If you go over to somebody's house for the first
Speaker 2: time and they're feeding you and you don't know about
Speaker 2: their culinary ability, pre eat, pre eat. It's just a
Speaker 2: way to make sure that whenever they serve.
Speaker 1: See you ought to come.
Speaker 2: To church full that way, no matter who preaches or
Speaker 2: what they say.
Speaker 1: I ain't go far.
Speaker 2: Okay, come on, magnify the Lord with me.
Speaker 1: Let us exalt his name together.
Speaker 2: I got much of sin, and I appreciate it, but
Speaker 2: I didn't need it.
Speaker 5: Don't somebody say it's nice but I don't need it.
Speaker 2: It's nice to be appreciated, but I don't need to
Speaker 2: be appreciated to serve God. I got my owns off.
Speaker 2: I get high on my own supply. Help me somebody
Speaker 2: that happen in charge fifty three years. Got a secret stash.
Speaker 2: I got some scriptures I can preach to myself. I
Speaker 2: got some songs I can sing, Oh by myself. I
Speaker 2: got some truth I know in my soul. I can't
Speaker 2: do all things.
Speaker 1: Through Christ, who strengthens me. It's not from me, but
Speaker 1: it's in me.
Speaker 2: I got a secret stash. Now this is important. Come
Speaker 2: in at number five, y'all doing good? You want the rest?
Speaker 1: All right? Number five so important. Critical distinction.
Speaker 2: Thou shalt not Thou shalt not confuse the supply with
Speaker 2: the source. What happened to the Israelites was while Moses
Speaker 2: was on the mountain as God was teaching his children
Speaker 2: to be free, they started dancing around a golden cat
Speaker 2: because they got the created things confused with the creator.
Speaker 2: And when God provides your needs. Notice that Paul starts
Speaker 2: by saying, I rejoiced in the Lord for the gift
Speaker 2: that you sent. I did not rejoice in the gift.
Speaker 2: I rejoiced in the one who gave it. And he
Speaker 2: wants the Philippians to know it wasn't you You just
Speaker 2: brought it.
Speaker 1: To the table.
Speaker 2: I've told you before that my family has a blessing.
Speaker 2: The lyrics are, thank you Lord for all you've done
Speaker 2: for this food and for Christ, your son. Amen, let's
Speaker 2: see some food, and thank you mommy. It's the family blessing.
Speaker 2: We sing it, we pound the table, the savages that
Speaker 2: we are, but when we go out to eat, we
Speaker 2: change it, we modify it slightly. It's an alternate version,
Speaker 2: thank you Lord for all you've done for this food
Speaker 2: and for Christ.
Speaker 1: You're Sunday.
Speaker 2: Amen, let's see some food and thank you Daddy. T
Speaker 2: The other day, well, Graham thought it would be cute
Speaker 2: to thank the server, and this rationale was, why are
Speaker 2: we thinking you? You didn't cook it or even bring
Speaker 2: it to the table, Which.
Speaker 1: Gave me an opportunity for a theology lesson.
Speaker 2: I said, James brought it because I bought it. See,
Speaker 2: you can't preach like me a cracker barrel.
Speaker 1: I promise you can't. I don't have to have a
Speaker 1: pumpit to preach.
Speaker 2: And it's about realizing that, however God blesses you in
Speaker 2: any season, whoever he uses it to do it. His
Speaker 2: hand was behind it, whether in plenty or in want.
Speaker 2: Here's the secret of being content. Sometimes you'll have plenty
Speaker 2: in one area and not enough in another.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you, in your life you are living in
Speaker 1: dual seasons.
Speaker 2: You might have a lot of money plenty, but not
Speaker 2: a lot of time want. You might have a lot
Speaker 2: of peace plenty.
Speaker 1: But not very good health. Want.
Speaker 2: You might have good career path trajectory plenty, but a
Speaker 2: relationship with your teenager that is completely incomprehensible and you
Speaker 2: really see no way out other than homicide.
Speaker 1: And you know that that's a commandment you can't break.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you everybody's living in both. But the key
Speaker 2: is to know that it all comes from the same hand.
Speaker 1: That's what Job said.
Speaker 2: Shall we accept good from his hand and not also trouble?
Speaker 2: Shall I accept the blessing and reject the burden.
Speaker 1: The supply is not the source.
Speaker 2: Those speakers are not the preacher, right, They're nice speakers,
Speaker 2: They're not preaching.
Speaker 1: Really, I'm not the preacher. I'm the straw. I'm not
Speaker 1: the drink. I'm the straw.
Speaker 2: Darn any idea how much pressure that takes off of me.
Speaker 2: It's so good to know that if God choosees to
Speaker 2: bless you through these words today. That's that's God that
Speaker 2: did it. All I can do is hope not to
Speaker 2: screw it up, so you can slorp it out.
Speaker 1: For the first time I ever touched your neighbors, say,
Speaker 1: slorp it out.
Speaker 6: And the last that's the last time. God gave you
Speaker 6: a new car. It's great, it's great.
Speaker 2: I know it smells wonderful. But don't get the leather
Speaker 2: confused with the Lord. God gave you a relationship, that's right.
Speaker 1: God gave you a wife.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: It's good, but she's not God.
Speaker 2: Every good and perfect gift comes from above.
Speaker 1: Make a confession. God is my source. God is my source.
Speaker 1: One more time. God is my source.
Speaker 2: If you believe that, you'll have no problem offering your
Speaker 2: life to him because He gave it to you to
Speaker 2: begin with. And I know what to do when I'm
Speaker 2: not getting what I want. I know how to live
Speaker 2: in plenty. I know how to live in more. Paul says,
Speaker 2: I'm not thinking you because I'm in.
Speaker 1: Need, but I have needs. I have needs.
Speaker 2: In fact, you hear a little bit of pain in
Speaker 2: the apostles voice when he says, when I first started out,
Speaker 2: not one church shared with me in the matter of
Speaker 2: giving and receiving. How would that feel? How would it
Speaker 2: feel to have to make tints on the side because
Speaker 2: people were accusing you of being greedy, and so rather
Speaker 2: than violate the con of the people, you would.
Speaker 1: Rather stay up late and go without.
Speaker 2: Paul said, there were some people who could have helped me,
Speaker 2: should have helped.
Speaker 1: Me, and they didn't.
Speaker 2: But I remember how you did, and even when you
Speaker 2: weren't helping me, I chose to remember the times that
Speaker 2: you did.
Speaker 1: You don't have to number six.
Speaker 2: Thou shalt not downplay disappointment. Wow, it's okay to be disappointed.
Speaker 2: You can be disappointed and content at the same time.
Speaker 2: You can be disappointed. I'm telling you. Paul was disappointed
Speaker 2: that he was waiting for a trial that he never
Speaker 2: should have been put on. But he refused to be
Speaker 2: defined by his disappointment. And that is the difference between
Speaker 2: one who has hope in Christ.
Speaker 1: And one who does not.
Speaker 2: It is not the experience of disappointment that differentiates us.
Speaker 2: It is the definition we assigned to disappointment. Paul knew
Speaker 2: that disappointment will lead to death. Sinny if I stay
Speaker 2: with it, if I do not allow myself to die
Speaker 2: in my place of disappointment, I will see the goodness of.
Speaker 1: The Lord in the land of the living, and.
Speaker 2: My God will supply all of your needs.
Speaker 1: How does he do it? I got four more.
Speaker 2: We're going to hit him quick, and I want to
Speaker 2: bring you to action. Somebody shout, I'm content. Say it again,
Speaker 2: I'm content. I'm content. I'm content in a small space,
Speaker 2: a big space, a lot of stress, little stress, big job,
Speaker 2: no job, corner office, no office. I'm content. I want
Speaker 2: to get there. How do I get there?
Speaker 1: Here?
Speaker 2: It is the final four commandments. Thou shalt number one, recognize,
Speaker 2: thou shalt release, thou shalt receive, and most importantly, after
Speaker 2: you've done all to stand, thou shalt, and my God
Speaker 2: will supply all your needs according to his glorious riches.
Speaker 2: In Christ, Paul said, I have found where my needs
Speaker 2: are really met, and I will not be moved. I
Speaker 2: know the one who knows my needs, and I will
Speaker 2: not be moved because I found the secret of being content.
Speaker 1: In every situation.
Speaker 2: The first thing is to recognize it. Some of us
Speaker 2: have a paphroditis standing right in front of us. But
Speaker 2: we will not recognize the blessing for what it is.
Speaker 1: It made me think about when Andrew told.
Speaker 2: Jesus, we don't have enough food to feed these five
Speaker 2: thousand men, and the irony of the fact that he
Speaker 2: could be standing in front of the one that John
Speaker 2: called the bread of life and be complaining about a
Speaker 2: left of bread, because sometimes we do not recognize the
Speaker 2: good things God has given us, because our eyes have
Speaker 2: been blinded to what we're not and what.
Speaker 1: It used to be and what it could have been.
Speaker 2: That shall recognize God has sent a paphroditis into your situation?
Speaker 1: Will you recognize him when he comes?
Speaker 2: God has sent provision for every need, and My God
Speaker 2: shall supply all your needs if you see the need.
Speaker 1: Beneath the need.
Speaker 2: And this is where you've got to release. This is
Speaker 2: where you've got to release the frustration, the anger, and yes,
Speaker 2: the worry, because you cannot receive the word of God
Speaker 2: when your heart is filled with worry and the cares
Speaker 2: of life. And only after you have released those things
Speaker 2: to Him can you receive. I'm gonna be honest with you,
Speaker 2: some of you are really bad at receiving what God
Speaker 2: wants to give you. You're stubborn. You don't want to look
Speaker 2: like you need any help. A paphroditis comes to your
Speaker 2: door and you send him back to Philippi with his bag.
Speaker 2: I don't need anything. I'm good, Paul said. It was
Speaker 2: good for you to share in my troubles. It meant
Speaker 2: a lot to me.
Speaker 1: Sometimes marriage is crumble because of needs.
Speaker 2: We didn't express that the other person was willing and
Speaker 2: able to meet if they had known them. Wow, but
Speaker 2: see needs not a very attractive characteristic in our society.
Speaker 2: We don't want to be contrite. We don't want to
Speaker 2: be seen as needing anything. So we filter our lives
Speaker 2: and we filter out our frustration, and we wonder why
Speaker 2: we're weak, and we wonder why we're alone, and we
Speaker 2: wonder why Philippians four nineteen isn't happening in our life.
Speaker 2: It's not a lack of supply, it's a lack of
Speaker 2: my willingness to receive it. Naymon would have died of
Speaker 2: leprosy if he did not receive the instruction from the
Speaker 2: servant girl to his wife to go to the dirty
Speaker 2: waters of the Jordan and dip and be cleansed to
Speaker 2: receive his healing.
Speaker 1: He had to receive an instruction.
Speaker 2: From somebody who he thought was beneath him.
Speaker 1: Paul said, I got your gift, and I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing. I don't know what's going to
Speaker 2: happen to me next. Paul says, I'm here in this prison.
Speaker 2: I may get out, I may not, but I want
Speaker 2: you to know something.
Speaker 7: I'm already out, whether they let me go from prison,
Speaker 7: whether the situation changes, whether I get to come back
Speaker 7: to you, whether.
Speaker 1: I get to see you again. Oh, I'd love to
Speaker 1: see you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate the gift you gave me is so good,
Speaker 2: but I will.
Speaker 1: Not I will not leave this place of confidence in
Speaker 1: the provision of God. I will remain in Christ, and
Speaker 1: my God will supply.
Speaker 2: All your needs according to his glorious richest. That's how
Speaker 2: free I am. I'm so free now that you sent
Speaker 2: me a gift for my needs. But I'm telling you
Speaker 2: that God is going to use what you did to
Speaker 2: meet my needs, and He's going to meet all your
Speaker 2: needs because I am free me.
Speaker 8: It's not about me, it's not about what I need.
Speaker 8: It's not about this prison cell. It's not about Caesar.
Speaker 8: It's all about Jesus.
Speaker 2: Heart freeze, be free, be free. Thou shalt be free.
Speaker 1: Be free? Touch three people say, be.
Speaker 9: Free, be free, be free, be free, be free, be free,
Speaker 9: be free, be free.
Speaker 1: You hear me, be free.
Speaker 8: You don't have to live like this. Be free, be
Speaker 8: small than enough, be free.
Speaker 1: Come on, you see be free?
Speaker 8: Slackly be free?
Speaker 2: Be free?
Speaker 1: Now shall be free. My greatest need is freedom. My
Speaker 1: greatest need.
Speaker 2: Is freedom. Contentment is the key. Freedom is the goal.
Speaker 2: Contentment is the key. You won't be financially free when
Speaker 2: you get more money.
Speaker 1: You'll be financially free when you really believe I've already
Speaker 1: got Come on, my God will supply your needs.
Speaker 2: Stand up if you would, I want to pray for
Speaker 2: your contentment. I had to learn it now most of
Speaker 2: us are still learning. It took me a long time
Speaker 2: of trying to perform and thinking that if I could
Speaker 2: prove myself to certain people, I would feel like a
Speaker 2: worthy human being. But I found out that kind of
Speaker 2: identity can be stolen so quickly by the smallest failure
Speaker 2: that I decided it was not worth me chaining myself
Speaker 2: to other people's opinions or my status in life or
Speaker 2: my income. That's the greatest state not CEO, but free,
Speaker 2: to be really free. The only way that can happen
Speaker 2: is if you know that he knows what you need
Speaker 2: and he's got it. That he knows and he's got it,
Speaker 2: that not one sparrow falls from the ground, he doesn't
Speaker 2: see it, and when hair falls from your head is.
Speaker 1: Moved, he keeps it on record. He knows what I
Speaker 1: need and he's got it.
Speaker 2: Because if you don't believe he's got it, you'll run
Speaker 2: to all kinds of other things to try to get
Speaker 2: your needs met.
Speaker 1: They were put there by God and they can only
Speaker 1: be fulfilled by him.
Speaker 2: The greatest trouble of your life will come when you
Speaker 2: try to get a god instilled need met in a
Speaker 2: non God sanctioned way. My God will supply all your needs,
Speaker 2: not just the Church, ones all your needs according to
Speaker 2: his glorious riches in Christ.
Speaker 1: The only way you can receive the.
Speaker 2: Provision is to remain in the place that He promised
Speaker 2: it would be, in his presence. It's the fullness of
Speaker 2: joy and in his right hand pleasures forevermore.
Speaker 1: But you've got to be willing to let him know
Speaker 1: that you know that you need him. So why don't
Speaker 1: you lift your hands and tell.
Speaker 2: Him that you need him.
Speaker 1: Ab a father.
Speaker 2: Every hour, Most Gracious Lord, no tender voice like bying
Speaker 2: can peace Afore, thank you.
Speaker 1: For joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.