Contentment in the Highs and Lows of Life • Philippians 4:10-20

Good morning, Sacred Mission.

It's a joy to be able to bring God's word to you this morning as we're starting to officially close out the book of Philippians.

But uh this is my uh first time up here in the last uh several weeks.

How awesome is it that sacred mission is not led by a single personality, right?

This this one here, uh, but led by a plurality of godly men who can deliver God's word to us, who can uh preach the gospel to us, and uh to have that diversity of voices and men who step up and take responsibility for the church.

So I'm super thankful for our leadership team and the men who step up and deliver God's word to us as a church in season.

Um, we're getting ready to jump into a new sermon series.

We'll talk about that in the end of the gathering called More, where we're looking at how do we learn to love the things of God more, right?

That's the whole purpose of it.

So it'll be a 12-week series that we'll go through at after this one's wrapped up.

But this morning, we're introducing um this kind of closing of Philippians, right?

Paul's been starting to close it for a few chapters now.

Now he's really coming home to close it out.

And Paul starts with kind of like kind of a back-handed thank you note to the Philippians.

If we understand, one of the reasons Paul is writing this letter is because the Philippians have collected an offering, a gift that they have been sending to Paul, who's in prison, right?

He's in Roman prison under house arrest at this point in time, and uh they're trying to aid him in his need.

And I'm gonna put that in strong air quotes right now, need, and we'll we'll kind of understand why here in just a moment.

And they sent this man named Epaphroditus to deliver this gift.

And so part of the core reason of why Paul's writing this letter is to kind of talk about that gift that was sent, but he's gonna instruct them at the same time.

And so here he's gonna go into this kind of back-handed thank you note.

I I don't know about y'all, but uh my dad was very well known for if we went to a restaurant and uh the service was bad, instead of tipping them, he would write them an instruction of how they could do their job better.

Who loves those dudes?

If you want to know why I'm messed up, that's why.

And what did he say to me?

He would say, if they take this to heart and apply it, it would be better than any tip I could ever give them.

That was his justification.

I'm like, no, you're just a jerk.

You could write the note and tip them because this woman probably needs some help.

Um but uh but Paul is going to use this opportunity.

Instead of giving back to them in this like gratitude and thankfulness, what's Paul gonna do?

He's gonna use this as an opportunity to instruct them.

And he's gonna instruct them in something that will pay off much better than any reciprocation of gratitude that he could give.

So he kind of inserts a little bit of thankfulness, but all in all, he's really gonna use this as an opportunity to teach the church at Philippi a critical heavenly truth.

See, Paul, he he's gonna give them this non-traditional kind of thank you note.

And so what we see here is what he's gonna teach them in verses 10 through 13.

He's gonna teach them that he has learned the secret.

What does it mean?

In learning the secret, right?

This is what Paul's gonna help them unpack and discover.

Learning the secret.

He first tells the church of Philippi that he has rejoiced greatly.

He has rejoiced greatly in them.

And he says it's because he believes that their concern for him has been revived.

Right?

You can imagine Paul might have felt uh a little bit of isolated, right?

A little bit of abandoned in this prison cell of which he sits.

And he's only allowed to have certain visitors.

He's wondering like who has remembered him.

And there's times where you see in Paul's other letters and writings that there's a lot, he lost a lot of good, close friends in ministry through certain circumstances.

And so there's it seems to be communicated to through Paul that that there was a concern that the church at Philippi might have lost a little bit of concern for him or lost a little bit of relational equity with him.

And so he says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly because I have been shown or proven that your concern for me has been revived.

And then he kind of he kind of qualifies this statement.

He says, Not that it was gone, but that you didn't really have an opportunity to demonstrate your concern for me.

Right?

He says in verse 10, I rejoice 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.

And so now they have an opportunity.

They have an opportunity to demonstrate their love and concern for Paul, and they do so through this gift.

Here in verse 11, it's important to catch what Paul communicates next.

Because really, this is kind of the core of the message that Paul is going to help us understand here in verse 11.

He says, Not that I am speaking of being in need, nor have I learned, uh, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

Again, this is the core of what Paul's communicating in this section of the text.

He is not speaking of being in any need.

Now imagine the craziness of that statement.

Paul has been imprisoned.

Uh now, at this point in time, he would have been under house arrest, but of his first imprisonment in Rome, you you are dropped basically into the sewers of Roman civilization and chained.

You don't see the light of day.

You're barely given anything that you need to survive as far as food and water.

At this point in time, he would have at least been in house arrest, but still the conditions were not good.

And if anything, Paul is looking out forward to his possible execution and martyrdom for the sake of the gospel.

And Paul has the boldness to write to them, not that I have any need.

That just seems very crazy to me.

Right?

When we think of needs in our life, we can think of much less drastic situations that you and I have been in where we'd be like, oh Lord, I need this or I need that, right?

You love the language of your kids.

Those of you with children, right, the need comes out their mouth all the time, and they have no clue what they're actually saying.

You don't need that.

You want that, you you desire that, but you don't need that.

But Paul, in very devastating situation, is communicating to the church of Philippi.

I don't have a need.

You're missing the point.

And I think that's the point of Paul's absence of thankfulness or communicating thankfulness to the church of Philippi.

Here's where he wants to start to help them understand something much more beautiful than a reciprocated gratitude.

I don't have a need.

Why?

He says, because he has learned in whatever situation to be content.

Learned in whatever situation to be content.

Learn something that doesn't come naturally, but that is developed over a disciplined process.

I've been kind of thinking about this, and uh, as we look at the scriptures, it's fascinating how many things in the scriptures are commands for us to do, yet we find difficulty in doing them because we might not authentically feel that way.

Let me give you an example.

Many of us, more than we want to admit, are driven by our emotions.

And we allow our emotions to dictate authenticity or truth for us.

What does the Bible say about the way we should worship?

The Bible says that we should clap our hands, that we should shout for joy, that we should sing with a loud voice, that we should be expressive in our worship.

Many of you this morning will be disobedient to that command because you don't feel like it.

And that's cool.

Like we're we're a place where you can do that, right?

And not get judged too hard.

The Bible calls us to rejoice.

But our lives will be absent of that because we don't feel joyful.

The Bible calls us consistently to behave and be obedient toward and live out our lives contradictory to what we feel, because often what we feel is not truth according to the accomplishments and application of the victory of Christ Jesus to us by the Holy Spirit.

Why should we rejoice?

Because we have been united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.

We have been granted to us eternal life.

I don't care how you woke up this morning, I don't care what you feel right now in this moment, you have every eternal reason to be obedient to that command to rejoice.

And so there's a reality where to be conformed to Christ is a learning for us.

Something that has to be, by discipline, applied to our lives.

And this is what Paul's saying.

This doesn't come naturally for Paul to be content in these circumstances.

The dude is in a dung cell and he's about to get his head cut off, and there's no reason for him to just be naturally content.

But what did he do?

He learned to be content.

And what did that dictate?

That dictates putting his emotions, his fears, his anxieties, his doubts under what?

Discipline to a greater truth that has allowed him to be confident that in every circumstance he faces in life, he has no need.

He is content.

Paul learned this.

He talks about this in another letter to the church at Ephesus.

In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 20, he says, but that is not the way you learned Christ.

Ephesians 4:20

What he's talking about here in Ephesians chapter 4, this is not the way that you have learned Christ.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

He's talking about something beyond the attaining of knowledge.

He's talking about the application of that knowledge to your life.

And so there's a difference, right?

There's a difference before, especially for us, right?

We love the Reformed tradition, we love robust theology, and here's the temptation for us, church.

The temptation for us is to get puffed up in head knowledge, to attain knowledge of Christ, but to forget, dismiss, or even rebelliously push aside the application of that knowledge to our very life.

And I would argue, I would put before you that head knowledge has no power.

It's the application of the knowledge to discipline your life, to be conform to the image of Christ.

That is where the power of the gospel comes alive in us.

This wasn't the way that you learned Christ, not to just to know him in a head space, but to know him in the way that he transforms us in our person.

The Christian life is fundamentally an applied knowledge life.

Then he goes on to say, I learned that in whatever.

Paul's gonna walk us through the specifics of this whatever, but we should know that they include the fullness of the highs and the lows of life.

Paul says, whatever circumstance I find myself in, I find I have learned to be content.

Content being satisfied with things as they are.

Satisfied.

Not satisfied in those weird TikTok videos you watch of like magnetic clay getting scraped off the top of something.

I'm talking about satisfied, where your heart doesn't long for something different, satisfied where you know that you have all of your needs met.

Satisfied, where your heart doesn't wrestle with not having.

Paul is satisfied.

It's not in a sense where a lack of his needs is simply dismissed, but one where the meeting of his needs is fully realized.

Here's what I mean by that.

What we could take this as is Paul is playing mind games with himself, right?

And he's trying to kind of speak this thing into existence.

And what he's really doing at the heart of it is he's dismissing that a lot of his needs are actually being met.

And he's trying to claim something that is not as if it were.

As Paul is saying, hey, look, I've got all of my needs met, I don't need for anything.

Well, Paul, I appreciate the positive thinking, uh, but in reality, uh you, you're a catastrophe, right?

And you've been forsaken and abandoned.

And how could a loving God ever truly be real when you look at your own situation of what you've given your life for?

Paul's not dismissing, right?

He's not positive thinking this situation.

He has a greater realization of a transcendent truth of what has been accomplished for him in Christ Jesus and what has been applied to him by the power of the Spirit.

He is realizing something beyond what's in front of his eyes.

In verse 12, he's gonna unpack for his audience the extent of the whatever that he referred to in verse 11.

And he does this through a series of paradoxes, right?

He gives us these two seemingly opposing situations that harmonize in the full understanding of his contentment of which he has and that he's communicating to the church of Philippi.

He says, whether I am brought low or abound, whether I have plenty or I hunger, whether I have abundance or need.

We have to see something really critical here.

Because Paul isn't communicating that he has simply learned contentment in the lows of life.

In all seriousness, it's easier to learn contentment in the lows of life.

Because it's when we're brought down to that valley and we're faced with ourselves and we're faced with the end of who we are, our eyes go up to God.

I love uh C.S.

Lewis in his book, The Problem of Pain.

He says that pain is God's megaphone to a deaf world.

We are awakened at the low valleys of our life.

We're forced to set our eyes upon God.

And it's then that we're most filled with gratitude for the things that we have.

It's then that we are most willing to try and understand contentment and suffering.

It's then that we actually have this kind of spiritual awakening in our life.

But Paul isn't saying, hey, I've just learned contentment in the lows.

What's even more challenging is he's learned contentment in the highs.

In many ways, it's easier to fight and discipline yourself toward contentment in the lows of life, but much more difficult to do so in the highs because it's in the highs of life that we are most prone to forget about God.

If it's in the lows, we're most prone to set our gaze upon Him.

It's in the highs of life that we're most prone to draw our attention away from.

What did Jesus say?

It's going to be as difficult for a rich man to enter heaven as it would be to push a camel through the eye of a needle.

When you look through the language and teaching of Jesus, it is the poor, those who are without, those who suffer, that he actually gives the most potential for realizing their need for God.

But he constantly goes after those who are in the highs of life, who have this reality or this compass that they don't need God because they have everything else that they need.

Paul is saying it's not just in the lows of life that I've learned to be content.

It's not just here in this prison cell that I've learned to be content, but I've even learned it in the highs of life.

When I've had everything I could ever want in, when I've had abundance, when I've feasted, when I have uh not gone without, I have learned to be content there also.

He says this in verse 12, because I have learned the secret of.

I have learned the secret of.

This whole phrase in the original language is one word.

I have learned the secret of.

And what it's communicating is this to be instructed in a sacred mystery.

To be instructed in a sacred mystery.

Here's what Paul's saying.

What happened?

How did I get this way?

How have I learned to be content in the highs and the lows of life?

I've unlocked a truth of heaven.

And that truth is that Christ has satisfied every need that Paul could ever have.

Christ has fully satisfied any need that Paul could ever have.

A divine reality has been shown to him.

He has unlocked to discover.

So Paul says, I could have everything or I could have nothing.

And in either situation, I can confidently say I have no need.

Why?

Because his needs are never met by physical material things.

His needs are fully satisfied in Christ.

It's a sacred mystery that Christ has satisfied every need which allows him to be content.

And this unlocked truth of heaven brings us to the zenith of this passage, right?

One of the most out-of-context Bible verses we've ever seen.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

We love taking this verse and just applying it to whatever, right?

And we have this like positive thing.

I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.

So let's pause and break this down.

What's Paul really saying?

Is he really saying that you can do anything through Christ who strengthens you, right?

Hey, let's, you know, uh, no, that's not what he's saying.

Here's what he's saying: I can do be content, fully satisfied.

All things, in any circumstance, whether it be in the mountain high or the valley low, through him who strengthens me, because the sacred mystery of Christ gives me strength.

Paul is saying, I can endure anything, and this is the reality of it.

It's not just the prison cell.

Paul can endure the reality of fullness of material blessing through Christ.

Because he's unlocked the mystery.

The lows of life will not sweep him away, nor will the highs of life, because he understands that his need is actually met in Jesus alone.

Paul had no genuine need that was met through the gift of the church of Philippi.

In prison, facing his possible execution for the gospel, he was content.

He was satisfied.

He would have been in the same state if he were sitting in Caesar's palace feasting on the richest affair.

Why?

Because Paul learned the secret.

In verses 14 through 20, we see it's about the fruit, not the gift.

It's about the fruit, not the gift.

Paul isn't going to completely dismiss the gift that was brought to him by Epaphroditus, right?

A fellow soldier of the gospel, he calls him early in the letter.

He's not just going to completely disregard it, he's going to acknowledge it.

And he talks about his long and exclusive relationship that he's had with the church of Philippi.

He actually says here that in the beginning of the gospel, so as Paul was first starting out in his missionary journeys, that there was a partnership formulated between Philippi and Paul.

And they had helped him in different situations.

Even in Thessalonica, they sent him gifts when no one else was partnering with them.

He says, No church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only.

Verse 14, right?

So Paul's not just gonna completely disregard this partnership that they've had, but he's gonna hit it and then he's gonna move on.

He's gonna say, Hey, hey, I got it.

Thumbs up.

Now, let's get back to the point.

I'm gonna teach you something.

Because the gift was never the focus for Paul.

The gift was never the focus for Paul.

The fruit of the gift was the focus for Paul.

It was the fruit of the gift.

You can see here, uh immediately after his brief recognition, Paul hits home the truth about the gift that he received from them.

He says this, not that I seek the gift, verse 17.

Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.

The gift wasn't the emphasis, the gift wasn't the focus.

It was the fruit of maturity that was demonstrated through it.

If Paul was gonna rejoice, right, when he in the very first uh section of this text in verse 10, I rejoiced in you greatly, right?

He's gonna come down here and qualify that rejoicing.

It was not in the receiving of the gift, but it was in the fruit that was demonstrated through it.

That Philippi, you have matured in Christ, that the gospel is working in your life, that that that transformation's happening, and I'm able to see it through the gift.

It wasn't a matter of the size of the gift because he had no need anyway.

It was about the fruit that was being produced in those he had labored in the gospel with.

Paul says that he had no real need because all of his needs have been satisfied in Christ.

Instead, he rejoiced in the fruit of kindness, generosity, and charity.

He wasn't seeking the gift, he was seeking evidence that the gospel had been transforming the church.

That the message and power of the gospel was producing the fruit that it intended to in the lives of believers.

And then Paul says, this fruit that increases to your credit.

Paul is talking something eschatological here.

What I mean by that, eschatological, means something of the end time, something that is yet to come.

He's saying that this fruit that's evidenced through the gift of which you sent me is going to be increased to your account.

Now, a lot of us we might have issues with that, right?

Merit, reward for the good things that we've done.

Look, you're just gonna have to submit to the text.

The Bible is very clear, though we don't have clarity, it is clear that there is some sense of reward, merit, earning that we are receiving in glory at the end of time.

Now, this is not tethered or chained to our salvation.

The fullness of our salvation is fully merited upon the finished work of Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection.

But there is some type of mystery that we are earning or being rewarded for the ways that we are obedient, faithful, and and see the kingdom of God advance in this earth through our life.

Just sit with that.

Like get mad, right?

You're like all works and marriage.

That's fine.

He'll just take yours and give it to me.

And then I'll just throw it at his feet when we worship him as the Lamb who was slain, right?

But but Paul's definitely speaking to this.

And he's in other letters, he said the same thing.

Jesus has said similar things that there will be this reward that's given to us.

There's a merit that is uh accredited to us that will provide some benefit and glory.

I don't know what that looks like if you've got a bigger house or a better job.

Like there's gonna be jobs, just so you know, you're gonna work in heaven.

So maybe I get a better job than you do, or you get a better job than I do, because I'll be judged twice as hard because I'm a pastor.

That's fun.

Um but I want us to at least clarify one thing.

While we might not have clarity on this language of reward, earning merit, we do know with clarity that what Paul's not speaking to is any ability for us to earn or merit the gift of salvation that is given to us freely by grace through faith in the finished work, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

There's nothing we can do in our life to add to that, to demand that, that is a free gift of grace, but there is something to the reality that in glory we will be rewarded for the ways of which we lived our life here on earth.

Paul then tells the church that he has fully received what has been sent and delivered by Epaphroditus.

And he says this gift was a sacrifice of worship that God had received from their hand.

This this worshipful act that the church of Philippi had collected this donation, this gift, and sent it to Paul.

Again, that could have been a couple of bucks, that could have been tens of thousands.

Paul did not care, nor was he putting any emphasis.

He was showing them that this was evidence that the gospel was at work within them.

And he was so joyful for that.

And then he begins to send them off in verse 19 with a blessing and promise.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

He wants the church of Philippi to unlock the same heavenly truth that he has had unlocked to himself.

He wants them to realize that their God will supply, actually, he says, my God, will supply every need of yours according to the riches of Christ Jesus.

Riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

He wants them to know and experience contentment.

Paul says, God will.

I love the guarantee of Paul's statement.

Not God might, not God could, God will.

There is this guarantee in his language.

Supply every need of yours.

No nothing, not one thing of need will ever go unmet for you.

How?

According to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus, Christ is infinitely able to supply for the need that you have.

Because the riches of God surpass every conceivable human need.

The riches of God surpass every conceivable human need.

He then closes the section of the letter with a doxology.

This was pretty normal for Paul.

Either in the beginning of a letter or near the end of the letter, he would have this doxology.

It just means a phrase of worship, almost a poem or a song, but that he would extend praise, glory, honor to the name of God.

And he says, to our God and Father, be glory forever and ever.

Amen.

If we think back to previous sermons, we've talked about what does glory mean?

Glory means weight.

It means weight.

That God has substance in his very being that demands glory be attributed to him.

Because the weight of God is understood in his substance of holiness, power, truth.

He is worthy to receive the glory to his name.

Because in him all the needs of his people are fully met.

Why is God able to demand glory to his name?

Why is he worthy of glory to his name?

One aspect of that is because every need of his people is able to be fully met in himself.

That is something weighty.

Imagine the things in your life that you thought was gonna meet a need for you.

And what happened?

It had no weight to it, it had no substance to it.

When you really pressed in, you found it was empty.

But not God.

He deserves all the glory because all of our needs are able to be met fully in him.

He is weighty.

Paul was lackluster in his Thanksgiving of the gift itself.

Because he was focused on something vastly more important.

He was focused on the fruit.

The gift did not meet a need of Paul's.

It showed Paul that his gospel labor was producing gospel fruit.

And so as we try to summarize the wholeness of this text, I want us to see this.

Contentment is found in being fully satisfied in Jesus.

Contentment is found in being fully satisfied in Jesus.

Contentment means to be satisfied.

Satisfied, not in just the accomplishments of Jesus for you, but in him totally and fully.

Because his accomplishments attain for us himself.

You see, this is this is the the the the the beauty of the gospel.

Everything that we ever needed is found in Christ.

And in Christ, everything we could have ever desired or longed for is found infinitely in him also.

And so what we do is we try to pursue these desires.

We try to pursue these things that we long for in our life.

And what we're missing is we cannot have the things we desire.

We cannot have the things we long for truly and fully unless we find them in him.

But we cannot find them in him when our enmity and sin separate us from him.

You see, it's actually the attaining of Christ in our need provides for us the attaining of everything we've ever longed for or desired because we find it in him fully.

And so Christ, in his grace, in his love, in his pursuit of us, he cannot just give us what we've longed for or what we've wanted unless he gives us himself first.

And we cannot have relationship with him in sin.

We are separated from the presence and fellowship and communion of God because of our sin.

And what does he do?

How does he satisfy that?

By his atoning work on the cross, by his glorious resurrection, he gives us himself.

And then what we've longed for, what we've desired, what we've ached for is fully, completely found in him.

Jesus satisfies in every aspect of the word.

Jesus satisfies.

But many of us we are an unsatisfied people.

And I see this play out in a couple of different ways within the church and within culture.

Some of us were unsatisfied with the fruit of the gospel.

We are unsatisfied with the fruit of the gospel.

And here's what I mean by that.

Often we are unsatisfied with what the gospel produces.

And so what we do as a culture is we try to change the outcome of the gospel.

And in that we make these gospel movements.

So let's take an example of the social justice gospel or the liberation gospel.

Why has that come to fruition?

Because people are unsatisfied with the fruit of the gospel.

So they want to change the gospel to accomplish something different that they think that they'll actually be satisfied in.

And what is that?

The physical, literal liberation of people here and now, right?

To get them out of the oppression they're feeling or experiencing from the physical world, to get them out of the marginalization that they're experiencing in the physical world, to get them out of all these situations of injustice in the physical world.

And so what do they do?

They change the gospel to try to meet a satisfaction that they think they have.

But what do they do?

In that effort, they change the gospel completely.

Because if we look through the entire New Testament, there's very little urge for an individual's life circumstance to change.

There's very little importance for an individual's life circumstance to change.

Instead, Paul doubles down.

If you're a slave, then remain one.

If you're a soldier, remain one.

If you're a free man, remain one.

If you're this way for the sake of the gospel, however you came into Christ, remain that way in Christ.

Because he has liberated you from the oppression of sin which once bound you and united him to himself, that you might have eternal life.

We are truly liberated from the bondage of sin in Christ Jesus.

But because for some of us we're unsatisfied with the fruit of that gospel, we're gonna change the gospel completely to try and be something else.

And instead of seeking to liberate people from the bondage of sin, meeting their need to have eternal life and be reconciled to God through Jesus, we try to liberate them out of temporal, meaningless circumstances that have no impact on eternity.

And so what do we do?

Well, I'm dissatisfied with the fruit of the gospel, so I'm gonna change it.

The prosperity gospel does the same thing, it's unsatisfied with the gospel's definition of riches.

Instead of focusing on the infinite wealth and prosperity and riches of Christ Jesus, of which are ours to lay hold of, to cling to, because we are uh uh uh we are those who share in the inheritance of Christ.

What do we do?

We are unsatisfied with that.

So we're gonna change the gospel and we're gonna make it the prosperity gospel so that we can hoard and obtain and claw for temporal, finite, fleeting riches.

The poverty gospel does the same thing.

It's unsatisfied with the gospel's definition of atonement.

And instead of seeing the fullness of atonement being met and realized in Christ Jesus, we have to pay penance.

We have to supplement, we have to add to by becoming poor so that we can be made righteous.

Whenever we add a word to the gospel, we are communicating that we are dissatisfied with the gospel itself.

Every single one of these movements, and they're not new, they've been happening since the beginning of the gospel, right?

The Judaizers, what were they?

They were dissatisfied with the gospel standard of righteousness.

That it was not found in Christ alone, but it had to be found in circumcision and obedience to the Torah.

This this goes back to Jesus.

People have been dissatisfied with the fruit of the gospel.

What does that mean?

Their hearts have been discontent.

And so, what did they seek to do?

They sought to change the gospel.

We have to be on guard for this church.

We have to be a people who are content and satisfied with the fruit of the gospel as it is, or else we will be in danger ourselves of changing it completely.

And when we change it completely, we've lost it totally.

Its power is stripped, it is robbed of any true transformation or life, and we have re-entered into simple works-based salvation that is futile.

Some of us, though, were unsatisfied with the fruit of our lives.

We are unsatisfied with the fruit of our lives.

Many of us are so deeply unsatisfied with our life.

Maybe you're unsatisfied with where you've ended up in your career, or the pay level that you have, or the place that you live, or the marriage that you're in, or the children God has blessed you with, or the circumstances that you find yourself.

We are such an unsatisfied people.

And you can see it all throughout culture.

You know what marketing tries to play on?

Your discontentment.

The reality that you are an unsatisfied person.

Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, anything is trying to scream at you.

Look at me, because I will solve the discontentment that storms in your heart.

They're all false promises.

There is nothing physical in this world that we could obtain or gather or collect for ourselves that will ever produce the contentment that Paul's writing about here.

That whether it's in the lows of your life, when everything is at its worst, or whether it's in the highs and everything's at its best, are you content in need of nothing?

Because you've understand that the gospel has supplied every need that you could ever have.

Are you content?

When you wake up tomorrow morning, are you gonna wake up a content person?

Are you gonna discipline yourself to a greater truth than what's in front of your eyes and how you feel?

Are you gonna rejoice tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.

when you're in that car?

Or are you gonna continue to be unsatisfied and in that pursuit of striving for satisfaction, you cling on to things that have no weight, that are empty, that are hollow shells of empty promises.

Jeremiah Burroughs, in his book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, he was a Puritan pastor, he writes this My brethren, the reason why you do not have contentment in the things of the world is not that you do not have enough of them.

The reason is that they are not the things proportional to that immortal soul of yours that is capable of God himself.

Wow.

The weight of Jeremiah's words.

What's he saying?

You keep chasing after shiny, silly, empty things when your soul is capable of receiving God Himself.

We have to set our gaze upon something so much greater that we get to attain Christ Jesus, the fullness of God, which meets every need that we have, and then on top of that provides for us everything we have ever desired.

It is fully realized in him.

Our gospel conviction this morning is that Jesus satisfies every need through his riches and glory.

Jesus satisfies every need through his riches and glory.

Like we talked about earlier.

The needs that we have are not disconnected from the things we long for.

And both of them are attained in Christ Jesus.

Because we can only have the things that we long for if we are united, need met to Him.

In all of His riches and glory, He lavishes on us gifts, prosperity, riches, joy, peace, goodness.

I mean, go through the list.

What does Christ lavish upon his children but blessing after blessing after blessing?

But he can only do that if we are united to him and the war of sin has been squashed by his death, burial, and resurrection.

You see how those two things are intimately chained together?

Our needs being met is us being united to him by grace through faith.

And then in that relationship, he lavishes blessing on us.

We can be satisfied in Christ.

There's an old hymn called All My Life Long I Had Panted.

And it reads these words.

But the dust I gathered round me only mocked my soul's sad cry.

Hallelujah, I have found him, whom my soul so long has craved.

Jesus satisfies my longings.

Through his life, I now am saved.

Church, my hope for us is that we would learn to be completely satisfied in Jesus.

We would learn to be completely satisfied in Jesus.

The wrestlings in us of discontentment, of unsatisfaction, it's rooted in a small vision of Christ.

It's rooted in not realizing the things that we truly need.

I pray that we would be a bold people who, whether everything is going great or everything is going horrible, like Paul, can look at one another and say, I don't have a need.

Every need of mine has been met in Christ Jesus.

I'm content no matter where I'm at in life, because I am satisfied in him, because I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Fundamentally, Paul's saying I can be satisfied.

Because I've unlocked the mystery of heaven that to have Christ means to have every need met fully.

Amen.

Let's pray.