Sermon - Kingdom Peace and Contentment: "Citizens of Heaven" Series

We have mastered comfort, but many of us do not know how to rest.

Why?

Why is that?

It's because peace and contentment cannot be externally manufactured.

That's why.

Welcome to the Church of the Lakes Weekly Sermon Podcast.

We're so glad that you've joined us, and we're honored to be part of your spiritual journey.

Today, Pastor Jared closes our sermon series, Citizens of Heaven, using the book of Philippians, written by the Apostle Paul.

Today's message is titled Kingdom Peace and Contentment.

Peace and Contentment are not found in perfect circumstances, but in the presence and sufficiency of Christ.

They are kingdom fruit, produced through trust and surrender.

And now, here's Pastor Jarrett.

Be blessed.

Well, this morning we are going to be concluding a series of messages that we have called citizens of heaven.

And what we've been doing is just methodically walking through Paul's letter to the church in Philippi, his letter to the Philippians.

And we've said this every week.

And yet the letter overflows with joy.

It is actually known as the letter of joy to the early church, which begs the question is why or how?

How can Paul write with such joy and conviction in the midst of such uncertainty, adversity, and suffering?

Well, the answer we keep coming back to time and time again in this series is just simply this.

Friends, your joy will rise or fall with whatever kingdom you're living for.

That's the truth of the matter.

For instance, if you're living for a kingdom of this world, if you're trying to build for yourself a life that is rooted in comfort, respectability, or reputation, uh success, uh, financial stability, even family, hear me, your joy is going to be fragile because everything I just mentioned are fragile.

That you have the propensity to have them one day and unfortunately be gone the next.

However, if you root your existence in the kingdom of God, guess what?

Your joy will be immovable.

It will be unshakable.

Why?

Because the kingdom of God and the king that reigns there is immovable and is unshakable.

So, yes, if we want to live with joy on earth, we must keep ourselves anchored in heaven.

Now, we don't do it perfectly all the time, do we?

I mean, we're moving towards perfection.

It's not perfect all the time, but here's the thing, it is distinct.

It is distinct in the world in which we live.

When we can live with joy in the midst of, like Paul, adversity, suffering, or uncertainty.

Well, today we're gonna wrap up this series in Philippians 4, and uh we're gonna talk about peace and contentment.

However, peace and contentment not as personality traits, something you acquire just because you are who you are.

I have a friend who's a redhead, and she thinks that because she's a redhead, her personality is to be nasty all the time, to be mean, because she's a mean Irish redhead.

Listen, peace and contentment are not personality traits, they are fruit of the spirits, they are fruit of the kingdom of God.

Listen to where we go.

This is Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

We're gonna start in verse 4 and work down uh through not the whole chapter, but a lot of the chapter.

And this is Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

If you have your Bibles, open them up, keep them open, because I'm gonna have you maybe underline a few things in there.

By the way, just as an aside, if you need a Bible, come see me after service.

I have beautiful study Bibles.

I would love to get into your hands.

It's a gift from us, the church, to you.

But listen to the word of God through the pen of the Apostle Paul.

Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say it, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be evident to all, for the Lord is near.

You hear that, church?

The Lord is near.

Therefore, do not be anxious or worried about anything, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.

So the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

Finally, Paul says, Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there's any acting excellent or if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Keep on doing these things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

For I, Paul, rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me.

Indeed you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it.

Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have.

I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.

For in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret.

The secret of being well fed and going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.

Here's verse 13.

For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Friends, this is indeed the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Will you pray with me?

Lord God, I thank you just so much again for this gathering, this chance to meet in this holy space on Pentecost Sunday, to just simply worship you, to hear your life-giving word proclaimed.

And now, God, the task you've offered me to offer reflection on that life-giving word.

I just pray that in the midst of these next few moments, God, that you bless the words of my mouth, the meditation of all our hearts, that they be of profit to us and acceptable to you, for you indeed are our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

Well, let me tell you the truth.

You may not want to believe this is true, but but that doesn't negate the fact that it actually is true.

We live in probably one of the most, if not most, comfortable societies in all of human existence.

We live in 21st century America in the most comfortable society this world has ever known in the span of time.

I mean, think about it.

If you're at your house sitting on your couch watching TV, wrapped up in your Snuggie, you know, watching your favorite show, and all of a sudden you get cold.

Well, you don't have to get out from underneath your Snuggie and put more wood in the fire.

You don't even have to get up to change the thermostat, what do you do?

You pull out your phone, you go to the app to turn up or turn down the temperature of your home.

Right?

If you're sitting there watching the same show on your couch if it bundled up in your snuggle, and your stomach starts growling.

Well, you don't have to get up, go to the back barn, kill a chicken, pluck it, put it in the oven.

You don't even have to go into the refrigerator and make yourself a sandwich.

You know what you have to do?

Pull out your phone, go on to Uber Eats or DoorDash and order whatever you want, and it comes to the front door, and you have kids for the sole purpose of having them answer the door to bring you the food, right?

And you get to sit there and enjoy it in front of the TV.

We have mattresses that are designed by scientists.

We have pillows that are made to fit the contours of our necks.

We have watches that tell us how stressed out we are.

And when it beeps that we're stressed, what does it do?

Just makes you more stressed, right?

We have noise machines, breathing apps, sleep gummies, calming teas, and yet none of us sleep, do we?

We have entire sections in target identified as self-care sections of the store, right?

And yet we're all still exhausted.

We have more conveniences than any generation that has come before us, and somehow, and we all know this, we have less peace.

We have mastered comfort, but many of us do not know how to rest.

Why?

Why is that?

It's because peace and contentment cannot be externally manufactured.

That's why.

And we know this even though we still try it in our American context, don't we?

I mean, think about the culture in which we live.

Our culture is rooted in this desire of discontentment.

That's the American culture.

It has taught us to be discontent.

Listen, you can't buy peace.

You cannot schedule peace.

You cannot Amazon prime your soul in the rest.

And that's what makes the letter to the Philippians so, to me, doggone remarkable.

Listen, Paul is writing about peace and contentment.

Hear this.

Not from a beachside resort on the Pacific.

He's not writing this from a quiet cabin in the mountains.

He's not even writing about peace and contentment in the ivory tower of academia.

He's writing about peace and contentment from a prison cell.

And not the type of prison cells we have in America today that give you three square meals and cable TV in a warm bed.

No, this is a Roman prison cell.

Which means whatever Paul has found in peace and contentment, what that means is it transcends circumstance.

It transcends the context you find yourself, and it transcends even the company you're with.

So what is it?

How can we have peace in the midst of the world in which we live?

Paul says this.

Here's the first thing he says about kingdom peace.

He says, Kingdom peace, if you want kingdom peace, listen, it is rooted in the presence of Jesus Christ.

Look at how he starts this portion of the letter to the church.

He says, Rejoice in the Lord always.

Let me say it again, rejoice.

Do you see where his joy, his rejoicing is rooted?

It's not in circumstance, not in comfort.

What's it rooted in?

In the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord.

Why?

Because circumstances and comfort are constantly changing.

But you know who does not constantly change?

Jesus.

Now let's be honest.

Paul is not pretending his life is easy as he writes this letter.

It's actually just the opposite for Brother Paul.

You know, the same man who said, Rejoice in the Lord, always, let me say it again, rejoice, is the same man who was beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, abandoned by friends.

And so when Paul talks about peace again, he's not pretending his life is easy.

No, what he's talking about, church, is this deeper reality.

The thing that you and I are longing for as well.

It's a peace not rooted in our circumstance, but rather rooted in the presence of Jesus in our lives.

Rejoice in the Lord, always let me say it again, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be known to all, for the Lord is near.

Do you believe it?

The Lord is near?

Then Paul continues on.

Therefore, do not be anxious or worried about anything.

Well, that sounds like an impossibility, doesn't it?

Don't be anxious or worried about anything.

There's parts of life where it's automatic to be anxious and worried about.

Look, we all have fears and worries, don't we?

We fear about our future, about our children, about our grandchildren, about our finances, about our health.

We even have fear over what's happening in the world around us, even if it's not within our own country.

And what usually is coupled with anxiety?

When we start having fear and anxiety or worry, what usually is coupled with it?

It's control, right?

When we feel anxious or worried or fearful, we try to control.

Anxiety and control, they go hand in hand.

You ever hear of helicopter parents?

None of you are helicopter parents, right?

Where you were so worried about your children's well-being that you wrapped them in bubble tape and you kind of walk them around their existence?

Right?

No, because anxiety and control they go hand in hand.

Here's another example.

Have you ever noticed how quickly you can get anxious over some of the littlest things?

Like when you send somebody a text message and you see the bubbles?

And you just see the bubbles?

It's like, why aren't they texting back?

Why aren't they hitting send, right?

And it's like two minutes later, or is it just me?

Or that difficult meeting you have to face at the office with the coworker or the colleague?

Or the unexpected bill you get in the mail because unbeknownst to you, one of your uh pipes in the basement cracked during the last cold freeze a few months ago, and you got a bill in the mail for a thousand dollars for your water?

Suddenly your mind starts to spiral.

Why?

Again, because peace evaporates when we lose our sense of control.

But Paul says, no, do not be anxious, do not be worried about anything, but by prayer and supplication, make your request known to God.

In other words, Paul's saying, don't carry whatever you think you have to carry alone, alone.

Don't carry it.

No, instead, God invites us to surrender it.

And then Paul says something incredible.

That when we actually surrender our worry and our anxiety to the God who created us, redeemed us, and daily sustains us by the power of his Holy Spirit, you know what we get in exchange?

A peace.

A peace that surpasses all understanding, that will stand up and guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

In other words, again, don't carry alone what God has invited you to surrender.

He gives us this peace in exchange, not peace from God.

He said the peace of God.

What does that mean?

It means the very peace that belongs to you and me, God has given us access to.

Think about this.

The God who holds the galaxies together, the God who governs and reigns over all of history, the God who conquered death itself, was not panicked, is not panicked.

And if you and I belong to him, wow, guess what?

We don't have to be panicked either.

And when that reality truly grips your heart, you can't help but say, God, you have done something so amazing, so great, so holy, so undeserved for me and in me.

I dare not live as though you're not enough.

Friends, is Christ enough for you?

Is he enough?

Paul wants us to know that kingdom peace is rooted in the presence of Christ.

Look, if you want peace, hear me.

Stay close to Jesus.

Stay close to Jesus.

Not just one hour a week on a Sunday morning.

If you want peace in your earthly existence, stay close to Jesus every day of every week and every week of every month.

Because kingdom peace is rooted in the presence of Christ.

Here's the second thing Paul says is kingdom peace actually flows from a kingdom mindset.

So Paul moves away from a pair and he transitions to start talking about our thinking, what's happening in our brains.

And he says, finally, my brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, think about such things.

Why?

Why does Paul say that?

He says that because your mind, my mind, it shapes how we live.

Do you realize that?

Before anything settles in our heart, before we do anything in action with our hands, it starts in our head.

Our mind shapes our lives.

What we dwell on here, hear me, disciples us.

What we dwell on in our mind disciples us.

And let's be honest, many of us today are being discipled in America more by cable news, social media, and outrage than by the presence of God, by the word of God.

Can't say amen, say ouch, right?

We marinate in fear.

We consume anger and we rehearse all the time worst-case scenarios.

And then we wonder why we feel so restless all the time and why we struggle to even be effective kingdom builders within the places and around the people that God has placed us around.

Why?

Because, friends, hear me.

You can't fill your mind with chaos all week and then expect deep peace on a Sunday morning.

Are you hearing me?

Peace grows from a mind that is anchored in truth.

Peace grows when your mind is dwelling richly on the Word of God.

And man, this is especially hard in our type of culture, isn't it?

In the suburban American culture.

Why?

Because our culture trains us to constantly be chasing bigger homes, nicer cars, better opportunity, more success, more security.

And there's always another level to it, isn't it?

You arrive at one level only to know there's another level to get to, another upgrade, another thing that we think will finally satisfy us and bring us the peace we want.

Listen, discontentment is the language of a heart that believes what I have is not enough.

And before long, well, our minds become consumed with striving and with the worry of striving, always comparing, always chasing, always being anxious.

The kingdom of God, people, citizens of heaven church, say, Hear me.

Because I have Christ, I possess what matters most.

Can you say, because I have Christ, I possess what matters most?

Friends, that changes everything.

It does.

Think about Paul again.

Go back to Paul.

In prison.

Yet he has peace.

Persecuted for his faith.

Still waiting to hear if he's going to live or die.

And yet he has peace.

Why?

Because kingdom peace is not rooted in your circumstance, it is rooted in the presence of Jesus Christ.

And when your mind is anchored there, church, peace begins to grow in you and flow through you.

Kingdom peace.

It is a peace that flows through a kingdom mindset.

Here's the third thing Paul says, and it has to do with contentment.

Peace and contentment are like bedfellows.

But kingdom contentment, Paul says, is learned through trusting Christ.

If you had your Bibles with you, open them back up for me.

Verse 11 and 12, I'd have you underline this word.

Paul says, For I have learned.

That word learn, it's twice, once in 11, and once in 12.

Underline it, highlight, circle it, whatever.

I have learned to be content with whatever I have.

Learned.

I've learned.

You know what that means?

It means contentment does not come naturally to human beings.

You have to learn it.

It means nobody drifts into contentment in life.

Look, friends, as human beings, our default system is restlessness.

We always think if I could have just a little bit more, right?

A little bit more money, a little bit more security, a little better of a circumstance, then I could finally have the peace that Paul talks about in the scriptures.

No.

Paul says, church, contentment has got to be learned.

And you want to know where Paul learned how to be content?

It wasn't in the seasons of plenty, it was in the seasons of want.

It wasn't in the seasons where they were filled with joy.

It was in the seasons that life was filled with pain.

Paul says, I have known what it is to be brought low, and I've known what it is to abound.

In other words, I have had seasons where I have had plenty, and I have had seasons where I have had nothing.

But Paul, again, he experienced again this hunger, this imprisonment, this rejection, this loneliness.

And yet he says, I have learned the secret to be content.

What's the secret of being content?

Is it having a peace that is anchored in circumstance?

No.

It's having a peace that is anchored in Christ.

That, by the way, is why the abundance never became Paul's savior.

And why hardship never discouraged from the point of paralysis.

Because his peace was anchored in Christ and not in circumstance.

You know, all throughout history there are people who lived like Paul with this deep-seated peace that they could face any circumstance with joy.

And many of you are there.

You've been through hardship.

I know this.

I know some of your stories.

And yet you live with such joy and peace, and it's amazing to see.

Let me tell you about one woman who this fits this role.

Her name was Elizabeth Elliott.

Some of you might know that name, many of you don't.

Elizabeth Elliott had a uh husband who was a missionary named Jim Elliott.

Uh, Jim Elliott and four of his friends decided they wanted to take the gospel to the unknown world.

So they took, got on a plane, and they flew over to Ecuador, South America, to go give the gospel to the Harani tribal people.

Well, they touched down and interact with the Harani tribe only to be speared to death.

All five of them killed.

Jim Elliott, by the way, this is worth its weight in gold.

This is probably my favorite quote from him.

Jim Elliott says, A man is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

A man is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Amazing.

He lived that, right?

He gave up his life to gain communion with God forever.

Anyways, uh, Elizabeth Elliott, what makes her story so remarkable is not the fact that she overcame that tragedy.

Twenty nine years old, she becomes a widow, raising a daughter on her own.

You want to know what's so amazing about Elizabeth Elliott's story?

After she got over the initial grief of her husband's murder, you know what she does?

She packs her bags, gets on a plane with her one and only child, flies over to Ecuador to make her home among the same people that murdered her husband.

Talk about amazing.

When you read her memoirs, you'll read about a woman who, over the course of years, finally brought the Harani people to faith in Jesus Christ.

Even bringing to faith in Jesus Christ the man that killed her husband.

What you read is this sense of peace, this deep settled confidence in God.

One point in her memoir, Elizabeth Elliott wrote these words.

She said, the secret to life is Christ in me.

Not me in a different circumstance.

The secret to life, to peace is Christ in me, not me in a different circumstance.

Church, that's Philippians 4.

Listen, the world says contentment and peace comes from improved circumstances.

But kingdom contentment, Paul says, comes when Christ becomes enough.

Is Christ enough for you?

When you sit down at the doctor's office and go over the diagnosis and prognosis of the disease, and it's not in your favor, is Christ enough?

When your children move away, not only to a different state, but maybe a different country, no longer living around you, is Christ enough?

When you bury a loved one, is Christ enough when you lose your job?

When you're ridiculed at work because of your faith in Jesus Christ or at your school amongst your peers because you're a believer in Jesus, is Christ enough?

Paul ends this section of scripture with probably the most famous verse in all of Philippians.

That's verse 13.

Not only is it the most famous, I'm also going to tell you it is probably the most often misquoted.

And here it is, and you know it.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

We see that verse, we put it on coffee mugs, we cross-stitch it on pillows for our couch, or we hang them up on our walls.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And you know, athletes will put it on black underneath their eyes when they're going into the big game.

And what they're meaning by that is I can achieve my dreams, I can accomplish my goals, I can win the big game.

But that's not at all what Paul is saying.

Paul is not saying Christ gives me the strength to achieve whatever I want for myself, glory.

What he is saying is whether I have plenty or little, whether I am living a life filled with joy or filled with pain, whether I am a free man or sitting in a prison cell waiting death, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Doesn't that change the verse completely for you?

Paul is saying, I can endure all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I can suffer without losing hope through Christ who strengthens me.

In that Las Vegas hospital, Marcus and I are praying together.

And I'm telling you, we are not losing hope in a God, a good God who can do miracles because we believe in Christ who strengthens us in the midst of that adversity.

Friends, we can walk through uncertainty without falling apart because we have Christ who strengthens us.

Again, why?

Because peace and contentment, hear me, are not personality traits, they are kingdom fruit.

And let's be honest, some of you are exhausted right now.

You're exhausted because you have spent your whole life trying to carry burdens that you were never meant to carry in the first place.

Fear, anxiety, worry, the pressure of thinking you gotta be the one to hold it all together for yourself and those you love.

But Jesus is speaking to you specifically today, saying, you don't have to carry that anymore.

Friends, let me speak plainly to you in this moment.

Some of you have no peace in your life right now because you're still trying to control everything.

Like you want Jesus as your Savior.

You're just not so sure yet about Lord and King.

Listen, I'm gonna speak truth to you because I love you.

As long as you keep trying to carry what only God is equipped and capable of carrying, you will never know real peace.

Peace is not found in control, peace is found in surrender.

And that's why Jesus came.

He came, church, he lived a life you and I could not live in perfect obedience.

He died the death you and I were destined to die, and he did it on a cross.

And he rose from the grave to offer you and I new life.

The blood of Jesus paid for your sin.

The resurrection of Jesus gives you access to new life, and the Spirit of Jesus gives you the power.

His power is what we talk about today, right?

Gives you the power to walk differently.

And because of that, you can finally rest.

I want to give you space this morning to respond, as I've been doing each week.

Most of us here, uh the way we'll respond to the proclamation of God's word is we'll stand up and we'll sing the closing hymn.

And that's a beautiful way to worship, that's a beautiful way to respond to the word of God.

However, some of you, I think today, you need to respond in movement by coming up to the altar rail and kneeling in surrender before your God and king.

Friends, hear me, peace begins where surrender begins.

Some of you may need to come as a first act of salvation.

You need to come and kneel before your king because you've been trying to do it on your own for too long and you're realizing it don't work that way.

And today's the day you want to claim Jesus not only as your Savior, but also your Lord and King.

Others of you, maybe you need to make a response this morning and come and kneel at the altar rail to let go of the baggage of anxiety and fear that you keep holding on to, that you're gripped with.

Listen, this world is hard and it breaks us and it wounds us, but we believe in a savior who went to a cross and by his wounds we have been healed and made whole.

And maybe today is you dropping off the baggage of anxiety and fear in your life and walking out of here lighter and allowing your God to carry.

Maybe for you it's simply coming and kneeling because you're in need of healing, physical healing, emotional healing, spiritual healing, relational healing.

We have a God that desires to heal us and make us whole.

Maybe for you though, maybe it's because there's somebody in your life, a child who's become a prodigal, or a grandchild who's not being raised in the faith, or a friend of yours that has wandered, and you, as an act of coming and kneeling at this altar rail, is giving up the responsibility and the worry about their salvation to the one who should be concerned about it.

Hear me, this altar is opened, you're invited to come.

It's not ritual, it's all response.

And and I'm gonna pray here in a moment.

And and after I pray, if you have this longing to come forward and kneel, please know the altar rail is open to you.

And I say that because, friends, sometimes the most eloquent prayer you and I will ever pray is not with word, it's with movement, it's with getting up, and it's through kneeling and it's through surrender.

So as I pray, if you want to make your way forward and kneel at this altar, by so means do it.

If you want to do it when we all stand to sing our closing hymn by means, no, the altar is opened.

You are invited to come.

Come lay down your burden.

Come lay down your fears and anxiety and take up as your own the peace and contentment that only Christ can give you.

Will you pray with me?

Oh, Father God.

I want to start in confession, Lord.

Lord, we confess.

I confess for the sake of the collective whole that we so quickly, Lord, become anxious and restless and discontent.

God, as you do so often, will you forgive us again for looking to this world to give us what only you can provide?

Lord, teach us to trust you more fully by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit.

Teach us to rest more fully in you.

God, teach us to say, as the Apostle Paul said, that Christ is enough, regardless of my circumstance.

Christ is enough.

Lord God, bring peace to anxious hearts today.

I know you will.

Bring contentment to restless souls today, Lord.

I know you will.

And draw those of us, Lord, who do not yet know you into the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

God, we long for the peace and contentment only you can give.

And we pray this all in the mighty name of Jesus and all God's people said.

Amen.

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