Finding Joy in Chains (Part 11) (Phil.4:10-23)                                                                         2008.08.31    Pastor Edward Cheng  

The last time we looked at Philippians, we recognized that Paul was winding down his letter to his friends.  At the beginning of the chapter, he began to give rapid-fire commands to his readers, as if to cram in as much as he could before he ran out of room on the page.  And yet, while these commands were many and were varied, they were all linked by the same common themes of finding joy in the midst of difficult circumstances. 

As we continue in the last chapter of the book, we find again that his heart has not changed.  He wants to conclude his thoughts concerning the way to find joy in the midst of difficult circumstances and does so through his own thanksgiving to the Philippians for their gift to him.  In this last section, he tells how he has discovered the “secret to being content” in any circumstance, and hopes that his readers can do the same.  Over the next couple of sermons, we’re going to look specifically at what makes up this “secret” of being content.  Isn’t contentment something we all want?  When we began looking at this book I asked the question, “Why are we studying this book?  Because we are not satisfied with life.”  That hasn’t changed from the time we began reading this book.  Paul knows that it’s a common experience of human beings not to be satisfied with life and his hope is to demonstrate how believers can find that contentment that most people seek.

Contentment is NOT proportional to having

The first thing we discover concerning the secret of being content comes from the first few verses of this section.  In v. 10, Paul brings up the matter concerning the gift the Philippians gave to him.  They knew that he was in a situation of need and thought to take a collection on his behalf, and then have that gift delivered to him through the help of Epaphroditus.  He tells the Philippians in v. 10 how happy he is that they loved him so much to the point of bringing him that gift.  However, immediately afterwards Paul makes it clear that it isn’t the gift itself that makes him happy.  It’s not that he is happy and content now that his pocket is full.  Rather, he is simply touched by the fact that they thought of him. 

In a sense, Paul communicates to his gift-givers that the gift is not a big deal to him.  Why?  Not because he has all of his needs covered.  We’ve known throughout the letter that his current circumstance is one of need.  But rather, the gift is not a big deal to him because he knows that his contentment has NOTHING to do with how much he has.  He tells us that in whatever circumstance he finds himself in, whether it be in need or plenty, he has discovered the “secret” to being content. 

How often do we hear, “Money does not buy happiness”?  We may believe it on the surface and may even teach this to our children, and yet I would guess that many of us still live in the motto, “The more I have, the happier I’ll be.”  This is the lie the world tells us day in and day out; that we need more than we have, and that if we have those things, our joy will be made more full.

When Cindy and I first bought a digital camera, it took a long time of debating back and forth because it was an expensive piece of equipment.  At last we gave in, thinking that this was the way the world was going.  That digital camera, although expensive, seemed to bring us a lot of “joy” for a short period of time.  However, it wasn’t long before the new cameras on the market were so much better than the one that we had.  They were thinner, lighter, had more memory, better features, better zoom, better battery life, more memory, and on and on and on… All of a sudden, that camera that had brought us “joy,” no longer did so.  In fact it made us yearn for something better.  We fell into the lie of the world that if we have better or newer, we’ll be happier.

Paul tells us he’s learned the secret of being content.  “Content” has the idea of being self-sufficient, not yearning for something external.  If we allow the lies of the world to take a hold of us, we most certainly will find ourselves yearning for that “thing” that is better than what we have.  It could be a house, or a pencil.  But in either case, when we think that contentment comes from having, then we’ve allowed the world’s lie to trick us.  Paul teaches us that contentment has nothing to do with how much we have, that in fact, it’s possible to be content with a lot, or with a little.  May we listen to the wisdom of Paul and began to let go of the “treasurers” of this world and instead to pay attention to the treasurers of heaven.