Rejoice in whatever circumstances
Philippians 4:10-12 · JD McCulley · Sep 16, 2012
Philippians (2012), No. 36
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926327394959

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright, so we've got Philippians 4, 10 through 12. Rejoice in whatever circumstances. So I'm picking up from last week and carrying on with the last portion here of the book of Philippians and looking at Paul's writing to the Philippians, a group of believers who were mature in their faith and obviously had a lot going for them in terms of who they were in Christ. They had grown in many ways in that area of thinking But it wasn't something that Paul didn't think was so far along that they didn't need to be reminded of who they were. and where their minds were to dwell.

In fact, last week we talked about the dwelling, that gizamai, that concept of having your mind set on and focused on. We talked a little bit about the family of words, the reckoning, the counting it as so, that we see in the Book of Romans there as well. That whole idea of the mindset. And we'll look at phaneo as well, that family of words of having one's mind directed towards perspective. We'll look at that a little bit today. That word is actually mentioned in this passage as well.

But there's a lot going on in these last verses with how our minds are set and where our minds are and the positional perspective versus the conditional perspective. And these are all things that we want to pick out and notice what Paul is saying by way of repetition. And so, kind of running into today's lesson, looking at verses 10, 11, and 12. I'll just read for us here this morning.

Picking up where we left off last week, that whatever is true, whatever is right, whatever is on and on and on, think about such things and the God of peace will be with you. And so, having that kind of mindset he moves into, his own personal perspective, his own personal situation, and it gets personal again, which is great because Paul does that a number of times through this book. But let's see what he has to say about his own situation. He says, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me.

Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

So these three verses really do pack quite a bit of information about not only Paul's situation, being chained to a Praetorian guard in Rome, literally being jailed, and here he's saying some things that seem quite contradictory to his situation, which is in many cases the nature of Paul's writing.

Here he's talking about being in one situation and having a perspective that is quite different. And that's what we're going to look at today. He also talks about the believers in Philippi having an opportunity to do something that they hadn't had an opportunity to do before and that he has a rejoicing experience around that or a mindset around that. So we're going to look at that. A lot of these themes that we see, I mean we go through and we start looking at the key words that are brought out in these three verses, and these are all themes that we've hit on probably four or five times in this study. And for those of you that are kind of joining us in these verses for the first time maybe, We've looked at this theme of rejoicing, again, probably four or five times.

It's just, it's rich. All throughout Paul's writing, he talks about the perspective of joy, but in Philippians, he really nails home this idea of joy. And we'll talk about the charis family of words, that Greek word that's kind of in the root of joy and rejoicing. and all of these different aspects of joy that we've looked at so far. We see joy. We also see the idea of support here. We've talked about support before and we've kind of connected that to the missionary support and the concern for the gospel. that other believers have had, and specifically the Philippians have had for Paul. So that's a theme that gets brought back into today's lesson. We also look at circumstances and dealing with circumstances.

If you think about it, there's only a couple things that really throw you for a loop in life. You can probably think through your past week here and come to a number of conclusions about what I'm saying, but it's either circumstances or relationships, isn't it? It's one of those two things that kind of throw you into your need for the Lord, and here Paul's talking about circumstances. specifically. And he's also talking about a relationship, but in this case it's a positive relationship with other believers that's causing him to have a perspective. So, you think about it, this stuff hits home. This stuff is street-level reality stuff. It's circumstances, it's relationships, it's perspectives on life, all the kinds of things that you walk out of here today and you get thrown into.

You can't avoid having that circumstance where your son's in the backseat playing with a pirate's patch and it pulls it back far enough and lets it go and it slaps him in the eye right in the middle of I-25. And you think, here's my circumstance. Do I pull over? How do I deal with this situation? Or that relationship where you get something thrown your way and you're like, where in the world did that guy, where is he coming from? You just can't go too long without having to deal with similar circumstances.

And that's what's so interesting about the scripture is it gets into the nitty-gritty of life. It really does. And Paul's got some nitty-gritty stuff that's going on. He's writing this book from a really nitty-gritty situation. And it's not pretty, at least from an outside perspective. But Paul wraps things from a biblical viewpoint and he encourages, even through a circumstance that we would say, well, that's not ideal. Not ideal at all. So let's look at the themes that we've talked about in the past. And again, if you're joining us for the first time, you're going to be a little bit, you'll miss a little bit about what's going on with the idea of rejoicing here.

I'll try to cover some of it. But all of the lessons are online. And so you'd be able to go back and look at this Keres family of words that we've talked about in the past. But he says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly. And so we want to talk about that a little bit. If we look at that family, of words. This is rich all throughout the book. So in chapter 1, you know, you've got seven instances. Chapter 2, the same. Chapter 3, he goes a little bit light on it. Chapter 4, he's bringing out all these different terms.

So you've got grace, you've got thankfulness, or he thanks them for something. or thanks the Lord. So this idea of rejoicing is given two different perspectives. It has to do with what believers are doing in Philippi that he is thankful for, that he's joyful about, that he's rejoicing about. And it also has to do with what he has in the Lord, what he's thankful about, what he's joyful about. And so you have to look at the object of each of these instances of charis or joy, and charis just being that root Greek word that's in all of these different uses of the term. But this is a heavy theme, and we've talked about it quite a bit, and now we're at chapter for verse 10, and we've got this concept of him having rejoiced, in this case, in the Lord, not in something that the believers are doing per se, but he's rejoicing specifically in the Lord, and that's his source, that's where he's focusing that joy.

And we'll look at it two more times through the remainder of this class, in the case of verse 15 where he talks about the giving, and verse 23 where he talks about grace. So, you know, it really is something that's interwoven into the fabric of every single chapter of Philippians. And so when you think Philippians, one of the themes that should come to your mind is this joy factor. And if that's something that you are having struggles with in perspective in your own life, then the book of Philippians will definitely nail that right on the head as far as getting a proper perspective of it.

I can honestly say that when you're being shifted back and forth in life, no matter what it is, circumstances or relationships, joy is a factor. It doesn't matter if you're working with little children. And their emotions are going up and down. The joy factor is a reality. It doesn't matter if you're in the job. or you're dealing with something that's just of a secret nature, there's a factor of joy that's either in the biblical perspective or in the conditional perspective. And you're probably, if I'm guessing right, about the humanity, even as a believer, that you still are living in and not present with the Lord, so you're probably dealing with a joy factor in some area of your life.

And this particular verse has that impact as far as touching on those issues. Here are some of the things that Paul says that he's rejoiced in. Again, remember his circumstances. This guy's been shipwrecked, imprisoned, beaten, left for dead, and he's got a better perspective on joy than probably anyone else in the New Testament. He talks about that theme quite a bit more than anyone else. So this guy's been through it all. probably a lot more than any of us have ever been or will be.

But in Philippians 3, he says, Finally, my brethren, I rejoice in the Lord. That theme, verse 4, chapter 4, we talked about this a few weeks ago. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Always? Seriously? That's a tall order. always be rejoicing in the Lord. Again, we talked about if this is a law, if this is something that we always have to check ourselves off as having done, that's a pretty significant law to keep, isn't it? Good thing it's in the Lord and not in Paul. Or it's a good thing it's in the Lord and not in Jim.

If I'm rejoicing in me, then I've got a lot to be disappointed about, right? If I'm trying to convey joy in my heart and somehow convince myself To be joyful, I've got a big problem, don't I? And I bring up the situation of trying to communicate joy to children because it's something that I'm dealing with right now. But how many times do we, through the week, face a situation and try to convince ourselves to be joyful?

That's not a situation that Paul's calling us to here. And that's not the New Testament believer's position. It's trying to convince yourself of joy. trying to wrap your brain around something and say, well, there's this good aspect of it, and at least he didn't do this, or at least she didn't say that. It could be a lot worse.

You see, that's a law-based perspective of joy, where you're starting to look at circumstances to determine it. It's like, well, if it's at this level, then I can be joyful. But if not, then I'm really going to have to muster up some focus and strength to deal with it.

Last week we talked about a lot of different perspectives of the mind. Paul says whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is true, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good rapport. He talked about all these different perspectives of the mind. Have you tried to get your mind around that?

If you're doing that as a checklist and trying to force yourself through that kind of thinking, you're going to find yourself very, very frustrated in life. And that's what children do. Especially children that are new believers or even adults that are new believers in the Lord, their first tendency is to try to convince themselves of joy and thinking about what is true and right and pure and lovely. We want to do it just like we've done everything else in life, and that is try to change our perspective, try to change our mind. And what's interesting about last week, and it's the same thing this week, is that joy, and whatever's true, right, pure, and so forth, is tied to a person.

It's tied to Christ himself. It's not tied to a set of law-based principles, where you're convincing yourself of doing something that doesn't seem natural. There's a lot of situations in life where it does not feel right to be joyful. I have every right to be angry. Have you ever thought that way? I have every right to be frustrated with this situation. And out comes the finger. You do. You have every right. Or do you?

And that's the position that Paul's taking is that our right is not a conditional thing. It's our privilege, rather. It's not our right to be angry about something or frustrated about a situation. It's our privilege to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ where there is joy. And that's a totally different perspective. So Paul's saying joy comes in the Lord. I'm chained to a Praetorian guard.

They're shifting out every several hours, so they've got all this new energy to come in and just be really frustrated that they have to even deal with me. I've got Bob and Tom and Bill. That's not Roman names, but we'll use them as examples. They all come in and they rotate in, and each of them has got their own frustrating personality that I'm having to deal with each day. But I'm rejoicing in the Lord, not in my situation. Would Paul have every right to be frustrated? You bet he would. Far more so than many of us.

But Paul, reading here the second part of this slide, Paul does not tell the believers in Philippi to rejoice in the Lord without being a prime example of rejoicing in the Lord Himself. And that's one of the things that's interesting about what Paul's saying, is that he's practicing what he preaches. By practice, do we mean mustering up the strength to be rejoicing or mustering up the strength to be joyful? No. He's simply saying, I'm trusting in the Lord and His life is being carried out in me in an example of being joyful and in the same way that's available to you. There's nothing that I'm experiencing by way of joy in Christ that you cannot experience by way of joy in Christ. A couple more examples.

Philippians 1.18. He says, In this I rejoice. In this situation, yes, I will rejoice.

On and on and on. Practicing what he preaches. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, here again, I rejoice and share my joy with you all." So not only was it a personal experience of joy that he had in Christ, it was something that he could share with others.

And I think that's pretty neat. In fact, that's what we're doing here. The joy that we have in Christ is something that we share together. Now you've had a crummy week. You can express joy in Christ together today. And you can do it when you leave, too. That's the nature of the unity of the body, and that's what Paul's saying. And what's interesting is, was Paul present with them? He wasn't even with them. He had the unity of joy with the body, and he wasn't even with them.

How does that work? How does unity and joy with believers... We're emailing now, right? That's how we do it. We're emailing back and forth with believers who are going through various circumstances, and how do we express that joy with one another? It's the same way Paul did it. They had the medium of a written letter that had to be delivered by Epaphrodites. 800 miles away, 10 years separated from ever having been together, these Philippian believers and Paul. And here they're writing letters back and forth, acquainting themselves with their situation in Christ. You use email, you text, whatever you do.

The object of joy is the same. It's in Christ. And that's where his joy was. So we've talked a lot about that. That joy is not an outward emotion. It's not a state of physical being. It is a perspective on a person. It's a perspective on Christ because He is joy. You could be, literally, in the worst circumstance you could imagine and still rejoice.

You say, that's not possible. Well, it is when it's Christ doing the living. It's not when you're trying to muster up the strength to be joyful because you just cannot do it. You're not capable of doing that. It doesn't matter how much you mimic Christ or how much you pretend that you are happy about a situation and try to convey emotional joy, it's not possible without Christ doing it through you.

You're faking it until you make it, right? That's fake joy. And guess what? That's the best the world's got to offer. You want to try to tackle the issue of joy without Christ? You get to fake it till you make it. Been there, done that, right? We've all done that. We've been in that situation where we're forcing ourselves through that.

But Paul is saying, no, it's in the Lord. And that's where my rejoicing is. So we move on from that very rich theme of joy, and I've kind of tried to tackle that again this morning, but Philippians is just full of situations where Paul is choosing joy in Christ. It's about the relationship and the trusting factor that goes on there between him and his Lord. Here he goes on to talk about the situation between himself and other believers and he introduces a new concept, I'm sorry, not a new concept, a new word with the same concept.

And here we have it used the word concern or concerned in this way, in this study that I remember. But he says, you have revived your concern for me. You've brought back your concern for me, and though you were concerned before, you lacked this opportunity. Well, it's interesting that that word concern, if you look at it again in the Greek, I'm not a big fan of being greeky-geeky for the purposes of being greeky-geeky, but there's something really cool about looking at at least being familiar with words in Greek, and that is that here the same root is being used again and again, and it's being translated in English differently. But here he's got the word concerned. Guess what it is? It's that Fresnel concept again. Here we go again. you know, same theme again. And this is what's really neat.

You would have never caught this in the English version of the Bible. But here in the Greek, we've got this repeating concept of family or phoneo, family of words. And we talked about it, you know, last week a little bit with the idea of dwelling and how tied that logitsimae concept is to a mindset. But here in verse Ten, we've got the word freneo there and it's the last time that it's used in the book of Philippians. So this will be the last time we touch on this concept until we do the review at the end of the lesson. But here this idea of being concerned or having a mindset or a care about something is brought up again. How important is your mind's focus in the book of Philippians? It's critical. You can't go through the book of Philippians and not ask yourself, where's my head? Where's my head?

You know, you watch football and you see the coach just you know, taking it to the quarterback. Does something just not in the game plan. And he just lays into that guy something serious. And he'll grab his helmet and he'll shake it. Where's your head, son? You know, I remember those instances going through athletics. Where's your head? You're out in the middle of nowhere. Well, that's a law-based perspective on getting your head wrapped around something, but Paul is constantly shaking our spiritual head and saying, where is your head? Where is your care? Where is your concern? Where is your mind dwelling? Where is it focused?

And he's not doing it in an effort to try to change you based on law or to try to change you based on practicing something that you weren't practicing before. He's saying, probably not shaking it, but graciously saying, Look, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. There is care, there is concern, there is joy. There are all the kinds of attributes that you need to walk this walk and talk this talk without the law, pure 100% grace. It's found in the Lord Jesus. And that's where your mind goes. Where do you focus? Do you focus on all the things that you have to do? Paul's saying no. You focus on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when you do that, you have care and concern for other believers. In this case, we're talking about the support of ministry. Paul was actively communicating the gospel message to believers and unbelievers in the Roman Empire and throughout that area, and he needed help doing it. And he was excited about the care and concern and where the believers in Philippi's heads were with respect to his ministry. You get it. This is about the gospel. Chapter 1, 3-7, we saw some very clear parts and pieces to how the Philippians supported Paul and his effort, or should I say, Christ's effort to communicate the gospel through Paul. He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

In other words, Paul did not see himself as an island. Wasn't he alone? In some ways, he was. He wasn't in the presence of other believers, but he did not consider himself alone. Not only did he not consider himself alone with respect to his relationship with the Lord, but he also expressed a unity and a participation with believers that were many hundreds of miles away. you are participating with me and how was that participation being done well his participation with them had to do with prayer he just mentioned his prayer for them but also there was a specific support there that they were giving him and verse six he goes on for I'm confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus remember we talked about that I had the of teaching that verse back in the very beginning, and that has to do with the completion of sharing the gospel. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment, which he was in now, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. He says, I'm going through this stuff and sharing the gospel, and you're going through it with me. So there was this closeness of ministry that Paul saw with the believers.

And I think that in the same way that I challenged, I think back in this verse, we've got to challenge ourselves as well. How are we a part of the ministry of those that are potentially apart from us, actively sharing in the gospel? Are we a part of that? And if so, how does Paul call us to be a part of those things?

He also goes on in verses that are yet to be taught, You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone. So that shares with you a little bit about how this group was involved with Paul, how he was a partaker with, how they were partakers and participants with Paul. He says, you're the only one that's shared in the matter of giving. For even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. So Paul is calling out this co-effort in the gospel.

And by effort, you know what I mean there. I'm not talking about mustering up and pulling up your bootstraps and getting it done. I'm talking about trusting the Lord with money. trusting the Lord in prayer, and even when time and distance is a factor. So Paul's practice, just as an interesting point here, it can be brought up again in future verses, but Paul's practice was not to require or even request support as he ministered.

So here he's saying, there's a rejoicing in the Lord, in my circumstances, and I appreciate that now that you have the opportunity, you've showed concern for me. So it's possible here that Paul is reaching the end of his own means, and we'll talk about that in a minute, but he's needing help, and this is where the Philippians kick in and start to support him.

We know that in other instances where Paul is looking for support, 1 Corinthians 9, 11-12, we read, if we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much? And Paul's talking about his his ministry amongst the Corinthians? Is it not too much if we reap material things from you, that being from the Corinthians? If others share the right over you, do we not more?

Nevertheless, we did not use this right, in other words, the right to receive gifts and support, financial support, we didn't use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. Money causes a hindrance to the gospel.

We could talk about that as a whole lesson. We've all probably seen it and experienced it, but Paul's saying, I'm not going to go there because I don't want it to be a hindrance to the gospel. Also, 2 Thessalonians talks about that, but Paul typically sought to cover his ministry expenses by making tents. We know he's a tent maker. He did whatever was possible so as not to be a hindrance upon the message that he was sharing.

So what's going on in Philippians 4.10 that we're reading now?

What's this deal with you've revived your concern? Does that mean they stopped caring? They stopped having the mindset of concern for them, for him, and then now they've shifted back to that? Well, no, I think it's tied to that second part where they have opportunity again, right? So they didn't have opportunity at one point, they had the concern, but it's been revived now that they have opportunity again. So there's been an opening of some means or way to supply that kind of concern again. and they have opportunity. So he's not applying that the church in Philippi had forgotten him for a time. We're not saying that.

But now that Paul had been in prison for some time, he could no longer potentially provide for his own needs. So he might have run out of the ability to provide for his need for the gospel. It just makes you wonder, how was he using potentially money for making tents to get the gospel out while he was chained to a Praetorian guard? I don't know. It's an interesting thought. How would his money have been being used? Is that how it was going down? I don't know.

But somehow his focus was whatever he was making, however he was bringing in the funds, he was using it for the purposes of the Gospel. And at some point he'd run out of his ability to, in his own effort, make tents and supply his needs with that. Is this really tied to Paul's effort, though, or is it with really the Lord bringing a circumstance into Paul's life where he needs believers?

It's definitely the latter, right? You think about it from your perspective. You want very much to supply your own needs, right? The Lord's given you great skill, great mind, whatever it is. You want to supply your own needs, and you should. God's creating you in His image, He's giving you a mind and the ability to reason and function and be Lord over the earth, little l. You've got that created image and ability, but it doesn't mean that the Lord won't take you into circumstances where that is rendered completely useless and you're dependent upon another.

But that didn't affect Paul's joy. Even though he couldn't supply himself with his own needs financially speaking, here he's saying, I'm so thankful in the Lord for you now that you're able to support me, that your concern has been revived, you have an opportunity. It's pretty interesting, isn't it? Instead of saying, please help, I don't know what to do. Instead of thinking of it that way, he's simply rejoicing in the reality of what he's dealing with, his circumstances.

And he's definitely excited about the concern that these Philippian believers have for him. I think there's something to say for not feeling alone out there, even though he would have never felt alone having that relationship with the Lord, he does feel a part of the body, even out on an island, so to speak. It just makes us think about our own missionaries. Do they recognize our concern for us? Not based on the law, but based on the grace that we would respond to in our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do they feel connected and cared about? considering the fact that they're removed by distance and time.

Just a couple thoughts here on the New Testament perspective on money and giving. Paul is thankful to the Lord about the support gifts from the believers in Philippi. We'll go on to see that he's actually thankful for whatever he gets, whether it be nothing or something. But this is consistent with what he and the other apostles said and didn't say about money for support of the gospel. We see actually in the New Testament letters that in support or in this idea of raising financial support, you don't have the arm twisting. You don't have the sales pitch. You don't have the brow beating, so to speak. You don't have these promises that people are making to you.

Now, I've been in that situation on both ends. I've been on the need end, and I've been on the giving end. And I've made mistakes in both ends. I've seen the improper perspective from a biblical way of thinking about it, and I've been involved in both. And you probably have too at some point.

But the idea in the New Testament is all 100% saturated in grace. It's based on what the Lord is motivating you to do, on both ends. You can make the need known, and Paul made his need known, didn't he? There's nothing wrong with making the needs known.

It's another thing to begin to manipulate and start to try to get something by utilizing words artfully, creatively. We all know what that's like. We've all bought cars and been in a situation where words are used quite creatively to explain our need for this, how much we really need this car. And you know what? Financial support and ministry can be treated the same way. It's been done. It's being done. But in the New Testament, it's about grace.

Who motivates us to give? It's the Lord Jesus. It's not ours in the first place. And so where does that motivation to support a believer in the ministry of the gospel comes from? Our relationship with Christ. That's where it's at. So this is a side point there.

And as a kind of wrapping up that concept, each one must give in 2 Corinthians 9, 7, each one must do in his giving just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Giving is a part of walking with the Lord Jesus, so giving is not grudgingly or hard to do. when you're walking with the Lord, but it needs to be based on walking with the Lord. And that's that subject. Biblical giving is not rooted in roles and peer pressure, but entirely in one's personal relationship with the Lord.

Did the Philippians have that? They had their mind set and care for Paul and they were very focused on the needs and the participation of Paul for the purposes of sharing what? The gospel, they weren't concerned about Paul's clothing, per se, although Paul needed clothing, right?

Does that help? Sure does. I will not bring a rule up here, but I will bring maybe a perspective. Grace is abundant. It doesn't measure. So when we're thinking about giving to missionaries, it's like, oh, you have enough to do your thing. What's that person doing? Buying a new car. Wrong way of thinking. Grace is abundant. They need cars too. They need clothes. They need shoes. They need things.

So the idea of giving and then turn around and measuring what they're doing with that is not seen in the Bible. You give and that's the response that you have to your walk with the Lord. It's done. At that point, you've given and you're moving on. You're not expecting them to come back and report to you all the notches that they've carved out in their belt. I've seen that too. It's like, I'm giving you so much money. How many souls have you saved this month? That's not the principle of giving here. It's not give and then measure. It's give and let the Lord. It's a different perspective.

Philippians 4.11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." And this is the one that, oh man, huge, huge order, hugely tall. How in the world am I supposed to be content with whatever circumstances that you're in?

And I know that you're just like me, and you're thinking back through your week, and you're thinking through the forward perspective of this week, and you're thinking, I didn't do it last week, and I'm probably not going to do it this week. And you know what? That's right. You're not going to do it. Because contentment doesn't come from you. It comes from the Lord Jesus.

And that is tied to what He learned. You see, Paul would have false mimicked and tried to be content at some point in his life. Do you remember, Paul was a young believer as well. And he had to go through this learning process too. It's right there in the verse. He's learned to be content, which means that was he always content?

Not at all. And neither was I, and neither are you. It's a learning process, but guess where that learning is focused? And I know what we want to do. I know that it's tied to that same thing that I just talked about with joy. You want to convince yourself that you're content. I can do this, I can do this, content, content, content, content. And you're like, if I say it enough times, I'll be focused.

And I've just got to get some fresh air. Well, fresh air is not going to make you any more content, unfortunately. You know, that's a term that we use, but that's not what's going to do it. Time, money, vacation, it's not going to give you contentment. She's not going to do that.

And Paul learned that. The word, I have learned here, let's talk about that a little bit. It's tied to that discipleship concept that we talked about last week. You see, Paul was talking about having taught the believers in Philippi a lot through his actions. They saw, they heard, they read. Here, Paul's not talking about their learning from him, but here, his learning. Where did he learn this stuff?

Paul's saying, the Lord's taught me in this area. and I was stubborn at one point because he wasn't learning and now he has learned. In the same situation, you've probably been stubborn or are stubborn. I'm stubborn with having learned things that the Lord is teaching me, but it's interesting to see that embedded in this discipleship process is a process. It's not an instantaneous, you're a believer and now you are a disciple having fully learned. It's a process. The word conformed, transformed, are those completed actions, instant completed actions? They're not. They're processes.

And if you want to learn more about that process, I've pitched this before in the past, I'll pitch it again. What's God doing in the life of the believer is a class that we went through last season, one that Vern did. It will change your It will change your franeo. It will change the way that you think and count and reckon and dwell on what God's doing in your life.

And in this case, this process of having learned something presupposes a few things, doesn't it? What does it presuppose? He has a relationship with the Lord, so he's got a one-to-one communication there. Can you learn from someone that you don't know? No. So he knows the Lord.

What else does it presuppose? that you want to learn. You want to learn, and at least you're listening sometimes. Okay? At least you're listening sometimes. And the word here is actually in the active voice, and so Paul has been actively learning from the Lord regarding contentment in all circumstances. It's active. Okay?

And it's probably the same for most of us. In fact, I think I can say 100% positively, we are learning contentment. And we're not all in the same place. You're talking to a fellow believer, and you can see they're just all up in arms about this or that. And you think, man, brother, can't you just be content? Well, they're not learning that just quite the same way, and maybe this is how the Lord's teaching them. And so where do we get to learn? Grace. We get to learn to be gracious to that believer while he's learning contentment. And that's the joy of sharpening, encouraging, and building one another up in the body, right?

We're not all in the same place in terms of contentment. But in this situation, Paul had gotten to, I would say, quite a maturity in this area because he talks about several different aspects of how his contentment exists. And we'll look at that. Before I do, remember what we talked about last week in terms of the words learned, received, heard.

Is growing in the Lord something that happens out in the middle of the mountains on a rock as you meditate with no information other than your mind focusing on nothingness? You say, what are you talking about? Well, that's exactly what Eastern Mysticism is, is to remove yourself from all that is and find yourself in a state of nothingness. That's nirvana.

If you haven't looked at it, go check it out. It's not something that the Bible teaches. I would say check it out just so that you know the opposite of what the Bible teaches. Focus and content is of extreme importance in the Bible. In fact, last week we talked about the learning process, the receiving process, the seeing and the hearing. All of your senses are involved in bringing in a perspective that you don't have by sitting by yourself thinking. You need the Word of God to transform your perspective. You don't need your perspective to be emptied. You need it to be filled with the Word of God. And Paul was filled with the Word of God by learning contentment.

And it wasn't something that just happened, you know, through a quiet place in the middle of nowhere. And it wasn't something that he could teach. quietly in the middle of nowhere, he had to communicate his circumstances to the Philippian believers so that they could understand what the Lord was doing. Remember, Paul was not just a believer, he was also an apostle, which makes him unique in that he had to communicate things to teach us. We're not in that same position. So Paul not only had to learn it, he also had to teach it as an apostle so that we could learn it.

Some key words in Philippians 4, verse 11. This word content is made up of two different words. Individually, it can be used individually and by themselves. But it has the idea of self-suffice or self-sufficient. That's a term that is very much used in the world in terms of, especially in the Western world, right? We have this idea of get out there and make it. Get out there on your own. Be self-sufficient. We're trying to get our kids out the door to be self-sufficient as fast as they can.

Now, there's nothing wrong with being sufficient, but that's not the kind of thing that Paul's talking about here. In fact, embedded in this idea of content is the Stoic principle or the Greek mindset that these Philippians would have been challenged with all around them in the environment of Philippi is this idea of being entirely sufficient upon yourself. being completely contained with your ability to think and have joy. And so if you've got a problem, it's a personal problem, you're not being self-sufficient. And we've taken that concept and said, forget self-sufficiency, let's talk about it forever.

And so we've introduced secular psychology to try to bring it all back out. But at the end of the day, you end up having to be self-sufficient anyway, because you're the only one that can change it. And psychology is based on you focusing on yourself. So you end up being back in the same boat after it's all said and done.

You can talk for 30 years, but you're still learning to try to be self-sufficient again. But Paul is going to make a radical departure from this idea of a worldly self-sufficiency. Yes, contentment meant to be sufficient, but the object of that sufficiency was quite different. And unfortunately, Roger didn't give me that verse today, and if he did, I wouldn't even be able to get to it because I'm so long-winded anyway. But in verse 13, next week, Jeremy gets to teach Paul's perspective on contentment.

And guess where it comes from? It comes from the Lord. That's right. It comes from the person. It's not an attribute that you muster up and you work on. It's not a personality trait that you sharpen or get better at. It's a relationship and a trust factor with a person. So contentment comes back in that same category of trusting the Lord.

Philippians 4.12 He says, I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. So there's two situations here. You're living conditions in your, in your what? Your belly. Who gets upset when they don't get enough food? Who gets frustrated when they can't pay the bills?

Two prime examples of circumstances. In this case, we're not talking about relationships, although there's plenty other verses that would teach us contentment in relationship problems. But here, Paul is focusing largely on circumstantial problems. He says, I've learned in any and every circumstance, both in the circumstance of humble means. What does that mean? What does humble means mean? Doesn't have a lot of money. You look at him, you think, oh, he just must not have a lot going for him.

He says, I've learned in that circumstance, I've also learned in the circumstance where I don't have enough food to eat. Now we don't have that problem. I can honestly say, and if you disagree, you want to come talk to me about it afterwards and tell me I'm wrong, I doubt that any of you have ever gone hungry. You may have missed a meal or two, or put yourself through some kind of a fasting situation. But you weren't forced into a circumstance where you just didn't have the food.

And you started getting frail and losing weight. And literally your mind starts degrading because of hunger. And maybe you have. What do I know? But I know I haven't been in that situation. I know I've been hungry. I can actually convince myself right now that I'm hungry. There's a snack room in the back and it doesn't take long for me to start thinking about those cookies and those different donuts and stuff.

Paul didn't even have a snack room to be concerned with. But he'd been in a situation where he didn't have any food and he'd been in situations where he'd suffered need a great deal. Now I don't think Paul wants you to put him on a pedestal. I don't think he wrote this to put him on a pedestal and say, hey, I got a lot worse than you. Tough it out. Give me a break. Stop whining. I've been through a lot more. I've been shipwrecked. I've been in prison. I've been beaten and left for dead. We probably haven't been in any of those situations. I know I haven't.

It's interesting, though, that those are the circumstances where Paul is relating his contentment to. So, what do we have to do? Instead of looking at Paul and trying to identify with having not been in his circumstances and feeling small and western and rich and all the different things that we might consider ourselves, which we probably are. You know, we're very well off in the western world. We have food, we have clothing, we have homes, we have cars, we have nice facilities to teach.

No pigs running around, no wild dogs, nothing like that. But we do have circumstances that are of equal frustration to us that Paul would have gone through. Sometimes it's in ministry. Sometimes it kind of comes across in a different way. You're thinking, hey, Lord, I'm really involved here. I'm teaching. I'm training. I'm sharing the gospel. And no one is responding. People don't care.

I'm not getting supported enough. I don't have I don't have the support that I need from the facilities that I'm going to use to do the ministry that you've called me to do. Lord, why? We don't have enough money to build the wing onto our church. I don't know what it is. That's not our situation. I'm not saying that. But that's oftentimes the circumstance that churches find themselves in. It's like, wow, we need this. Our own personal circumstances. I could sure use a raise right now. I could sure use to get paid a little bit more for what I do. You know, the government to not decide that on my behalf. Right? Amen. I just got an amen because I mentioned the government problems. I don't know if it was the right kind of amen or the wrong kind of amen. Who knows?

You want to defend yourself. I'm just kidding. So, regardless of who gets elected and what circumstance we find ourselves in, regardless of what we feel we need, even in the service of the Lord, they are all unique tools of the Lord to bring us to a place. And this is extremely important. I want you to hear it. Because Paul got to see both sides of the coin.

And maybe you're on one side or the other. Maybe you're in prosperity. Maybe you're being filled with food. Maybe you are in a situation of abundance. You have everything you need. Or maybe you're on the flip side. Maybe you feel like you're somewhere in between.

Paul's saying that contentment exists equally in both places. It is not, oh, you need more contentment over here, or oh, you need it more over here. He's saying that whether you're here or here, the contentment is the same. Why? Because contentment is not contingent on a circumstance, it's contingent on a person. And guess who doesn't change? The Lord Jesus does not change.

Your intimacy with Him is directly related to your contentment. You're not feeling content, you've got an intimacy problem with the Lord. You're not feeling content, You've got something between you and the Lord that's going on. That's where the focus needs to be, not changing your circumstance.

Paul knew the Lord could change his circumstance in an instant. He could have food, there could be an earthquake, and he could be leaving that jail in five seconds flat. He wasn't asking that his circumstances change as much as he was focusing on the contentment that he had in the Lord, and he was very concerned about the furtherance of the gospel. Why? Because he wanted others to know that same contentment that he had. He was looking at that situation from a personal relationship with the Lord.

There are some key words that Paul is going to use that we need to examine very quickly in five minutes. It's the last verse, so I think we're okay. He says, I know how to get along with humble means. He says, I also know how to live in prosperity. So this word, and also the words I have learned in secret, we'll look at. So let's look at know and learned in secret, because learned in secret sounds kind of cool.

My kids are into secrets right now. Really, what is it? I can't tell you. And you can convince them eventually to tell you. Now they're finally moving on to the fact that they're not going to tell you the secret. So I've been thinking about that. I'll learn the secret too. Oida, to know by perception. So this isn't some kind of a random knowledge that you pick up. but this was an observational knowledge.

He went through this personally. The learning resulted in a knowing that was experienced personally and it's written in the perfect active indicative which means this is something that was completed in the past and it has ongoing results on into his relationship or into his life in the present being chained and imprisoned.

So it's something that happened in the past and he still knows. He knew it then and he knows it now. It's also active in that he actively knows it. It's not someone else impressing upon him. He knows it inside out. It's his knowing. And it's indicative, meaning that it's a statement of fact. So he knows it by perception, by experience, having been through that and seen it, learned it, and it's something that he knows and it's factual. It's factual knowledge.

He knows about this contentment. It's interesting that every attribute that we want to acquire as believers, we can know by knowing Christ. It's about the person. You want to know joy, you want to know contentment, you want to know truth, you want to know What is of good rapport? You want to know what's lovely? You want to know what's pleasing? You need to know the Lord Jesus. And you need to know him beyond his death and burial and resurrection, on into his ascension and seating where we are in heaven with him. Because that's the heavenly perspective that we have as believers. And that's the perspective Paul had in a circumstance. Finally he learned in secret. In other words, this one word gets translated out into this entire phrase. I have learned the secret. It's just one word. To learn the secret of something through personal experience or as a result of initiation.

The verb was used by the pagan mystery religions in the Roman Empire to describe their teaching of secret knowledge. Is there a lot of secret knowledge still today? It's interesting that Paul is saying that my secret knowledge is simply Christ and experiencing contentment in a circumstance.

You're like, well, that's not too secret. Well, it's secret in the sense that it was very unique. And it's almost like, you know, we talk about the secret to life. Paul's kind of communicating that. I've learned the secret. He's drawing attention to something that he learned that's very unique and interesting. I've learned the secret of being content. Whether I've got money or I don't, whether I've got clothing or I don't, whether I've got food or I don't, I've learned the secret.

And most people would say, that is a secret, please tell me, because my circumstances, that's something that we can't all change. You can go from being wealthy to poor. in no control of your own, very, very quickly. We've seen stories about that. And having the secret of contentment and joy based on those circumstances?

The pagan mystery religions would say, there are many ways that you must come to an understanding of this, and no one can know until you achieve to a certain place. Paul's saying it's not about achieving a certain place in your mind, it's about knowing a person and having a trust in that person. There's a secret there. Why is it a secret?

It's not in the sense that we shouldn't share it, it's a secret in the sense that not many people actually discover it because they end up trying to, by law, as believers, trying to fake the contentment that comes from fleshing it out, working it out. So what do I glean from the passage today and where do we go from here? I think that next week's verse is going to draw on this a lot further. So I'm not suggesting that we go out there and we work out contentment for ourselves. I'm suggesting that we continue to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ where you are in your life and the way that he's conforming you today and think about the unique privilege that it is to go through the circumstances you're going through Because you get to learn contentment in that. They're not mine. They're yours. And they're unique and they're custom designed for you. You need them. You need your needs so that you know the Lord and you know the contentment that comes from Him. Let's pray. Lord, I thank You so much that we have Your Word and that we can get perspective that we could not get anywhere else.

There's no way, in fact that's in many ways why it is so unique and Paul referred to it as having learned the secret is that It seems so obvious, yet it's so ignored and hidden in many people's mind that all joy, all contentment in life is found in you.

And that our circumstances can be a wreck, but Lord, you are consistent. You do not change. Your love and your grace for us is consistent. We thank you for it. We just pray for the encouragement and the sharpening that we can get from your word. And it's teaching through the remainder of today's church and just the joy of fellowship that we have with one another. In your name we pray. Amen.