Sermon Notes:
Even If Contentment Feels Impossible
Pastor Spencer Sweeting
How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty. As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once. I don’t say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness. At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:10-19 NLT
The Secret of Contentment (4v10-13)
Contentment is not the absence of desire. It’s knowing the presence of Christ in every circumstance.
The Partnership of Generosity (4v14-18)
Paul highlights three dimensions of a generous life:
Partnership (vv. 14–16)
Profit (v. 17)
Praise (v. 18)
The God Who Supplies (4v19)
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)
I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess. – Corrie ten Boom