Philippians chapter 4 from verse 10. Paul writes, I rejoice in the Lord that you have at last revived your care for me. Indeed, you were thinking about me, but you lacked the opportunity. Not that I say this because I have a shortage, for I have learned to content myself in whatever circumstance is my situation. I know how to live humbly and I know how to have abundance. In everything and for everything, I am taught. So to be satiated as to be hungry. So to have abundance as to suffer need. I can do everything in Christ who strengthens me. However, you did well in participating with me in my tribulation. And you also know, O Philippians, that at the beginning of the preaching of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church participated with me in giving and receiving, but you alone. For even in Thessalonica you sent me again and again for my needs. But I have received everything, and have an abundance. I have been filled, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent me, a fragrant smell, and an epitome of sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory, in Christ Jesus. Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. All the saints greet you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. We ask the help of God and his blessing in the next hour. Let us pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time now gathered with my family of the church. I ask you to work in this next hour through me and in our hearts as we listen. so that your good, lasting work may be in us. Your eternal work is achieved in our hearts and in our lives. We gather today as your church. We need this time of preaching. We need what is happening through the one ministry of the word preached. We need our souls to be fed. We need you to sustain our faith. And you use this ministry as a means to achieve it. We need these things. So we are here as your people, but we are aware that there are people among us who do not know you. And as your people, we long for the salvation of others. So we pray for anyone who hears me who does not know your son, that this is the day of salvation. Exhort your church, sustain your church, correct your church, because you know where we need correction. So we ask you to do all this good work with your perfect knowledge of us. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Healthy churches honor Jesus. We acknowledge the exalted nature of his person. It all begins with knowing the truth about Christ himself. But knowing the truth about Christ, we exalt him, acknowledging him as the head of the church. He is the head of the church. We recognize him in his office as the prince of the pastors, the main pastor of the church. We recognize him as the great high priest of the church. We recognize him as the lord of the church. The churches that exalt Christ are not seeking to do a ministry of their own style. Rather, they seek to have a submissive ministry. Taking note of what God has revealed in His Word, we submit to His Word. It is the will of Christ that we desire to be done in the church. How do you explain such things? Well, in the end, the only way to explain it is, of course, through salvation, through regeneration. It is the Lord's saving work in your life that makes you a person who honors Christ. It is the Lord's saving work in our lives that makes this congregation honor Christ. So, ultimately, everything is explained by salvation. But to think about how this works, how this is lived, When you think about the philosophy of the ministry, the structure of the ministry, when you think about the things we do as a local church in ministry, it is the Christ-honoring nature of it. is that it maintains the nature of honoring Christ, how we are or remain on the right path. There are many things we could say about that. No church honors Christ if it is not growing in the knowledge of Christ. We honor Him as we know Him. No church honors Christ if it does not cherish Christ, telling Him to be our greatest treasure. No church honors Christ if it doesn't prioritize Christ. He has to have the first place in everything in the life of the church. But this morning I want to talk about a non-negotiable element that will be present in every congregation that honors Christ. And I want to focus on this quality because it is not very mentioned. Of all the things we talk about that characterize a church that honors Christ, I almost never hear this mentioned in this kind of context. We will find it in the nine marks of a healthy church, in many of the things that are good and that help a healthy church. This quality is not mentioned very often. And before I state it in the way I want to express it, I want to say it this way, we cannot honor Christ while entertaining idols. Christ will not be honored in a church unless he is running away from idolatry. Colossians 3.5 says, this is a torture for you, fornication, impurity, disordered passions, evil desires, and greed. It's interesting that Paul mentions all of these sins that we would automatically identify with idolatry, but then he ends it by talking about avarice, and he equates it with idolatry, which is idolatry. John MacArthur comments that literally this term means to have more. It is the insatiable desire to gain more, especially things that are forbidden. Exodus 20, verse 5, Santiago chapter 4, which amounts to idolatry, when people get involved In either greed or sexual sins that Paul has listed, they follow their desires instead of following God's desires. And in essence, they are worshiping themselves, which is idolatry. I want more. I'm not satisfied. I need more. Wanting things, in some instances that are forbidden, or wanting things, in some cases, that are not inherently sinful, but it's not what God has assigned to me at this time. But my heart is not satisfied where I am. I want something more, even if it's not technically out of limits, but God has chosen not to give it to me at this time. So I'm not satisfied in the Lord himself. I'm not satisfied in Christ. I'm not satisfied with God's will. And all of this can be summarized in the word contentment. What will characterize a church that honors Christ? It will be a church characterized by contentment. In contrast to the desire for something that we don't have, in contrast to the desire for things that we don't have, we have contentment. content with what God has chosen not to give us, content regardless of our current circumstances, content with what God has identified as sufficient. This is what I've given you for your life in the ministry, and it's sufficient for you. And our hearts say, yes, Lord, it is sufficient. in every circumstance and time of congregational life. In churches, you go through seasons in life and ministry. Some of those seasons are very difficult. Some of those seasons seem like a little taste of heaven on earth. But whether you're in those times of sweetness or in those difficult times, contentment in your heart is still satisfied in the Lord. Content when it seems like we're flourishing and content when it seems like we're marching. Content knowing that we can never do better than simply trust and obey. We will never be able to act better than to be faithful. Regardless of what area of life you are struggling with in the contentment, do you really believe that you can't do a better job in your current circumstances than to trust the Lord and obey Him? not trying to do it according to your own ideas and your own plans, but rather what you're striving to do is to be submissive to the Lord and faithful to the Lord and his word where you are right now. content when people celebrate us, content when people condemn us, because in neither circumstance are we aiming at the praise of men. We're aiming to please the Lord. So if you celebrate me, I give thanks to God for how good He has done through me. If you condemn me, my identity is not tied to what you think of me because I do not live my life to please you. I live my life to please Christ. That's contentment. And that's what you find. in every church where Jesus is truly being exalted. It is a church characterized by contentment. That produces observable fruit. Where a church is characterized by contentment, the fruits of contentment will be there. I just want to mention a few. Where there is contentment, there is the fruit of simplicity in the ministry. Not a ministry that is simplistic, but a ministry that is simple. free from the confusion of human imagination, free from the mundane ideologies and strategies of the world that men take because they want something more. In the name of reaching their goals and capturing their vision, they start to get out of God's Word and come with their own ideas to be able to achieve these things. When a church is full of contentment, those things go away. believing in the sufficiency of what God has given us for the ministry, we simply do what God has told us to do, and we continue doing what God has told us to do. So we pray, and we exhort, and we study, and we love, and we serve. We do the things that God has revealed in his word, and we trust in him to accomplish We are at rest in God and in His Word and in the work that He has assigned to us. We are content with what He has given us to do. I really believe that unfolded in the evangelical world of our time is a mass of people who are not happy. Men who are meant to shepherd the church have their eyes and hearts on the ends of the earth more impact, wanting to have more influence, constantly looking beyond the field that God has assigned to them because they are not satisfied. where a church is characterized by contentment, the Lord has assigned to us is enough. In fact, it is more than enough because there is no one adequate for all this that God has given us. We want more. We want to be faithful with what God has given us. And if he chooses to give us more, we want to be faithful with that as well. But whatever he chooses to assign to us, that is enough for us. the fruit of unity. Where there is contentment in Christ, we are free from competition with each other. How much jealousy exists in the Christian ministry? How much jealousy exists in the life of the church? Where your heart is satisfied with Christ, don't compare yourself to others. We are all striving for the same end, that is, to exalt Christ, living lives that are conformed to His image. We are not in competition. We want to help each other for the same purpose. There is no jealousy over the spiritual gifts or the ministerial assignments. If the Lord chooses you to exalt His Son in a way that I would wish to do, but He does not allow me to do it, but God has chosen you. I can now be your biggest motivator, because what is most important to me is not self-exaltation, but the exaltation of Christ. And if He uses you to do it, the Son is being exalted. And that's my desire and also your desire. Where there is contentment in a church, it is a grateful church. It is a joyful church. But as we will be reminded in our verses this morning, contentment is not something automatic for Christians. It's something you have to learn. Verse 11, not that I speak for love, but I learn to be content in whatever circumstance it is. Contentment is something learned over the life. It's something that you can say you've learned. In another sense, you continue to learn, until one day your heart is satisfied by the sight of your Savior, learning to have your heart rest in Him. It's a quality experienced indirectly. It's not something that you get directly. Today I will be happy, and therefore I am happy. You can be telling yourself that you should be happy, and be battling with being discontent. It's indirect in the way in which we experience it, and that is that it is learned in the furnace of God-ordained circumstances that will serve you, and will surround you, and will purify you. God teaches you to rest in Him by putting you in circumstances where you must rest in Him. And in that way, our God teaches us the vanity of putting our hope in things that are not our hope in the end. putting your hope in material things, putting your hope in a position that you have, either in work or in another field, putting your hope in people. The Lord takes us out of this wrong dependence through circumstances and we learn that only He can satisfy our heart. Anything else is idolatry. So we can say it simply, we will never honor Christ in his church if we are not satisfied with Christ in his church. We will never honor Christ in his church if we are not satisfied with Christ in his church. This is experienced by the way by one believer at a time. If we talk about a church characterized by contentment, what that means is that the individuals whose faces I'm looking at right now are people who are characterized by contentment. One soul at a time, the church becomes a church characterized by contentment. Two main points we'll look at this morning. First of all, I want us to see Paul's joy declared. the joy of Paul declared. Philippians chapter 4, verse 10. I rejoiced greatly in the Lord, that at last you had revived your care for me. Indeed, you were thinking about your work with the lack of opportunity, verse 11. I did not say it because I have a shortage, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am in. Paul is concluding this letter, but before he finishes the letter, there is a theme that he wants to address. He has hinted at this all the way back in chapter 1. He has given clues in this regard, from chapter 1, verse 3, I thank my God always that I remember you, always in all my prayers, praying with joy for all of you, in view of your communion in the gospel from the first day until now. When I think of you in my prayers, I am rejoicing because I can reflect on how you have helped me, how you have helped me in the ministry of the gospel from the beginning of my ministry among you until this day. In other words, I give God thanks, but I want to give you thanks as well, which is what he does now. He addresses the subject directly. This is a thanks at the end of the letter to the Philippians. The Philippians by means of Epaphroditus delivered material support to Paul, verse 18, but I have received all and I have abundance. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant smell, acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. So the Philippians by means of Epaphroditus send an offering. Pablo is in Roman prison? He is surviving in the most basic provisions. He is, from a material point of view, in need. He is facing a trial in front of the Roman authorities. There was the possibility of execution, although he did not think it would be like that. And in the midst of those circumstances, he finds himself with friendship, with love, with concern on the part of the Church in Philippi. Because Epaphroditus has arrived with his offering, and that man The man himself is a gift for Paul. It must have been a great encouragement for Paul when Epaphroditus arrived. So Paul wants to say thank you. And his action of thanks is fascinating because he is rich in instruction. It is a thank you that is more than a thank you. Paul, the apostle, doing what he always does, taking a thank you, and he takes it as an opportunity to give instruction. And what he wants to do is to model for them what it means to be content in the Lord. The instruction is a great reminder that salvation is something supernatural. It is eternal life. It is fellowship with God and His Son. So that in salvation there is a presence of genuine faith, and where there is genuine faith, There is a unique worldview, both of life and the meaning of life and the end of life. There is an eternal perspective that is possible for salvation, that exists where salvation has come. And this eternal perspective allows for unique acts of service. The salvation is supernatural, and so what the saved do is supernatural as well. And in these verses, Paul notes three things that are occurring that are supernatural. There's a Christian kind of giving. People give. All people, whether they're believers or not, give, give. Today, there will be people and conversations that will give gifts to other people. But there is a type of gift that only Christians can give. And there is a way to receive the gifts, which is unique to Christianity. The way we see the gift, the giver of the gift, in the ministry, we see a unique and special communion in giving and receiving. Paul is eager to teach them about contentment because he is also teaching them about giving and receiving and communion in the ministry. And through all this is the idea that his heart is satisfied in the Lord. So he declares his joy. He's recalling something. I rejoiced, in a great way I rejoiced in the Lord, when Paul the Apostle came, in a great way I rejoiced in the Lord, that at last you had revived your care for me." Of which there were also requests, but the opportunity was lacking. It's good to remember a few things here. It's been several years since Paul was here, like probably around 10 years. The church he had built in Europe was in Philippi. A church that existed in the Macedonian area. Acts chapter 16 tells us that. Paul begins in Philippi. He had trouble there. From Philippi he goes to Thessalonica and he met with conflict there also. 1 Thessalonians 2 says, having before suffered and been outraged in Philippi, as you know, Paul writing to the Thessalonians, we had again our God to announce to you the gospel of God in the midst of great opposition. So it goes from trouble in Philippi to trouble in Thessalonica. When he is in Thessalonica, the Philippine believers, the church does not forget him, they send him help. This is what he says in verse 15. And you Philippians also know that at the beginning of the preaching of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church participated with me in giving and receiving, but you alone. For even in Thessalonica you sent me again and again for my needs. So here is Epaphroditus coming to Paul in his situation of prison, and he says in verse 10, I really enjoyed myself in a great way, remembering how you have loved me before, how you have administered my needs before. This is the joy that involves remembering. This isn't the first time. The church in Filippo is a generous church. And Paul has real needs. He's in jail in a small apartment. He's in the custody of the guard. He's in the university. He's allowed to have visitors, but in all likelihood, he's not having many. He's not able to work, so he has to exist on a sparse level, but he did run into friends. Epaphroditus shows up, and there is the face of a brother, the face of a friend, and the face of a material expression of love. And this is not the first time that he has come to this church. So that is, he is full of joy. Now, he wants to make sure that we understand his joy. He doesn't just call this joy, he identifies it. What kind of joy is it? It's a joy that he knows in the context of his relationship with Christ and the relationship of the church in Philippi with Christ. It's a gospel joy. It's a joy of salvation. It exists in the context of God working. You see God doing something and your heart rejoices. Epaphroditus came and Paul rejoiced, not in a small way, but he rejoiced in a great way in the Lord. He rejoiced in a renewed relationship. I rejoiced in the Lord that at last you had revived your care for me." That word revived is a Greek word that means, or was used in the world of horticulture. It is used only here in the New Testament, which means to grow again. A tree, for example, that sleeps, so to speak, in the winter and then in the spring begins to come to life again. This is the image that Paul is giving us here. This is the renewal of what I have known about you, a reconnection, a renewal of communion in the Gospel, of friendship in the Gospel. So there was joy in a new opportunity, that at last you had revived your care for me, of which you were also in need, but you lacked the opportunity. He doesn't want you to be confused. You were thinking about me, then you forgot about me, now you remember me again. No, he's not saying that. You've been thinking about me all this time, but now your ability, your opportunity to help me and my need have come together. God is working on you. that although the desire was there, now they have the opportunity and the ability to give me help, just at this moment when I especially need help. So he is delighting in God's work, in God's willingness together with the need of the apostle. He declares his joy. He declares his joy. Second point. The pleasure of Paul declared, that's point number one. The pleasure of Paul clarified, verses 11 to 14. I don't say it because I have a shortage, because I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance is my situation. I know how to live humbly, and I know how to have abundance. In any and all things, I am taught to be satiated, to be hungry, to be abundant, and to be in need. I can do everything in Christ who strengthens me. But you did well to fellowship with me in my tribulation." What is Paul wanting to make clear? He wants to make clear that his joy is not really in the material gift. You brought something to me. You gave something to me. My heart is full of joy, but my joy is not really about the gift itself. Why does he want to communicate this? Because he's a teacher. He's wanting to teach some lessons about giving and receiving and about Christian communion. And all is summed up in a lesson about contentment. The truth is that he also taught the Corinthians, but in a different context. The church in Corinth was, Paul was battling with slanders, and the church was turning against him. And he had to tell them what his heart was for them. 2 Corinthians 12, 14. And here, for the third time, I am prepared to go to you, and I will not be angry, because I do not seek yours, but you. I don't look for what you have. I love you. I care about you. I seek you. I'm not coming to get something from you. I'm coming to care for you, because you don't care for me. And then he writes, don't treasure the children for the parents, but the parents for the children. You can't say, I don't really care about what you have, I care about you, and say it genuinely unless your motives have been purified by the attitude of contentment. So, what does contentment mean? Altarkes is the word. Altarkes is the Greek word for contentment. Some words in that section are not found elsewhere in the New Testament. This word is an example of other words in that section that are not found elsewhere in the New Testament. And it has the meaning of being self-sufficient. If we look at the word itself, it speaks of a certain kind of independence. Self-sufficient. The pagans used it. The Stoics used it, for example. to talk about getting to a place of absolute indifference. No matter what happens, no matter what my circumstances, I have disciplined myself so I don't care. That's the idea. I have disciplined myself so I don't care. If I have a lot, if I have a little, I'm in the same place because I've taught myself that I don't care. This is the way it is. This is nothing gained by battling with it. So I just surrender to my circumstances. That is not what Paul is talking about here. That's how a pagan would have thought to do the contentment. And the dangerous thing is that many Christians think this way. You can't change it, so you just submit to it. I've learned. I've preached to myself that I don't care. I've told myself that I don't care. That is not contentment. William Hendrickson, I love what he said, I think it's wonderful, but he says, there's no stoic who trusting his own resources is supposedly unmoved by either joy or pain, and with all his might to submit without complaining to avoidable necessity. The apostle is not a statue. He is a man of flesh and blood. He knows both joys and sorrows, and yet he is happy. But his contentment has its cause in someone other than himself. I know joy, I know sorrow, I know what it is to struggle with my circumstances, and yet I know contentment. And the explanation is not found in me, but in someone who helps me, who teaches me. So we're going to understand this term. We don't have to look at anything more than a dictionary. We have to look at how Paul uses it. What is the Christian understanding of contentment? We notice how he characterizes it. First of all, we can say that contentment rests in the providence of God. This is what Paul does in verse 10, talking about how circumstances work together to bring him to this moment. You've been thinking about me, Filipinos, but now is the time when your ability and your willingness meet my need. And Paul sees that as the hand of God, because it is. The Christian love meets the opportunity given by God. Paul understands this because he understands the sovereignty of God. You're never going to be a contented person if you don't fully believe the sovereignty of God. You are not where you are at the moment by accident. Your circumstances are not what they are incidentally. You are where you are by God's design. This includes things that are not pleasant, even things that are wrong. For example, I'm not saying that if someone is suffering at the hands of another person, it's not that God delights in the way they're treated, but I am saying that God has the ability to remove that in an instant. So if you're dealing with this, there's something that God is doing in your life. He loves you. He knows you perfectly. He is sovereign over every circumstance of your life. If there was something better for you in these moments, you would have it. Because that's God's love to work with his children. So wherever you are, God is sovereignly working through his providence, doing something good, and he's honoring in your life. You believe that in your life? If you believe that, tell me. God is sovereign over our circumstances. And contentment knows that and believes that. God knows what is best for us, and what is best for us cannot be defined materially. This is how we're prone to think. How can it be best for me to be struggling financially? How can it be best for me to not have what I consider a basic necessity? How can it be best for me to be experiencing all the pressure and the trouble that goes along with difficult circumstances? How can this be best for me? You have to realize that what is best for you is not what is most pleasant, materially speaking, but what is best for you is what is best for your soul. What is best for you is holiness. What is best for you is to be like Christ. God will never love you more than you are today. that do not contribute to you being more in the image of Jesus Christ. As we read in Proverbs 38, vanity and a lying word are part of me. Do not give me poverty or riches. Keep me from the bread that is my portion. God, you know what I need, what is best for me. Don't give me too much so I would fail you, give me too little, where my weakness would fail you. Give me what is best for my soul. This is what characterizes Christian contentment. We rest, we get rest in the knowledge of the sovereignty of God. Second, contentment. The contentment is to be satisfied with God when you have little. The contentment is to be satisfied with God when you have little. Verse 11 of Philippians 4, I'm not saying this because I have a sense of want. It's not out of necessity that I'm saying this because I've learned to be content with whatever my situation is. The rest that we find in contentment is explained by the riches that are identified in contentment. Your treasures dictate whether or not you can have rest when you have little. If your treasure is God himself, if you recognize that the greatest gift God has given you is himself, that you are infinitely rich by virtue of salvation, So, even when you have little in the material world, you are the richest person on the face of the earth. And you know that, and you believe that, and you feel that. I'm not talking because I have a shortage. And then verse 12 says you have a need. It says to be satiated as to be hungry. To have abundance as to be in need. Even when I have need, I don't feel needy. Even when I have need, I don't feel deprived. even when we had unmet needs. This is a writing in a condition where there's a minimum supply. He's in prison, he has some limited provisions, he has the pleasures of a prison, yet he says he has no sense of need. He says he's learned this over time. He says, I learned to be content in whatever circumstance. One writer says, if this word translated, learn, is not the word to use for learning. It's used for linear actions that have been regarded as a whole. It implies that Paul's whole experience up to the present, especially as a Christian, has been a school whose lesson is not learned. In other words, I've been doing this my whole life. I've learned all of the circumstances that God has brought me through. This is what the Lord has been teaching me, that my contentment is not found in my circumstances, it is found in my God. So that you can be content when you have little. Thirdly, contentment is being free from the tyranny of circumstances. He says in verse 12, In everything and for everything I am taught. This is another word for teach. Verse 12 says, I know how to live humbly, I know how to have abundance. In everything and for everything I am taught. It's a different word in Greek. It has to do with being introduced to a secret. It's not something you do for yourself, it's something they do for you. He says, I know how to live humbly, I know how to live abundantly. The secret of being satiated and going hungry. Both of having abundance and suffering neediness. Three pairs of comparisons. One having a lot, one having little. What he's saying is, God teaches us through circumstances. not to be governed by circumstances. God brings us to a variety of circumstances, some representing abundance, some representing lack. He carries us through it all to teach us that our life is not dictated by our circumstances. Our heart finds its satisfaction in God. Circumstances that humiliate us. Circumstances that enrich us. Circumstances that satisfy us physically. I have learned to have a feast. And circumstances that lead me to a lack of physical satisfaction. I know what it is to be hungry. Circumstances that take me beyond what I thought I could reach. And in some cases, I did not get where I thought I was going to get. In everything. I have learned to have contentment in whatever circumstance I am in. He mentions both ends of the spectrum. You need contentment when you have abundance, just like you need contentment when you have little. He has learned it in both sets of circumstances. You need grace to be content only with God when you're in a circumstance of abundance. Even when everything is going great and when you have everything you could expect, you don't put your heart on that. fixed on him. So that if they took all of that away from you, your heart is still fixed on him the entire time. This is why Paul is able to say, I rejoice over him, but it's not really a joy in the dadiva because the dadiva hasn't changed where my heart finds satisfaction. me gozo en lo que la dádiva representa, vuestro amor por mí, el amor de Dios para con ustedes, la soberanía de Dios que ha unido su deseo con una oportunidad. Juan Crisóstomo dijo, pero dice uno, no hay necesidad de virtud o de sabiduría para abundar. You don't need grace to have abundance. But Chrysostom says the following, there is a great need for virtue, not less than in the other case, because just as the need inclines us to do many bad things, so does the fullness. Because many times when we have fullness, many become indolent. and they don't know how to survive the good fortune. You come into plenty of things and spiritually you become arrogant. Can someone here testify that problems help you in your prayer life? When you find yourself on your feet, you know you sense you have a need. We have to fight for our hearts to focus on God in abundance as in need. The contentment rests in God's sovereignty. I am satisfied in God, free from tyranny and circumstances. Circumstances do not dictate my life. My heart is fixed on Christ. Fourthly, contentment has its source in Christ himself. Verse 13, I can do everything in Christ that strengthens me. He doesn't say he can do it because he has a lot of discipline or because he has a method in his mind of how to think about these things. He says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. He literally says, I can do everything for the one who strengthens me. To be satisfied in Christ means that I'm being strengthened in Christ. It's the power of Christ that allows me to have an attitude that honors God. It's the power of Christ that allows me to say, I have enough. There is nothing very difficult for God, therefore there is no circumstance in which Paul cannot be happy, because the power of God is always sufficient for all the circumstances we face. This is a contentment that comes directly from the sufficiency of Christ and the communion with Christ. If your heart is struggling for satisfaction, then run to the Son of God yourself. and realize that He has everything you need for your circumstance, and He is the answer for everything you need. It's in communion with Him that you find the power to honor God, no matter what your circumstance. The fifth thing we see about contentment is knowing true gratefulness for all the benefits of God. Knowing true gratefulness for all the benefits of God, verse 14, however, you did well in participating with me in my tribulation. I'm not rejoicing over the gift, but you did well. I'm not rejoicing over the gift, but I thank God for it. The true contentment does not make you ungrateful. I have Jesus. I have all I need. You did that for me. But I don't pay much attention to it. That's not what Paul is saying or doing. He pays a lot of attention to what the Filipinos have done, but his motivations are pure. His heart is fixed, not in the gift, but in Christ. And Christ is praying through the Filipinos. That means that even the smallest details are the great sacrifices. Now, imagine a church full of such people. Let's imagine a church that rests in the providence of God, a church that trusts in God's sovereignty in all circumstances, which is good for me. I don't have to imagine. I think I've seen a church like that. We're in a gymnasium. We've been here a long time. And I haven't seen any lack of joy. I haven't seen any grumbles or complaints. Where did we learn that from? We learned it from the Word of God. We have learned to believe in the sovereignty of God. Let us imagine a church that rests in the sovereignty of God. Let us imagine a church that is satisfied in God even when it has little. We are blessed. We have a great abundance. But there are congregations around the world that barely have what is necessary. But we know that they have everything they need to have joy even in circumstances of need because they have Christ. They have Christ. Imagine a church that isn't taken over by its circumstances. It isn't haunted by the very different seasons. It stays the same, no matter what's going on with it, whether it's inside or outside. Imagine a church that finds its strength in its head. All of this flows out of not only the sufficiency of Christ, but also of our communion with Christ. Imagine a church that is continually aware of its blessing, that is full of grace, and praise, and joy, and smiles. Because no matter what's going on in our lives, we are the most blessed people on the face of the earth, and we know it. Imagine a church made up of contented believers. What will be their attitude? What will be their voice in worship? One text that I think gives a voice to what you find in such a church is Psalm 73, verse 23. It says, nevertheless, I have always been with you. The psalmist says, I am always with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me according to your counsel. And afterwards, you will receive me in glory. Who do I have in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart fail, but God But the rock of my heart and my portion is God forever. My portion is God forever. God, you are my gift. You are my portion. And you are my portion, not just now. You are my portion forever. You will be my portion in heaven as you are in earth. And there's nothing I want on earth that I desire outside of you. And I don't have anyone in heaven but you. You are my portion. So before I pray, I just want to say, bring it to an individual level. A church that glorifies God is a happy church. So I have to see myself and ask myself, what is happening in your life right now where your contentment is being challenged? What is going on in your life this morning where your contentment is being challenged? I want to ask you, are you looking at your circumstances from an eternal perspective? What will this produce that is good for my soul? So that you are, are you trusting in God's sovereignty over your life? Are you trusting this is providential? God is at work in it. And do you know what it is? That you care more for God's glory than for your comfort. How is Paul able to rejoice in a prison? Because he cares more about God's glory than he cares about his own life, his own comfort. Most of our complaints come from a desire for greater comfort, more comfortable circumstances, more comfortable relationships, or whatever the case may be. Do you care more about the glory of God, his work in your soul and through you and other people than you care about your comfort? You're aware of other people. This happens to us sometimes. Our contentment is being challenged. We focus on ourselves. We think only of ourselves. We think of our pain. We think of our difficulty. We think of the things that challenge our contentment. When the best thing for our soul is to look up and then out. God, I want this season, my contentment, to be a season to invest. Let me out of my struggle invest in the lives of other people. Let your comfort for me be a comfort for others through me. And finally, I want to ask, will you ask God to help you learn this? Will you ask the Lord to help you learn what He is teaching you through all the circumstances of life? To have your heart rest in Him. Because that's where Christ is exalted. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this work you do in our souls. Forgive us where we fall prey to idolatry. We want something more, even when it's not something forbidden, that is forbidden in the sense that you have not given it to us. Help us to be happy with what you've given us. In any and every circumstance, may our heart be at rest in Jesus. May we know that we are the most blessed people in the face of the earth because we have you. Through your Son, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.