So, this morning when you woke up, did you think, “God has given me a really good life?” It’s an interesting question. We often talk, in modern culture, about living my best life. I think that’s kind of a standard that’s really hard to reach, our best life every single day. So, that’s not my question, my question is, when you woke up, did you just have that feeling, that sense, deep in you, God has given me a really good life. Like, I can be good with this life. It might not be flawless, it might not be perfect, but God has given me a life to be grateful for, a life that I can be satisfied with. God has given me something really, really good.
You know, it’s an interesting question. I was actually thinking the other day, “What is the recipe for how most of us would define a good life?” And I came up with three things. If you’re taking notes in your program today, here’s what I think most people would say makes a good life. That I can be grateful, content and satisfied if God makes me relatively healthy, second, if God makes me relatively wealthy, and third, if God gives me a relatively happy family.
Would you agree with that definition? Like, If I can wake up, I don’t need to be an Olympic athlete, I don’t need like a ripped six pack. If I’m healthy, if my body feels good, if my mental head space is strong. And if I don’t get up with a healthy body just to, like, scrape by and try to collect pennies and beg on a street corner but I have enough in my bank account to cover the basics, maybe a little bit more to go out to eat, have some fun with friends, travel a little bit. And if I don’t have to do all that stuff alone because God has given me a happy family. Like, I’m close with my parents or my siblings. If my partner and I love and respect each other. Like, if I could have that, I don’t need the world, I don’t need to win the lottery, I don’t have to live in a mansion. God, if you give me health and wealth and if I’m close to the people that I should be closest to, that’s a pretty good life.
But I’m guessing even as I say those things you probably recognize the problem with that modern definition. The problem, in my experience, is that it’s really hard to make all three of those things happen at the same time. And that even if you, by chance, have that perfect moment when you’re healthy and wealthy and your family’s happy, it’s really hard to stay in that spot without something going wrong. You know what I’m talking about?
Quick show of hands, how many of you in the last, let’s say, year have had some issues with your health? Hands, hands, hands, hands, hands, hand. Yes. I was, like, randomly having lunch yesterday and my wife popped this question out of the blue, “Is it about time for you to get a colonoscopy?” I love you too, thank you. Like, as I’m, you know, hitting that spot in life. I’m statistically over halfway dead and I notice that. I see it in the mirror; I’m like increasing the resolution of the sermons as I type them on my computer screen.
Stuff goes wrong with our bodies, there’s allergies and there’s cavities and there’s injuries and there’s surgeries. There’s depression and there’s anxiety. There’s cancer and there’s chemo. There are all these things that happen. And even if you work hard on your health, even if you’re trying to sleep enough hours, monitor your screen time, if you’re careful with social media and your diet, it’s really hard to get your body in that spot where it’s healthy and it stays that way. And for those of you who are getting older or are older than I am you know this, like, twice as well as I do, you just can’t stop time. Your health is a thing that has a diminishing return. It’s hard to be healthy.
And I would contend, even in America it’s hard to be wealthy. Another quiz, how many of you have had an unexpected expense in the last six months? Can I raise two hands to that? My daughter just had her wisdom teeth taken out on Friday. I called the insurance thinking they were going to cover half, that’s what my wife had implied when she talked to the dentist, that was not the case. “We’ll cover 80%,” they said, “Up $1,000.” Oh, okay, all right.
You know, cars break down, the landlord wants the rent money, there’s credit card bills, tuition statements. You don’t get the raise that you thought, the promotion that you thought. Inflation happens. You thought that you were ahead. Like, you can have a lot of money and live in first world America. You can be healthy but it’s hard to be wealthy. It’s hard to be both at the same time.
But maybe the hardest part of that recipe is the last part, a happy family. To be close to your mom and your dad is no simple task, and lots of you know that. To have brothers and sisters that you’re close to, that you don’t just put up with but you’re excited to see during the holiday season. It’s way more difficult than most of us would believe. To find someone and to fall in love, to take a vow and then to keep it. To be close, to see that person you wake up to in the morning and just to be excited about marriage. You think that’d be simple according to the Hallmark movies, but it isn’t, right? Our closest relationships, to get them close and to keep them close, super challenging.
You know, I’m thinking about friends of mine whose lives have changed because of a sickness that probably won’t be cured unless God works a miracle. I think of people who can’t go back and like, redo their education and invest when they’re 18 years old. Like, they’ll never be rich compared to their peers. I think about relationships where people are trying but it’s just not working. It’s kind of a depressing part about life.
We have this basic recipe, you know, “God, please help. Give me health, give me wealth, give me a happy family.” But it’s really hard to get there, it’s just as hard to stay there. And I think that’s why a lot of us woke up this morning and we didn’t feel that feeling. There wasn’t like this profound level of contentment or peace in our heart. Because either we know we’re missing something, or we know something could happen to make us miss something that we currently have.
It’s kind of my premise here in our culture it’s really hard to be grateful, satisfied and content, which is why I’m so excited that you’re here today. Because, today we get to study what I think are maybe some of the most famous words in the New Testament. Like, coffee cup, put it on a t-shirt, tattooed, kind of Bible verse from the book of Philippians. And we’re going to find out that there was this guy, 2,000 years ago, his name was Paul, he was a famous Christian, who had found this profound level of contentment and satisfaction and peace in his heart. And if you think it was because he was healthy, wealthy, and had a happy family you’d be totally wrong.
In fact, 2,000 years ago when Paul writes this letter to the Philippians, which are Christians in the Greek city of Philippi, he was financially broke, physically broken, single, and separated by about a thousand miles from his closest family and friends. You know the story, Paul is kind of a big deal in his career until he met Jesus, then following Jesus cost him almost everything.
He’s taking these missionary journeys; he actually got arrested even though didn’t do anything wrong. He got caught up in this, corrupt, hypocritical, money-loving legal system. He sat in a prison cell separated from those that he loved, for years, then they shipped him off to Rome, hundreds of miles away. And when Paul writes this letter to the Philippians that’s where he is.
He hasn’t been free in years. He has no way of making income. All these plans he had to spread the gospel are totally out the window and yet — Some of you Bible readers know this. Philippians is famous for the level of inexpressible joy in Paul’s heart. Like, he’s bursting in every chapter, on every paragraph, with this joy, contentment, and satisfaction that he had discovered. Philippians is the book where Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I’ll say it again, rejoice.” It’s the same book where he says, “Don’t be anxious about anything.” It’s the book where he talks about the secret of being content.
And so, if you want to know how to have a good life, even if you’re not healthy, even if you’re not wealthy, even if you don’t have a happy family, today Paul wants to share a secret with you. It’s something that very few people find, that’s why Paul calls it a secret. It’s something that even church people miss out on when they think that the purpose of church is to just make me healthy and wealthy and give me a perfect family. Paul’s going to reveal what he calls the secret of being content in any and every situation. And I hope that you’ll open your ears and your heart to it today.
I meet people every single month who get mad at God because He doesn’t fill in the blanks the way they think. They give up on church because their mental health doesn’t immediately improve. They get disillusioned with religion and Christianity because the Jesus who works miracles doesn’t give them a miracle. I hope in my prayers that God would save you from that. And not just that but he would swing you to this place that very few people find that Paul found. A place of supernatural contentment and joy.
That’s my hope for you today as we grab our Bibles and open now to Philippians 4. Here’s what Paul says in verse 10. He writes, “I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.” We find out in the context of this chapter that a mutual friend had traveled the 800 miles from Philippi over to Rome, and in his hands, he brought a fat check. The Philippians had gathered an offering to support their friend Paul; he was the pastor that started their church.
And when this mutual friend showed up, he had a bunch of money to help Paul during his imprisonment, which would make you think, “See, see, you need money to be happy. Paul’s rejoicing greatly because he just has more money in his pocket.” But Paul doesn’t want you to think that way. Look at verse 11, he explains, “I’m not saying this because I am in need,” right. “I’m not telling you I’m happy because I needed your money. I’m grateful for it but I didn’t need that to rejoice.” Here’s why. “For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”
To me this is incredibly empowering because Paul is saying, “No matter what your story or how you were raised, you too, if you listen to the message that Paul listened to, you can learn the same thing that Paul learned, a way to be content, to be satisfied, whatever the circumstances.” Verse 12, Paul takes it to the extreme, he says, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I’ve learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
Actually, in the original Greek in which Paul wrote this, there’s this interesting phrase. When he says, “I have learned the secret,” Paul’s actually using some words that were commonly used for this mysterious cult in the 1st century. They have these special initiation rites that wouldn’t happen in public, they’d happen in secret that not many people knew but behind closed doors just a few people who had been initiated had figured out.
And Paul kind of uses that phrase, it’s his way of saying, “You know, Christianity offers something that isn’t immediately evident.” If you just walk by a church, you might assume, oh that’s where the good people go, or maybe God will help me be healthy or wealthy. Paul says, “No, no, no. That’s not how it is, let me initiate you into this secret club of content Christians.”
And then, in verse 13 Paul reveals the secret. It’s a big verse, are you all ready for it? Are you mentally and emotionally prepared for this moment? I’m about to drop, like, top ten famous New Testament passages. In fact, turn to someone who’s sitting next to you, give them a fist bump really quick, look them in the eye, get your eyebrows real up and tell them, “This is big.” No, you didn’t sound impressed, all right. One more time, “This is big.” All right this is big! Yes! This is super big, thank you for that, I needed it.
Philippians 4:13 — Actually, I want you to read this verse with me. Are you ready? Let’s put it on screen. Paul says this, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” You know, this verse is equally powerful and misunderstood. It’s famous, but sometimes it’s famous for the wrong reason. So, let me break it down for you. Paul is saying, “I can do all this.” Now, that’s the operative word in this famous verse. What is the “this” Paul is referring to? It’s not his bucket list of things that he wanted God to do for him. You know, Paul isn’t saying, “I’m going to get out prison, and then I’m going to get on Christian Mingle, and then I’m going to meet the girl, and we’re going to have twins, and I’m going to name them.
I actually saw a video a couple of years ago of a Christian football team. They’re about to, you know, bust through one of those big banners, run out for like the playoff game and thump their crosstown rivals. Cheerleaders are holding this giant banner. And what did the banner say? “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” And these testosterone-driven teenage boys bust through the banner, “Yeah, let’s kill ’em.” But that’s not what Paul is saying at all. No, a better interpretation would be if that Christian football team busted through the banner and then got totally smashed, quarterback gets sacked 15 times, tears his ACL, misses the rest of the senior season, then he gets back in the car, he’s sitting in the backseat. Paul would say, “Hey, you can do this through the one who gives you strength.”
In context Paul is saying, “I can be rich and content, I can be poor and content, I can be healthy and content, I can be hungry and content.” If God doesn’t’ just, like, show up in my life on the big occasions but every second of every moment he is right here, then I can do this. Right, if Jesus is the one who bled and died for the forgiveness of my sins — Paul believed that. If everything that would make God frustrated or disappointed or angry at me has been washed away by the blood of Christ, and if God has made this promise, “I will never leave you, and I’ll never forsake you.” If God is not somewhere out there but he is right here to help me, I can do this.
If I’m not sitting there going through chemo just by myself hoping it works out, but God is in the room, I can do that. If I have a birthday party and all the friends show up and they bring beautiful food to share, like, I can do that. And if something goes wrong and it’s just me and no one remembers my birthday? I can do that too. I can do it at the top of my career game. I could sit in a cell under an unjust charge; I could do that.
Can you imagine for a second if there was like a really fast forward version of your whole life? You know, boom there you are as a baby in your mother’s arms. And it’s going through all the school years and you’re growing up. All the ups and all the downs. The wedding, the divorce, the friendship, the first kiss. All these things that are happening, can you imagine, like, seeing that fast forward thing except just Jesus is unchanging through all of it; forgiving, loving, patient, saving Jesus. He never zips in and out of the frame, he’s just constant and there.
That was Paul’s secret. He says, “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me today, I might live, I might die, I might be free, I might sit here for a long time, I might have more, I might have less, you all might send me money, you might forget, but that’s not where my contentment is. Here’s what I know deep down in my soul that because of the sacrifice of Jesus, my God ain’t going anywhere.”
So, here’s my lengthy summary of Paul’s secret to being content. I’d love for you to write this down. If God is here because of the forgiveness of Jesus and if God will help because of the forgiveness of Jesus, and if God will use this by the power of Jesus, and God will end this by the return of Jesus, I can do this. You got all that? As some of you might have realized that those are the weeks of this sermon series, right. God is here, God will help, God will use this, God will end this, and therefore, I can do this.
What Paul did was practice the promises of God in his head and it led him to wake up every day, the best days and the worst days and say, “I can do this, I’m grateful for this. I might not have chosen this, but I’m going to be okay through this because I can do all things through the one who gives me strength.”
My favorite Christian artist is a man named Christopher Powers, and I’m always curious how he depicts different Bible passages. So, I jumped on his website Fullofeyes.com, I typed in Philippians 4:13 and I was surprised at the image that he created, but I loved it. Okay, there’s Paul, seconds from losing his head. Big exaggerated Roman sword raised above him. This is my friend’s description of Christian contentment. But do you notice why? My life, my death, the justice, or the injustice, it all happens in the palm of my savior Jesus. And not just the palm of his powerful hand but the hand that was pierced for the forgiveness of my sins.
You see the stone rolled away behind Paul, the Jesus who’s risen so that death itself can’t separate me from the God who is here by my side. I love that depiction.
Whatever happens to you in the days to come, if you’re a Christian, it happens in the palm of Jesus himself. The God who is here, the God who will help, the God who will use this and the God who’s promised to end this. And if you remember that, if you practice those promises, if you come to believe that everything in your life happens in the palm of your Lord and your Savior, you can do this too.
So, where do we go from here? I want to leave you with a phrase that you were probably thinking about when you got up this morning, Biblical neuroplasticity. Was I right? No, I was not right. Okay. Do you know what neuroplasticity is? It’s this really, really cool discovery that’s fairly recent in brain science. Scientists have discovered that your brain, that’s the neuron part, is like plastic. Your brain isn’t like this unmovable rock that can’t be taught new things. Brain scientists have found out if you repeat something enough in your head, if you think about a certain thought again and again your brain actually rewires itself and defaults to certain ways of thinking, right?
That’s why it’s so hard if you’re a victim of abuse. Because if you hear somebody say, “You’re worthless, you’re worthless.” Your brain starts to believe that as a default setting. Now the Apostle Paul probably wouldn’t have used the phrase Biblical neuroplasticity, but that’s actually what he’s teaching us. He’s teaching us, if you think about the promises of God, if you repeat them, if you memorize them, if day, after day, after day, you tell your brain, “God is here, God is here, God is here, God will help, God will help, God will use this, God will end this.” If you repeat these truths about God, your brain doesn’t just, like, sit there like a rock… no, it starts to… Until one day you wake up and you say, “I can do all things through God who gives me strength.”
If you, too, practice the promises of God, if you focus enough on these truths about Jesus as most of us do in our Tik Tok or Instagram feeds, what will happen to your brain will be shocking. Listen, some churches and some pastors will tell you that if you believe in Jesus everything gets better, that’s only halfway true. Paul in prison would say, “You might not be healthy or wealthy or be close to a perfect family, but you can be different. At the spiritual and emotional level, you can be different if you practice the promises of God.”
In other words, I’m hoping you end up like an old woman named Mabel. Years ago, there was this pastor who was visiting a nursing home and that’s when he first saw 89-year-old Mabel. He described her as, quote, “An absolute horror.” He wasn’t a mean pastor, he was reacting to what he saw. Mabel’s eyes were clouded over; she was totally blind. Giant hearing aid on one side of her head, she was almost totally deaf. Cancer had ravaged her face, actually eaten away most of her skin, pushed her nose to the side, and eye drooped, her jaw was off center. It was horrific, her physical appearance. But the pastor started a conversation with Mabel which turned into a relationship that lasted for years. He came to know her heart and her thoughts. Until one day, years in their relationship, the pastor asked Mabel, “Mabel, what do you think about all day? Can’t go anywhere, can’t do anything, you just sit in a wheelchair, what do you think about?” And Mabel said, “Jesus.”
Curious the pastor asked, “Well, what exactly do you think about Jesus?” And Mabel with her distorted smile said, “I think about how good he’s been to me. Jesus has been so good to me, you know. Most people around here,” she gestured toward the nursing home, “Think I’m old fashioned but I don’t care, I love Jesus.” And then this old woman, distorted by the ear, she started to sing out of her heart words that she had memorized about Jesus. About his compassion and forgiveness and his presence in her life.
Years ago, I read a book that told that story, and the first line after the description of Mabel the author said, “This is not fiction.” People actually live this way. Mabel did, Paul discovered it too and today God wants to reveal the secret to being content. It’s not a couple extra days in the gym, it’s not an investment that works out well, it’s not a new government or election. There is a peace that goes beyond understanding. If you believe God is here, he’s here to help, he’s going to use this and he will end this then you and I can say with faith, “I can do this. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Let’s pray.
God, no one tells us this, it really is a secret in our culture. We think if we just found the right doctor or the right hospital or the right medicine. We think if we just elected the right President, the right Congress, the right mix of people on the Supreme Court. We assume that if he would just do this or she would just do that, or they would just change this that we’d find contentment but that’s not true.
Our contentment is only found in you and not some small, diminished version of you but a magnified, glorified God who’s promised to be by our side because of the sacrifice of Jesus. So, we’re asking you today to send your Holy Spirit to open the eyes of heart that we would believe that these things are true. Help us to fix our eyes and our thoughts on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
That we could discover what Paul did in that jail cell, that there is a peace that can guard our hearts and minds, a peace that goes beyond most people’s understanding. That if we just think about things that are true and noble and beautiful, if we don’t waste our time seeing the panic-stricken headlines but instead focus on the promises that you made through the blood of your Son, we can do this.
So, God, help us to encourage each other with what’s true, the promises that you made through your son Jesus. It’s in his name that we pray, and everyone said, “Amen.”
