What do I need to learn about contentment?
- Contentment is trusting God’s Timing. (Phil 4:10)
- Contentment has nothing to do with my Circumstances. (Phil 4:11-12)
- Contentment is resting in the strength of Christ. (Phil 4:13)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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You're in Philippians 4, I'm sure.
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Do you know what I love about my wife?
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Yes, I knew you would get that.
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The correct answer is everything.
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Would you like to hear something specific?
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One of the things I love about my wife specifically is she can't keep secrets very long.
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Now, I don't mean like you confide something in her and she comes and tells me or gets on the phone.
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I mean, when it comes to gifts, giving gifts, Erin does not keep secrets long because she's so excited to give the gift.
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Is there anybody else like that, that as soon as you, okay, there's a few, all right, kindred spirits from my wife.
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It's fun for me because if she finds a birthday present early, I get it a month early because she can't wait to give this gift to me and have me enjoy what she so thoughtfully picked out. Just so excited to let me know the secret. Well, as we close our series, I have a secret that I'm very excited to tell you. Anybody ready to hear a secret? A big juicy secret? A secret that will change your life. And it's the secret of always being content. You ready?
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Let's take another run at that one. Are you ready? Okay, I'm going to pretend that silence was just like the anticipation led you to be speechless. Alright, here's the secret. Philippians chapter 4 verse 10. The Apostle Paul writes, "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You but you had no opportunity.
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Not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
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I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.
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In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger.
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abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied having received from Epaphroditus the The gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
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And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
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To our God and Father be glory forever and ever, amen.
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Greet every Saint in Christ Jesus.
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The brothers who are with me greet you.
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All the Saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.
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The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.
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We live in a day and we live in a culture of radical discontentment.
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I don't like the way I look. I don't like my clothes. I don't like my hair.
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I don't like how much I make. I don't like who I'm married to.
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I don't like where I work. I l "I have a problem." Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up.
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Some of you said, "Jeff has a problem." Turn to your neighbor and say, "I have a problem." I know I do, and you do too, because we are always after two things, more and different.
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Those are the two things that we're after.
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More and different.
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Because we're under the illusion that either would be better than where we are.
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If only I had a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more.
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Sometimes it's not about the amount, it's just, I just want different.
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I'm not happy with what I have, I just want different.
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What are we going after this year, church?
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Joy.
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Well, our last message on joy from Philippians, mark this down, joy is being content in Christ, regardless of my circumstances and regardless of my possessions.
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Going to say that again.
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Joy is being content in Christ.
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"Regardless of my circumstances and regardless of my possessions." Now you see, just to clarify, there are some things that we should never be content with.
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And we have already studied that in Philippians.
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in Philippians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says, "Not that I'm perfect, but I do what?" He said, "I press on." We should never be content with our spiritual maturity. We should never be content with...this is good, I think we've reached enough people for the gospel. We should never be content with those things, but we should always be content with the externals. Fantastic news for you this morning and I'm sure you saw it in verses 11 and 12. Look at it again. He says, "For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." And then in verse 12, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger.
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This is good news for you this morning, contentment is learned.
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Isn't that good news?
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There's no excuse for anybody to walk in here this morning, listen to this message and walk out and say, well, contentment, some people got it, some people don't got it.
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I guess I'm one of those people that just don't got it.
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I guess I'm just I just I just don't get it.
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This is fantastic news.
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You can learn contentment.
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You can learn it.
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So the first thing we need to do when we learn things so often is we have to unlearn some things.
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So if you're taking notes and I hope that you are, jot these things down, these are myths of contentment.
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These are myths of contentment.
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Counting down from four.
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Here's a myth of contentment.
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Number four is, "If I was him or her, I would be content." That's a myth.
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If I was Taylor Brown, I'd be content. I mean, I'm discontent.
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Because I got a whole lot of things going on, but I look at Taylor Brown, man, if I were him, I'd be content. How can I be so sure about the contentment of another person?
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Right? We tend to idealize people. And meanwhile, that person that we're idealizing is thinking, "I wish I were you." So contentment doesn't come from, "I wish I was someone else." Let's get that myth off the table here. Number three, "If I had a different spouse, I would be content." That's a myth.
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If I had a different spouse, I would be content.
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Or single people here, "If I had a spouse, I would be content." Okay?
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Both of those are myths.
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Okay?
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Once again, we run into the danger of idealizing.
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Man, his wife is so nice, and she seems to really have a great relationship with him and their marriage is probably perfect.
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And he's thinking that about your marriage.
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It's a myth, okay?
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If I had a different spouse, I would be content.
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That's wrong.
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If I had a spouse, I would be content.
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If you can't be content in the Lord in your singleness, adding another person and their problems isn't going to make you more content, okay?
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Number two, if I lived somewhere else, excuse me, if I lived somewhere else, I would be content.
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If I lived somewhere else.
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I hear that a lot from people.
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If I lived somewhere else, I'd be content.
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If I lived in Orlando, I'd be content, Derek.
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Because you know what they're not dealing with in Orlando?
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All that stuff.
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That chill to the bone stuff.
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They don't deal with that down there.
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I'd be a lot happier if I live somewhere else.
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And you know what?
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The people are nicer there too.
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And if I live somewhere else, I would be content.
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That's a lie.
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Because if I move, I'm taking myself with me and I'm going to miss the white Christmases and I'm not going to be content there either.
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Myth.
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The number one myth.
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You can preach this one.
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What's the number one myth?
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If I had, I heard somebody say it.
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Yes, if I had more money, I would be content.
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That's a myth.
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If I had more money, I would be content.
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You will not.
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Do a study sometime.
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Google this, quotes from famous rich people.
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about how they have everything, and how they're completely miserable.
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I read an account from Henry Ford, you know, like the guy that invented the automobile.
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He said the best time of his life was back when he was working in the shop and had nothing.
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That was the best time of his life.
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And we'd look at him and be like, man, he had so much money, he could have had everything, and he did have everything.
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Why wasn't he content? Because contentment doesn't come from stuff.
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That sounds so un-American, doesn't it?
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What's the problem with these myths?
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The problem is if I had blank, I would be content, but contentment has nothing to do with what you have or what you don't have.
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It's the attitude.
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It's the attitude that with Christ, whatever you have is the perfect amount.
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That's contentment.
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I have Christ, so whatever whatever is in my possession, wherever I live, the people I'm with.
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It's perfect.
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So contentment is learned.
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What do you need to learn about contentment, what do I need to learn about contentment, right, these three things down in your outline, number one is contentment is trusting God's timing.
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Contentment is trusting God's timing.
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Look at verse 10 again with me.
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Paul says, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.
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You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.
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At the time of this writing, 10 years had passed since the Philippian church was planted.
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And they had given much support to the Apostle Paul early on.
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That's what we read in those latter verses.
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Well, at some point, obviously, from the text, we see they stopped supporting him.
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And now the Apostle Paul is under house arrest.
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Remember, we talked about this.
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He was chained to a guard.
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24/7.
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So the Philippian church sends Epaphroditus with some provisions for the Apostle Paul.
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We saw that in chapter 4, verse 18.
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We talked about it in chapter 2, verse 25 and following.
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And really, that's what Philippians is.
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This whole book, this Holy Spirit inspired book is really a thank you card.
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Paul was saying, "Thank you." That's why he says in verse 10, "I know that you cared, but you just couldn't act upon it.
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You didn't have the opportunity." But verse 11, you see the apostle Paul's contentment.
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He throws this out here, "Not that I'm speaking of being in need." You see the contentment? Paul's saying, "I'm okay, but I'm rejoicing to see that you love me and care about me." Now, get this down because this is really important.
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Paul says that he rejoiced in the Lord.
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Did you catch that?
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Yes, this is a thank you letter to the Philippians, but this isn't a letter where Paul's like, "You guys came in just in time," Because if you hadn't sent Epaphroditus with the provision, I would have been sunk.
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I would have been done. I would have been hopeless.
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And I was like leaning on the panic button, I sure hope somebody sends something, and, "Oh, you guys came in just in time." He's not saying that at all.
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He says, "I'm rejoicing. Your concern for me has been revived." But it's all God's timing.
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It's all God's timing now.
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God works through people.
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True.
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God provides through people.
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True.
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But the important thing to take away from this is we trust God, not people.
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OK, we trust God, not people.
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Yes, thankful for the people that the Lord used.
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"Yes, loving the people that the Lord uses." But Paul says, "I rejoiced in the Lord." Trusting God, not people.
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Hey, any hockey fans here?
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What happened yesterday?
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Somebody wanna explain that one to me?
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We lost to, we didn't just lose, we lost to the devils, which as Christians has a little bit of a sting to it, right?
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I was watching this game.
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Oh, if you DVR'd it and didn't get a chance to watch it, spoiler alert.
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They play them again tonight.
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As I'm watching this game, I saw that the penguins, they just like unraveled.
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They were unraveling.
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And I had an idea.
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I thought, well, I thought if I could get to the arena and get like one of Mario Lemieux's sticks and throw it on the ice, all the penguins problems would be solved.
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Why?
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Because I've seen Mario Lemieux's stick do some amazing things.
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I have.
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And you're like, you know, it's not really about the stick, right?
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That stick in my hands is what?
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a stick, I might be able to hit somebody with it, which actually would have helped the penguin yesterday.
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But that stick in my hand is just a stick.
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But that stick in Mario Lemieux's hands is what?
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I believe the word is magnifique.
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Well, you see the point, the stick is just the tool used, but in Mario's hands, it's special, And it's true as God works through people.
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We're just like the stick.
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The praise and the thanks goes to the God who is using the tool, right?
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Praise and thanks goes to God.
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But it's trusting God's timing.
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trusting God's timing.
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A couple of weeks ago, we had some friends that are part of planting actually about a month ago now, as I think about it, but we had some friends that are.
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I'm going to be planting harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh East, come up and.
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Introduced my wife and I to a doctor that deals with autistic children.
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And gave us this doctor's information and.
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We called this doctor on a Friday.
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And what he was saying was really resonating with us.
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And he said, well, I can set up an appointment for you if you would like.
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And we said, well, OK, let's set up an appointment.
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And a lot of times when you deal with specialty doctors, it's we're taking bookings for like 2017 kind of thing.
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He said, I can see you next Thursday.
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Did I mention it was Friday when he told me this?
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Like, oh, that's six days.
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And we had to get all of this testing done.
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You know, this test is gonna be $500 and the office visit is gonna be this much.
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And by the way, we have two children.
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So doing the quick math on that, I realized that I was going to need a couple of thousand dollars in six days.
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I go on eBay to see how much one of my lungs could go for.
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Then I found out you're not allowed to do that.
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So Friday night, Aaron and I were excited about talking to this doctor, but we're like, "Six days, where are we going to get that kind of money in six days?" The following day, Saturday, a friend of mine showed up at our house that I hadn't seen in months.
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He said, "The Lord laid it on my wife's heart "and on my heart to give this to you.
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"I gotta get going, I have some other errands to run." Anybody wanna take a guess what he gave us?
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It was the money that more than covered what our children needed.
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Now somebody could chalk that up to an absolutely amazing coincidence. I don't.
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How is it that someone who had no idea what situation we were going through, that we were talking to this doctor, and that we needed this money, meanwhile the Lord was laying it on their heart to make that provision so we could get this treatment for our kids? You see, God is never late, but He is seldom early. So let me ask you, do you believe that God knows the hardship that you are going through?
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Do you believe that? Do you believe that God knows the hardship you're going through? Sometimes when we're in the middle of it, we're like the psalmist, Where are you, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
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Do you believe that God's timing is perfect?
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Do you believe that God will meet your needs? Do you believe that?
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I encourage you to trust in the Lord's timing.
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So often we have our credit cards out when God is on his way over with the cash in his hand.
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That's why the apostle Paul says, I rejoice in the Lord.
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You know, here this long period of time went where I didn't hear from you.
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You didn't support me and you show up at just the right time.
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He says, not that I'm speaking of being in need.
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God's timing was perfect.
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OK?
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Number two, contentment has nothing to do with my circumstances.
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It has nothing to do with my circumstances.
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We're learning things about contentment.
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We trust God's timing.
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But secondly, it has nothing to do with my circumstances.
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Look at verses 11 and 12 with me again.
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Picking up where we left off, he said, For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
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I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance.
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I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
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See here, Paul rolls it out.
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He goes, I'm content.
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I'm praising the Lord for what you've done, but I'm content.
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This is actually a very interesting Greek word.
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In ancient literature, this Greek word for contentment was used to describe countries that didn't do imports, countries that just supplied their own needs, but didn't need things from the outside coming in to meet their needs, content.
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And Paul writes, and we're learning, that my contentment is constant no matter what I have and what I don't have, but it's something we have to learn.
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So you're ready to go to contentment class?
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You have your number two pencil sharpened?
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Okay, here's contentment 101.
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Contentment 101, jot this down.
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The contentment 101 course is about being brought low.
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Do you see that in the text?
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He says, I know how to be brought low.
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Brought low.
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Where is contentment often learned?
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Often it's learned when we're in times of distress, right?
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It's learned when we're in times of distress.
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Jesus is all you need, but you'll never know it until he's all you got.
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And then when he's all you got, you realize.
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He's all that you need.
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We learn contentment when we're put in a situation that requires God to show up.
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That's fantastic news.
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We call those Red Sea moments.
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That, yeah, I've been brought low, and if I'm going to keep going, it's going to require the Lord to show up.
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So contentment 101 brought low, don't be in despair.
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Those times in your life that God brings you low.
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That's one of the ways he teaches contentment.
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Contentment 102.
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That course title is called Abound.
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He says, "I know how to be brought low "and I know how to abound." This is much harder to learn than contentment when you're brought low.
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This is much harder.
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I've been to places in the world on mission trips where I think of these children in the children's home in Thailand, elementary school age children who literally owned one possession.
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Do you know what that one possession was?
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It was one change of clothes.
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That was all they had.
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They had the clothes they were wearing, and in their closet, they had another set of clothes, and literally, that was all that they had.
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But I've never been anywhere in the world where I've seen children more joyful and more content.
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than those Thai children.
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The really hard lesson is being content when we abound.
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Wealth has destroyed more people than poverty.
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The question is, can you have it?
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Can you have stuff?
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Can you have more without drifting from God?
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That's the issue.
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to the psalm say when riches increase, do not what?
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Set your heart upon them.
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So let's dispel from our minds once and for all the silly notion that it's the externals that dictate contentments.
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And you're like, well, Pastor Jeff, that's easy for you to say.
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I get a stare down the barrel of disappointment every day.
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When I walk out of this school today, it's back to reality, pal.
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And I'm not walking the yellow brick road like you apparently are, Captain Contentment.
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I'd appreciate you not call me that.
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But it's easy for you to say, how do I get this contentment the Bible speaks of?
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Paul says, "I've learned the secret." You ready for it?
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You ready for the secret?
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Well, it's not really that much of a secret because it's like in your Bible.
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And it's probably underlined or highlighted in your Bible.
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Philippians 4.13. How many people have memorized Philippians 4.13?
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How many of you like have that memorized?
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All right, I'm going to give you a whirl at it. No looking. Look up here. Everybody up here.
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I'm going to count to three and you're going to quote Philippians 4.13. You ready?
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1, 2, 3.
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"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Perfect.
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"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." So, number 3, contentment is resting in the strength of Christ.
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Contentment is resting in the strength of Christ.
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So here it is, the secret.
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But I would also say here it is.
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The most misquoted, taken out of context verse in the whole Bible, here it is.
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Do you know where I usually see this verse?
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I usually see this verse on a poster with like a pole vaulter.
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Right? You see the pole vaulter?
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And he's like mid-air, muscles rippling.
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That bar's like, you know, 30 feet in the air.
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And he's action shot.
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And at the bottom, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Or a poster of a little kitten.
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Little kittens hanging on the hand of a wicker basket.
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Bless his heart.
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So precious.
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I can barely stand it.
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But the kitten's like, "I can do all things.
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"Through Christ who strengthens me." That verse has nothing to do with pole vaulting, or kittens, or even kittens that can pole vault.
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That verse has nothing to do with that.
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I would encourage you, read the Bible in context.
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So often people take a verse out of context and like run with it.
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This is the secret to contentment that Paul has been talking about.
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I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
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It's not I can do all things because of Christ.
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Like somehow Jesus inspired me.
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You know, I think of Jesus on the cross and I just feel all eye of the tiger about that.
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And I'm inspired.
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not what he's saying and he's not saying.
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I can do all things for Christ who strengthens me as if.
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Jesus, I owe you one and I'm going to do this for you, but what does he say?
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I can do all things through him.
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Who strengthens me?
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Through Christ.
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This word for strength in the Greek is where we get the word dynamite.
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It's coming to the end of your rope.
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It's coming to the end of your strength to discover that God is there to infuse you with his strength.
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And as we get on the home stretch, there are some people here this morning that are saying, "Yes, Pastor Jeff, you're absolutely right.
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From now on, I'm going to try harder to be content." And my response to that is, "You missed it.
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You missed it." The answer is not trying harder, because the Christian life was never meant to be lived out by our resources.
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In fact, it's impossible to live the Christian life by our resources.
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So I would encourage you to stop trying.
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And instead, start getting on your face and crying out the reality of the situation.
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God, I can't do this.
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Can we be honest with God?
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Can we get on our faces and say, God, I look around and I'm discontent.
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You have so richly blessed me.
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But I'm so discontent. God, I need your strength to be content.
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Can you bow your head? Go ahead, bow your heads right now.
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Can you say this in your heart? Can you say, "God, you are my contentment." God, in You I've been forgiven. No shame, no condemnation. You have totally forgiven me in Jesus Christ.
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You have given me eternal life. God, You have given me the promise of heaven.
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My best days are ahead of me.
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God, you have given me your Spirit who lives in me and works through me.
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Can you say with your head bowed, "God, you have been my provider.
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Here I sit today as a testimony to your faithfulness because you've brought me this far.
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And because you have promised to take me the rest of the way, with your head bowed, can you say, "God, I need nothing besides you, because you are all that I need, because you've given me yourself." So Harvest Bible Chapel, we close the book of Philippians.
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Let me ask you, can we just go back to joylessness?
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Can we?
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Can we look at everything that the Lord has taught us in His Word?
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Can we look at these glorious promises of God for this supernatural joy and just turn away from it?
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Can we just be content to go back to not choosing this glorious pursuit of joy?
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Can we go back?
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We cannot.
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So I would like to remind you as we close our message, as we close this series, if our worship team would make their way forward.
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In chapter one we learned that joy comes from being thankful for what God is doing in His church. It's easy to complain about the church, it's easy to criticize the church, it's easy to nitpick, but to stop and be thankful at what God is doing, you're on the path to joy. In chapter 2, we learned that joy comes from humility. Oh, we are so eager to broadcast ourselves and our amazingness and put the spotlight on me and we are so miserable when we live that way. True joy comes from putting other people ahead of yourself. In chapter 3 we learned that true joy comes from growing in the Lord. There is no joy in thinking, "I've arrived, I'm perfect," because that's a lie and you know it's a lie. Nor is there joy in saying, "I'm never gonna get it. This is the best that's gonna be for me." There's no joy in that either. Joy is saying, "I know God has pronounced me perfect, and by His grace and the power of His Spirit, He is growing me and changing me and conforming me into the image of His Son. I'm not yet the person that I want to be, but I thank God that I'm not the person that I was. Then we got to chapter four, we learned that joy comes from peace. Joy comes from peace. Do you have some conflicts in your life that need resolved? You know, preachers used to say, when you go home, you need to make some phone calls. We live in a much better day. You don't even have to wait until you get home.
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Because you probably all have a cell phone. Maybe you need to make a call when you get to the lobby or the parking lot today.
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Peace and resolving conflicts, peace and prayer.
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Peace and experiencing.
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That relationship with God that he's blessed us with.
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And then finally, we learned that.
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Joy comes from contentment.
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to say, "God has given me everything that I need. He promised He'll never leave me or forsake me.
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I have all of the promises of Jesus Christ. What more could I possibly want or need? I am content." Let's keep pressing on.
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Let's keep pursuing joy.
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Will you bow your heads with me please?
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Philippians 4:10-23
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.