Learning Contentment - Philippians 4:10-14

``Everyone wants a secret. Right? Here's the secret that Paul has that he's sitting in prison. He says, but I'm content. I don't have freedom, but I'm content. Until I received your gift, I was really lacking financially, but I was content. And Paul's like, you wanna know my secret? My secret is Philippians four thirteen. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. It wasn't natural. Didn't this is not something that came natural to Paul. It's like, well, Paul, you're an apostle. That's why it's easy for you. But Paul said, I had to learn it. I learned this secret. I had to be trained to become less dependent on the world and the things of this world and become more dependent on Christ. [00:22:46] (62 seconds)

And yet what we do is a lot of times when when we're in that situation, some of you guys are in that situation right now, you feel alone. You feel like no one else gets it. People get it. We've all been there. It's not easy, and it tests your trust. When you don't know how to how how the bills are gonna get paid, you discover what you truly trust. When you don't know where where your next paycheck is gonna come from, you start to discover what am I putting my trust in. And we can trust in god and we can face this with Christ. That's what Paul says. I I I've learned how to do it. I've learned how to be content in humble means when I don't know what's coming next. But prosperity also tests us in contentment. Prosperity tests your dependence on god. [00:16:08] (69 seconds)

I mean, have you ever texted somebody and you saw that they they read it, then you start building a whole store in your head, like, they like, because they're not responding. They must not care. They're ignoring me. They don't love me. And meanwhile, they're maybe driving or they're they're working. They or maybe they have a problem of their own. Maybe they're overwhelmed. They're dealing with something, a struggle that they're that they've got going on. And but we're like, they don't care. It's like, maybe they don't have opportunity. And so Paul, in his maturity, he doesn't assume the worst about them. He goes, I I know you care. He goes, I'm not gonna go there. And he gives grace instead of suspicion. And I I think we that's a great lesson for us to to learn too when we're going through struggles. [00:09:58] (60 seconds)

He was struggling hard. I mean, to lose a a son, and and I don't know which son it was, but he was really, really struggling. He was grief stricken. And he saw he turned to the lord and he sought the lord, and the lord gave him this verse, Philippians four thirteen. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And so he began to meditate on this verse. And he learned that through Christ, I can endure even this. Through Christ, I can even get through this horrible grief and loss and tragedy. Abundance can be a temptation to stop thinking that all we need is Christ and start thinking all I need is this. And we must learn to overcome covetousness that says, what I need is something other than the lord. [00:25:30] (62 seconds)